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In the Age of Trump, Tech CEOs Cast Themselves As the New Statesmen (buzzfeed.com)
An anonymous reader shares an insightful story on Buzzfeed News: Mark Zuckerberg isn't running for president of the United States, but you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. On Tuesday morning, the Facebook CEO kicked off the company's annual developers conference in San Francisco with a glancing shot at Donald Trump, followed by a reiteration of the company's oft-repeated pledge to bring the world together. Zuck's not alone. Last month Apple CEO Tim Cook led his keynote with a similar stump-speech vibe. He dove right into the company's national security and privacy fight against the FBI. Two weeks ago Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told attendees of the company's annual Build developers conference of plans to "move our society forward," asking "profound questions" of his developers:"Is technology empowering people or is it displacing us? Is technology helping us preserve our enduring values such as privacy, or is it compromising it?" Google CEO Sundar Pichai hasn't delivered his big keynote yet (it's coming up May 18), but late last year he issued an open letter in support of Muslims after Donald Trump suggested he'd blanket-ban the religious group from entering the United States. Welcome to 2016: where tech's biggest leaders are no longer selling themselves as innovators, creative geniuses, or domineering tycoons, but as world leaders -- statesmen shaping the course of human history.According to a report from last month, several tech executives -- including Tim Cook, Elon Musk, Larry Page, and Sean Parker -- met recently to discuss how to "stop Donald Trump." Musk, however, later refuted such reports.
More likely they're just terrified by the prospect of a Trump presidency for the same reason everyone else is
You mean except for all the millions who are voting for him, right?
To me it's those millions who are voting for Trump who scare me. Trump is just a symptom of a disease. An education system poor enough to produce millions of people who would vote for Trump is the real sickness. Trump never answers political policy questions with substance yet people are still willing to hand over the most powerful position in the world to him.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
In what way is Trump worse than Bush or Reagan? For a democrat it doesn't matter anyway, but for me Reagan was a crazy and dangerous president who is the cause of the current Muslim terror, while Bush was an incompetent fool. I don't think that Clinton was good, he introduced the current globalization that forced me to compete with people who can live on 200 euro a month. Obama was not a great president either. The change he promised didn't bring change at all.
Maybe the chaos that Trump might create will bring the change that many people want? It doesn't matter if America starts a war or not, they'll be fighting wars anyway. Obama wanted to bring back soldiers from Iraq, only to send them back to Iraq and Syria and Libya. What a great achievement for the winner of the Nobel price of peace.
Just look at what happens in Europe. A road paved with good intentions has lead to a political correct system that is always right because it says so and everyone who doesn't agree is a xenophobic, racist, fascist, neo nazi. Of course the only thing you create with such a 'there is only one truth' is an extreme right opposition full of racists and xenophobes simply because anyone with the slightest critic on a group protected by the politic correctness is considered a racist and xenophobe.
... I personally don't know what is the 'right' thing any more since in Europe everyone who doesn't agree with this 'right' thing is silenced by main stream media and put in the extreme right wing camp of apostates. This sounds like an ideology that thinks 'if you are not with us, than you are against us', just like some other brutal ideologies. I don't like this lack of discussion. For every new terrorist attack another Beatles song is played, hand in hand, all cultures together. But small scale terrorism, like rape, fighting, intimidation, insulting, ... is not mentioned at all.
... it is all there.
Trump seems to me such an example. A populist just telling 'truths' that are racist, xenophobe and Islamophobic. But he sometimes tells real truths that were never told because of political correctness. Every non working clock is right twice a day. That attracts people, the other politicians were all just a bunch of incompetent or crazy or lying people anyway. Illegal immigration is a problem in the US, just like it is in Europe. While many people don't think any person can be illegal (the 'right thing to say'), they forget that it is just a modern form of slavery. A push back or deportation is morally very wrong, but might stop uncontrolled immigration simply because it is no longer so easy to invade the US. This will also severe drugs traffics who make use of the illegal immigrants. Yes it is 'wrong' to think this way, but might be ultimately the most moral thing to do. No more drugs infested cities, no more abuse of 'illegal' immigrants, no more brain drain of the poorer Latin America,
In Europe we were no longer allowed to criticize Islam since the late 80's. The reason was that a minority of the Muslims had problems with integration. It was thought that generalizations, and criticism was the cause of this problem, and a bit of positive discrimination and an exception on freedom of speech when it is about negative speech regarding Islam is what would integrate this small minority. It didn't work. Actually it became worse, the small minority has become larger and has created no go zones (which is yet another thing you are not allowed to say). I know these regions exist, I live close to such a no go zone. The state has completely no authority there. Drugs, sex slaves, illegal weapons,
Now in 2016 we have to endure gender based segregation (inspired by Muslim organizations, using Saudi Arabia as a blue print), the exception on the ban of wearing religious symbols when the religion is Islam (it is still forbidden to wear the Christian version of the head scarf except in Churches), limiting free speech when a group of Muslims feel offende