This is so true. I recently listened to Lex Fridman's Marc Andreessen interview and all I could think was, this guy doesn't actually know how government, laws, and regulations work. Like _totally_ clueless and he's pontificating on the subject like he's a founding father.

Marc is extremely intelligent, and he is an idealist.

Idealists can run into implementation difficulties, but having listened to his interview, I don't recall anything that would be impossible to implement given the current make up of the three branches.

Can you elaborate on a proposal of his that you think is unworkable?

Marc Andreessen said that anyone putting brakes on AI is guilty of murder.

Completely coincidentally, Andreessen stands to make billion from AI.

He is a deeply unserious person not worth listening to.

I found Marc to be totally insufferable in that episode too. It was blatantly obvious that everything he said was a weak, nonsensical attempt to justify his (and Elon’s) obvious goals of destroying government infrastructure to enable privatization, and removing any and all regulatory oversight so the billionaire class can further exploit America’s labor and natural resources. Both of which do nothing to help the ordinary American but do a lot to enrich the billionaires.

The thing is they aren't intellectually deficient. They are deliberately spreading propaganda, to try and make an oligarchic takeover of the United States seem more palatable to the masses.

They are working to secure the conditions for themselves that the French royalty and elite had in 1788, while preventing the masses from reacting how they did in France.

So, no, I don't believe that they're intellectually deficient. They're just liars.

I think they’re intellectually incurious rather than deficient. They’re not dumb people. But they’re so convinced of their own genius that despite knowing nothing about how government actually works they are still convinced they know how to fix it.

I mean, it's like a pastiche of naive startup founders meeting the reality of the industry they're trying to disrupt.

I've too been thinking along these lines lately. A month ago I would think it's an alarmist/overblown to frame the situation in such a way but simply looking at the actions and ignoring the "justification"/propaganda must result in updating the model - it's indeed oligarchic takeover.

Could be both?

I have been telling a friend of mine for 5 years that these guys are not that smart and actually borderline grifters.

He recently admitted he stopped listening 6 months ago due to how out of touch they were...

Yup. They’re as out of touch as any other willfully arrogant rich guy. It’s pretty depressing because tech billions seem to be the king makers now so we gotta listen to what they have to say. SMH.

Only people who have never read history sign up to be kingmakers. Just about every single time in history, the made king when he has consolidated enough power will turn against the “kingmakers”. It is inevitable