Beep boop - this is a robot. A new show has been posted to TWiT…
What are your thoughts about today’s show? We’d love to hear from you!
Could someone explain the tech opposition to diversity, equality, and inclusion? I have a hard time understanding it - especially as someone who’s been in technology for 30+ years.
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It comes from a few different places, and they have different motivations. They believe technology and all the top level jobs belong to “them”. Many in current admin going back to first term were set off when Microsoft and Google named South Asian CEOs. Steve Bannon who was in WH the first Trump admin has made this a centering issue. Then there is another group who really just see it as a worker control thing, if the employees are pushing for things they want to be against it. Why the backlash to even sponsoring Pride events which was very typical until recently.
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There is a lot I can say about this episode, but please watch the video. If you know Jason, there is literally nothing funnier than seeing him sit at a desk in front of an American flag and Texas state flag. Is he cosplaying as governor?
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I came into the show expecting to hate Jason, he went off the rails for me about a decade ago, but I was actually pleasantly surprised, he was making coherent arguments and not as out there as I was expecting.
I’m only about 40 minutes in, but it has been a great discussion so far.
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Maybe I need to listen longer (haven’t gotten more than 15 min in). But when someone says he likes some of what the new administration is doing - I have to admit to being wary of whatever comes next, but I’m working to keep an open mind.
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Jason was a pleasant surprise. Doesn’t change the fact that I hate what’s happening in my country right now. But I think it’s already clear Jason was wrong about Trump responding to public pressure on the tariffs. He’s doubling down.
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Yes, and the markets are still in free fall, the DAX fell from around 23,000 to under 20,000 yesterday, the biggest single day loss since 1989, I believe. All the gains since December were wiped out in 1 days trading. The news reported that it is panic selling.
The NYSE looks better, it “only” lost around 2,000 since the announcement last week.
Looks like they’ve ‘found the bottom’ today. FTSE is up so far. It is uncertainty that markets don’t like, isn’t it? So do they feel more certain today - that tariffs will stay?
I did enjoy hearing from Jason again though, whatever he’s been involved in the last few years.
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Its not often that listening to TWiT makes my blood boil, but Jason’s discussion of Elon’s management strategy and Jason’s broader understanding of where the country is sure pushed me to that point. He clearly has no regard for the lives that are being damaged and destroyed by Trump and Elon, either at the federal government or at Twitter.
At one point Jason asserted that Elon sorted employees and their roles into necessary/not necessary, and competent/incompetent. That makes sense on its face, but its also clearly NOT what’s happening. No competent manager would look at the midair collision in DC and then layoff Air Traffic Controllers. Moreover, firing staff only to try to re-hire them is idiotic and deeply painful for the employees. Firing staff at CISA, for example, is just plain bone-headed and short sighted.
Jason also asserted that “we survived the first Trump administration, and we will survive the second.” Well, a lot of us didn’t survive the first Trump administration.
What finally made me turn off the podcast was the claim that the US doesn’t really have to worry about hunger and housing. That statement belies a tremendous misunderstanding and disregard for the issues facing the country as a whole.
It was a hard listen, but informative. The wealthy really don’t understand, or care to understand, common Americans and the issues we face.
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Shhh, or they’ll take that as a challenge to find a new new bottom 
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When’s the next Apple earnings call? I heard the WH press secretary confirm today that iPhones will be built in the US. Will be interesting to get Tim’s take!
Thanks for posting this. I’m about 1 hour, 12 minutes in. There’s been some teeth gritting moments (“Texas: come for the lax worker safety laws, stay for women losing their rights and measles epidemics!”) but nothing that made me want to smash my phone on the ground.
In the back of my mind, though, I’ve been thinking “When do the Musk apologetics start and how bad will it be?” I mean, it’s in the title of the episode. I’m not really sure I’m up for that level of sane washing at the moment, and based on your comment, it sounds like the conversation goes there.
Your comment about the rich is spot on, and something that definitely leaks through in what I’ve heard so far. I’d go as far to say that Silicon Valley rich, and those in that circle, are a special brand of sociopath who truly look at any other human being outside of their bubble as a resource to be exploited and discarded, or an obstacle to be destroyed.
That’s Silicon Valley to me: great products and companies owned by some of the worst people in the world.
PS: the Fantasy Governor’s Office setup was genuinely hysterical. Like, I was literally “WTF???” when I saw that. I guess somebody wants to run for office in TX, lol.
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Having finished the episode - I will say this for Jason: he’s loyal to his friends.
Regardless of whether Elon is misunderstood, the amount of chaos and unnecessary hurt he is inflicting is unconscionable in my opinion, The default assumption that people are either indispensable or unnecessary is one example. Not everyone can be one of those mythical 10000% engineers. That doesn’t mean they are incompetent - it means they are normal.
Let’s talk about the arrogance of one of the DOGE people (and don’t get me started on the name DOGE) saying that if his mother missed a social security check - she wouldn’t notice. The narrow tunnel vision thinking of that just boggles. Tell me your unable to understand what a typical person feels without telling me you’re unable to understand what a typical person feels.
And poor Elon is misunderstood? Oh dear! If only he owned a social media platform where he could help people better understand him and correct the misconceptions some might have about him.
Jason may not be a complete Trump supporter - but he is unabashedly a pro-Elon supporter. What Elon did at Twitter to the employees was wrong, regardless of whether or not he owned it. What his people are doing to government is an order of magnitude worse. To say that the lack of communication is a valid criticism grossly understates the problem Doge has. And the name itself? Who in the hell thought renaming the United States Digital Service after a worthless cryptocoin was a good idea?
If you’re going to have Jason back, @Leo, you need someone who can refute the bulls**t that Jason put out. Someone like Corey Doctorow or Amy Webb who won’t let the crap slide.
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Anyone doing the Nazi salute would stop being a friend of mine. @Jason is garbage
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