[pcrh]

This reflects an interesting development in Bay Area politics, which has global impact through tech companies.

A few decades ago, tech, science and liberalism were bedfellows in the Bay Area. Apple was famous for its anti-authoritarian "1984" ad, directed by Ridley Scott. Google proclaimed "Don't be evil".

I'm not sure quite what to make of the current trend of the dominant "technocrats", and their employees, from being liberal to supporting division within society.

But it does not seem conducive to a perpetuation of what made the Bay Area such a productive environment, from scientific, cultural and business perspectives.

[ThrowawayR2]

> "A few decades ago, tech, science and liberalism were bedfellows in the Bay Area."

A few decades ago was before the meteoric internet and mobile web boom and the deluge of non-hackers with CS degrees and MBA types with dollar signs in their eyes that flooded into the tech industry. The hacker ethos turned from "information wants to be free" into "f--- you, pay me" in only a few short years simply because the old guard was diluted away to nothingness by so many newcomers.

[andsoitis]

> Apple was famous for its anti-authoritarian "1984" ad

Perhaps, but Apple’s corporate culture is (and has always been?) pretty command-and-control.

> A few decades ago, tech, science and liberalism were bedfellows in the Bay Area.

Digital Technology is a powerful tool to create uniformity (scale), force authority (control, predictability, sentiment shaping). Of course it can be used to fight against these, but digital tech leans very much in the direction of centralization and control if you ask me.

[pcrh]

In the 1990's to 2010's digital tech was perceived as liberating the masses from government and "business" control of information.

It's quite contrary to the present information environment.

[zozbot234]

The "1984" ad is from... well duh, 1984. Apple was a small startup in a niche industry back then - fighting against centralization and control by building "a bicycle for the mind" that would push useful computation to the "edge" where it can be controlled by the user.