News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on "King of the Cannibals": How Sam Altman Took over Silicon Valley. Parent comment

Re:"King of the Cannibals": How Sam Altman Took over Silicon... by defrost on Saturday December 23, 2023 @07:50PM (#38749922)
I've largely nodded along with you over the years but from the little I've read of Vidal's later years he wasn't a hard core truther (of the "they cut the steel and demolitioned the towers" ilk), more his usual cynic political realist self:

    I'm not a conspiracy theorist, I'm a conspiracy analyst.

    Everything the Bushites touch is screwed up. They could never have pulled off 9/11, even if they wanted to. Even if they longed to.

    They could step aside, though, or just go out to lunch while these terrible things were happening to the nation. I believe that of them.
~ Gore Vidal (2007) https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/may/05/featuresreview...

It's entirely possible that he went further than accusing Bush et al. of being asleep at the wheel and being overly fond of Saudi oil, if so I missed that particular descent into the abyss.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:"King of the Cannibals": How Sam Altman Took over Silicon... by tptacek on Saturday December 23, 2023 @08:16PM (#38750093)
Sure. We can probably amicably depart the thread here with the sentiment that Vidal is not the least controversial authority you could introduce to an argument about shadowy powers controlling the world. I like Vidal! I'm just saying, he's not like, the AskHistorians pick.

It's also just possible I'm wrong! Like, obviously? But I think we're all just hyperfixated on this guy because we can see ourselves wearing the same goofy blue sneakers as he did in the "Bilderburg" photo. It's a crab bucket thing. Our attention to him, I mean. He could end up being a supervillain! I just don't think he is right now; I think what he is is much more boring than that.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:"King of the Cannibals": How Sam Altman Took over Silicon... by defrost on Saturday December 23, 2023 @09:02PM (#38750383)
> I like Vidal! I'm just saying, he's not like, the AskHistorians pick.

We're in damn near furious agreement . . . although there's a few of the original AskHistorians academics from a decade back that would take Vidal over Jared Diamond in a heartbeat :)

Be well.

[ Parent | on HN ]