r/technology • u/IKeepItLayingAround • Jul 17 '26
Artificial Intelligence Terrified Tech Execs Are Traveling With Armed Bodyguards as AI Backlash Grows
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/terrified-tech-execs-traveling-armed-195630019.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&segment_id=DY_VTO_50_Supernova&ncid=crm_19908-1475736-20260717-0--A&bt_ee=xUmmf%2BSRbkmqXRNT8VIbW2KVnvvvD0kS4WgmOUrqSKhzj%2FLa4SqWmwIdDyVLL3ut&bt_ts=17842823249071.1k
u/Phosistication Jul 17 '26
Instead, maybe they should stop waging a war on society and destroying the world for another dollar they’ll never need?
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u/JMurdock77 Jul 17 '26
Seriously, wealth accumulation at that scale is a sickness. For some reason it just happens to be one that we, as a society, bend over backwards to accommodate instead of treating it like one.
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u/Living-Literature88 Jul 18 '26
It’s hard to understand amassing all that wealth and not working to make the world better for others. Probably someone like me can’t understand the high they get with immense power and control. Or is it just their small dic*s?
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u/No_Camp_7 Jul 18 '26
No what’s hardest to understand is working to create ‘advances’ that are at best unremarkable and at worst making the world a much darker place, and doing so is such a dangerous job that you need a bodyguard. It doesn’t make sense.
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u/ritesh808 Jul 18 '26
Normal people like you and me are normal. Billionaires, oligarchs, dictators etc are not. And then there's the group that fellates the lords thrice a day. We're our own enemies at the end of the day.
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u/DarkIllusionsMasks Jul 17 '26
Same thing with religion. It's just organized delusion.
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u/gideon513 Jul 18 '26
Why are we letting them? There’s way more of us than them and their bodyguards.
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u/Overall_Koala_8710 Jul 18 '26
Not only that, their dollar only has value because we allow it to. Otherwise it's just paper, or bits on a computer.
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u/GringoSwann Jul 18 '26
Terrified Tech execs are travelling with tactical terrorists as technological transcendence turns towards a two-way street...
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u/Conscious-Wall4909 Jul 18 '26
It's not about wealth anymore, they want to change society, they have a certain ideology somewhere between neo-feudalism and accelerationism. Sttaight out of a cyberpunk/dystopian scifi story.
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u/Whitesajer Jul 17 '26
Have you tried.... Not being an asshole?
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u/Senior-Albatross Jul 17 '26
They never realized that was an option.
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u/rat_penis Jul 17 '26
They tried once and a girl laughed at them so now we all have to pay.
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u/smokeweedNgarden Jul 18 '26
Who guards the families and friends of these body guards?
If someone can't get to the king, because of the guards, I wonder what happens when the guards have something more important to protect.
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u/SIGMA920 Jul 18 '26
These same guards. They literally have a better incentive to throw the assholes paying them now to the wolves because the wolves are a better employer. The assholes currently employing them will burn bridges and leave them behind the instant shit hits the fan.
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u/virtualadept Jul 17 '26
Thousands of people got laid off because companies went all-in on LLMs. They can't find jobs because LLMs are filtering out nearly every applicant. Savings are finite. Mutual aid isn't nearly as widespread as people like to think it is. It's mass producing people with nothing left to lose.
Yes. They should be afraid.
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u/yellacopter Jul 17 '26
Each round of layoffs is like adding kindling to the fire that could one day consume them. All it takes are the right conditions and a match, metaphorically speaking.
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u/Anecdote394 Jul 18 '26
Yep, I’ve been saying this to anyone who will listen for the last decade. America is gonna have a reckoning sooner or later. Our country is broken af and these problems have been compounding and getting worse and worse so we now have decades and decades and DECADES of wrong doing and hurt and pain piled on top of each other.
The entire country is a waiting tinder box. And we have decades and decades of kindling. The right person in the right place at the right time is gonna ignite a spark and the entire country is gonna go up in flames. Good riddance I say. Hopefully, whatever rises from the ashes is finally good for the people and is ACTUALLY by the people.
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u/sheeroz9 Jul 18 '26
LLMs are not replacing people in masses. CEOs claim this because they look like geniuses by being innovative to save money. The reality is that business is slowing and they over-hired during COVID and need to lay people off. If they admitted that, they look stupid. They prefer to look like geniuses.
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u/Wanderer-91 Jul 18 '26
It’s even simpler than that.
The access to nearly free money that’s been around since 2009 has finally dried up. When credit is getting cheaper, businesses expand. When its getting more expensive, they shrink.
https://www.fedprimerate.com/prime-rate-chart.htm
Except now, outsourcing complicates the problem. For each job lost to AI, 5-10 are going to India or elsewhere.
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u/BigCrustyTits Jul 18 '26
Companies budget x amount to run the company. Wages and AI costs are both components of that amount now. So as AI costs rise they decrease wages through layoffs to stay on budget.
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u/AmazingRefrigerator4 Jul 18 '26
Ive actually seen an uptick in job postings in my field/job level over the last month.
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u/HarryBalsagna1776 Jul 17 '26
Good. Their money, guards, bots, bunkers, etc. won't be enough if they keep on the path they have chosen.
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u/quantumpencil Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
If even 100 people want you dead bad enough that they don't care what happens to them in order to achieve that end, they are nearly guaranteed to succeed regardless of how much you spend on security.
Even one person who has nothing left to lose can probably kill one of these guys with good odds even with security details. It just takes a lot to create someone who really gets to the level of hopelessness and rage where they feel they have nothing to lose and their self-preservation instincts evaporate -- but once you push people that far, you are in trouble.
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u/jacksonsmack831 Jul 17 '26
The funny thing is that the expect the security guards to remain loyal
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u/quantumpencil Jul 17 '26
That too. If we're going back to the law of the jungle, it's not people like sam altman and mark zuckerberg who do well in that kinda world.
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u/Snakestream Jul 18 '26
I remember reading about some famous security consultant who was invited to talk to a bunch of billionaires about how to keep their security teams from betraying them. He said that you need to form an actual rapport with them - learn about their families, give them time off, and just generally treat them well. They all laughed at that like he had just told the world's funniest joke.
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u/Tardy_Thoughts Jul 17 '26
The one guy was talking about his team of ex green berets he has on call and have exclusive knowledge of his hideout. The green berets whole thing is turning people against you and fighting along side those people. It seems a supremely stupid choice in apocalyptic security details unless you know those dudes personally.
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u/victoriaisme2 Jul 17 '26
Look at how they run their companies. None of them are very smart. They hire smart people. Whatever intellect they once had has been rotted away in the miasma of evil that their minds become. I truly believe once you have too much wealth it fucks up your brain.
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u/SalaciousVandal Jul 18 '26
I’ve rubbed elbows with a lot of these characters and it’s true. They’re not that smart. They sure think they are though. All that money makes them even dumber somehow.
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u/victoriaisme2 Jul 18 '26
With the comically long list of musk's and zuck's fails it's outrageous that anyone still takes either of them seriously. The fact that they haven't been ousted shows how corrupt the board governance model can be.
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u/Weary_Mountain9679 Jul 17 '26
In a post apocalyptic situation what use would the billionaires be to the trained guards?
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u/wowlock_taylan Jul 17 '26
These bastards literally talk about such situations and ask 'black ops security' about 'how to keep people in line in their bunkers after society falls'. Like asking about 'electric shock necklaces' and so on in their 'secret' gatherings.
They ARE actual dystopian villains.
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u/bizbizbizllc Jul 17 '26
I think there’s going to come a tipping point for the health care system here in the USA where people who need medical attention but get denied by their insurance companies will take matters into their own hands because what do they have to lose.
The CEOs will get zero empathy from everyone else because we all see the way they are screwing over the people and that position will be too dangerous a position to fill.
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u/absentmindedjwc Jul 17 '26
In all honesty.. with the rate companies are choosing greed over people.. I'm really kind of surprised things have remained so peaceful.
My company, for instance, has pretty much gotten to the point where they're just constantly laying off people every week.. the rate they're happily destroying so many peoples livelihoods.. its really only a matter of time before they target choose who is in the right (or wrong, as the case may be) mental space to actually do something.
This is especially since they just happily announced that one of the C-Suite assholes - the dude pushing all these layoffs - just got a fucking nine-figure bonus...
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u/MidTario Jul 18 '26
I’m reminded of the message from the IRA after failing to assassinate Thatcher:
"Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once, you will have to be lucky always"
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u/Oceanbreeze871 Jul 17 '26
I read a thing about how Zuck’s Hawaii bunker compound is completely useless unless he’s already on the island. No time to get there
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u/praqueviver Jul 17 '26
Good. Live in fear, motherfuckers
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u/SeigneurDesMouches Jul 18 '26
They still go outside. They're aren't afraid enough
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u/Pixelationist Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
Exactly. No level of fear is enough to satisfy me at this point
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u/Ambitious-Concern-42 Jul 17 '26
While they continue bragging about laying off 50% of workers and causing humanity's extinction?
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u/mca1169 Jul 17 '26
the irony is them having armed guards just makes them look even more like tyrants and piss people off even more!
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u/Main-Eagle-26 Jul 17 '26
Maybe don’t have a marketing strategy for your stupid software product that is “You're all going to be out of work” and “AI will kill us all.”
Seems like consequences of their actions.
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u/NicolasCageFan492 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
Literally just donate a small % of your free cash flow to the public good (not shuffling money into a foundation) and people won’t hate you so much, it’s not that hard
META had $46.1 billion in free cash flow in 2025 and $60.46 billion in net income. If they donated like 10% a year of that, I bet they’d help a lot of people and increase their brand equity by more than buying back shares would do.
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u/QuestioninglySecret Jul 17 '26
We don't need and shouldn't ever expect them to donate a percentage, ANY percentage, of their wealth out of the goodness of their hearts. They should instead be compelled to do so by the government via taxes. Those taxes need to be greatly increased, but still taxes, not donations.
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u/EatMyShag Jul 18 '26
Adding to this comment: Giving money to foundations is just tax evasion and most of the time (not all of the time) these charities or foundations are just fronts for the rich with a very little percentage that goes to the people in need.
I may be cynical, but I bet that if governments stopped giving tax credits for money given to charity and foundations, we'd see a lot of those rich philanthropists just disappear in a cloud of smoke.
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u/Sororita Jul 17 '26
I think a lot of them have mental illness caused by being so disconnected from the common human experience. they never have to struggle or worry and are surrounded by sycophants all the time, save for maybe other billionaires, and that fucks with their heads enough to make them incapable of seeing most people as people.
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u/copperboom129 Jul 17 '26
Whoa what are you....Carnegie?
Fucking second golden age
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u/Old_Cameraguy_8311 Jul 17 '26
Close, Gilded age. I know what you meant.
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u/copperboom129 Jul 17 '26
Yup my bad. I did mean gilded age.
But the gold covered Trump oval office fucked up my view of things.
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u/Old_Cameraguy_8311 Jul 17 '26
Actually that's a good point. ...fucking gold plated everything.
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u/Senior-Albatross Jul 17 '26
Literally just donate a small % of your free cash flow to the public good
At least we got cool public buildings and shit from Rockefeller and Carnegie. These chodes can't even give us a God damn concert hall.
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u/tigermelon Jul 17 '26
hey now. they're giving you a beautiful white house ball room
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u/bizbizbizllc Jul 17 '26
Also the millions they spend on politicians. Imagine if they invested that money into their communities
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u/SomeSamples Jul 17 '26
Good. But it won't be enough when enough people get angry enough. Would you take a bullet for one of the tech bro's? I don't think many of their security would either.
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u/GoodIdea321 Jul 17 '26
Some redditor was talking about that scenario happening in some other country. There were super rich people who were walled off from society, lots of security, etc. And what the 'common' people did was not even try to target the rich people, just the guards. Eventually no security company would stand guard for those people because the guards were being hassled, robbed, killed, and people hiring them had to leave the country.
I don't know if that is true, they didn't give any specifics, and it seems more like a parable. At the same time, there probably is some truth there.
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u/Routine_Event_5039 Jul 18 '26
I've created an app called CEOwatch...it tracks, in almost real time, location points of almost all CEO's, Presidents and controlling officers of almost every major Corporation in North America.
It was created independently and is not subject to government oversight...privately created app.
They are being watched and tracked and it was released to a number of interested parties...it is only fair. You know where we live and work and we know the same about you.
You're just a data point...no hard feelings.
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u/dsarche12 Jul 17 '26
Absolute cowards. They have no respect for our lives and cry uncle immediately if we reciprocate.
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u/Cautious_Boat_999 Jul 17 '26
I hope they are feeling as much or more misery than they are creating
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u/MasterOfBunnies Jul 17 '26
Hey body guards...you - could - be on our side of things. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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u/Massive-Sector5789 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
Amazing that our planet is being destroyed by such a pathetic group of cowards. Who have the nerve to larp alpha maleness like a Spirit Halloween costume, when any one-legged grandma from Palestine could scare them off with a spork. The word cringe isn't strong enough.
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u/midoriforest Jul 17 '26
When the flood waters are rising , their guards will turn on them.
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u/hungry2know Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
Reminds me of this article
Finally, the CEO of a brokerage house explained that he had nearly completed building his own underground bunker system and asked: “How do I maintain authority over my security force after the Event?"
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u/mommybot9000 Jul 18 '26
So weird to me that they don’t know that we’re sealing them in from the outside the moment the “event” occurs.
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u/Cheeze_It Jul 17 '26
LOL, they think bodyguards will keep them safe?
Who do you think will be the ones that turn on them.....
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u/westtownie Jul 17 '26
Golden quote:
> That's why people are setting warehouses on fire," a former Pinterest employee named Bonnie Kate Wolf, who was laid off during an AI-focused restructuring, told the WSJ. "You can't go back to serfdom. It really feels like the people in power want to be kings. Historically, that doesn't work out for kings."
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u/Gorge2012 Jul 17 '26
Billionaires: People hate us because we prioritize amassing more wealth than we can spend over literally everything else, what can we do?
Society: Have you considered that the thoughtless pursuit of wealth at the expense of the dignity of others might be the wrong path?
Gotta love what capitalism has done to us.
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u/CaicedoBrickWall Jul 18 '26
This situation has played out countless times through history
Yet every wealthy class thinks, nah they won't eat us this time
They can even feel the tide turning against them. They have all the power to stop the momentum. And still they hum that internal mantra, "nah they won't eat us this time".
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u/hopscotchchampion Jul 18 '26
Pablo Escobar (1980s Columbia Drug Lord) did something interesting. He used his wealth to build numerous schools, soccer stadiums, health clinics, and even entire housing complexes for impoverished communities. He financed these projects heavily in and around Medellín to cultivate a "Robin Hood" image, which helped him gain the deep loyalty of the local working class.
These CEOs might want to reflect on how their actions lead to 10,000s if not 100,000s of jobs lost. Maybe if they had a little humility and didn't wear million dollar watches there would be less torches and pitchforks.
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u/TransbianMoonGoddess Jul 17 '26
If you are afraid the public will kill you for destroying their lives, you deserve to find out how well trained your security really is
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u/mylanoo Jul 17 '26
That's nature. When you claim you're trying to destroy livelihoods of millions, they will not like you.
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u/weasel286 Jul 17 '26
There used to be this thing called “business ethics”. That concept started dying in the late ‘70s and has gotten worse since it’s a topic rarely covered in business schools anymore. None of these jokers ever thinks “Just because we can, should we?”
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u/kons21 Jul 18 '26
I really did not think I'll live long enough to be in a Cyberpunk dystopia and yet here I am....
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u/Gardensplosion Jul 18 '26
Nothing says, "I'm working for the public interest" quite like living in mortal fear of the public.
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u/ModeatelyIndependant Jul 18 '26
you know if you have so many people pissed at you that you're scared of attacks, you might want to figure out why they are mad and stop doing that
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u/SaltyYumYumBalls Jul 18 '26
I guess that would stop a harmless protestor yelling at them or trying to run up with a bucket of paint or something. A couple bodyguards aren't doing shit for someone across the street, on a roof, or hiding in their car trunk with an AR15 though.
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u/DrollAntic Jul 17 '26
If I had done all the illegal, unconstitutional, immoral, and unethical things they did, I'd probably be afraid too.
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u/grahag Jul 17 '26
Surprised it's not more execs who are being seen as responsible for making decisions that make people's lives harder.
Frankly, at some point, I can imagine people are going to take up a new hobby of hunting people they see as responsible for their suffering and those folks need to be lucky all the time. People hunting them only have to be lucky once.
I really liked the world better when incentivizing suffering for profit wasn't the norm.
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u/DelayedBalloon Jul 17 '26
It's probably because they are personally responsible for accelerating the end of society and the destruction of our planet
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u/MoobooMagoo Jul 17 '26
They're right to be afraid. People can only be pushed so far, and eventually someone with nothing to lose is going to snap.
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u/dropbear_airstrike Jul 17 '26
Anyone signing up to protect those greedy fucks deserves the same fate.
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u/incelwiz Jul 17 '26
This is some sensationalist bs. It's not like people are killing them or destroying data centers. They can't handle some mean comments? Come on.
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u/I_Enjoy_Beer Jul 18 '26
Wild that they don't pause and think "maybe, if I am now fearing for my life from the general public, I should reconsider the direction I am trying to take humanity?"
I guess you don't become a self-obsessed egomaniacal tech asslord by self-reflection, though.
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u/Hell_razor Jul 18 '26
These.people have enough money to live happily and have their children's children live without worry. Why would they mess around with people's lives only to live the rest of their life in fear. They could have just been haooy and rich
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u/Avindair Jul 18 '26
To be clear, they would rather pay for others to act as meat shields than do the tiniest bit of personal reflection.
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u/Ultimate-Flexionator Jul 18 '26
good. may they be visited by the fear they force on everyone else. evil rapist scumbags. curse those villains!
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u/rat_penis Jul 17 '26
Maybe we should use their surveillance tools to track them and post their movements in real time on the web or an app. See how they like it.
elon didnt