Our interminable national nightmare is, by some impossible miracle, almost over. Today, barring any major security or Trump-related catastrophe, the country will elect the next president of the United States.
It’s been a long journey, full of tapes, emails, conspiracy theories, non-existent tax returns, pussy bows, non-consensual pussy grabbing, Weiners (of both the Anthony variety and the more general variety), polls, tweets, !, different ways to say “angry orange troll,” Ken Bone, walls, bros, Cruz spittle, “rigging,” hacks, plagiarism, escalators, Aleppo, and small hands.
Along the way, we’ve had a great deal of mostly awful commentary from the usual suspects: pundits, the media, your aunt on Facebook, and Rudy Giuliani. But there is one group whose tone-deaf and buffoonish input I will perversely miss, and it is Silicon Valley. Throughout the campaign, our favorite tech luminaries have been right there to chime in with their precious thoughts.
Here, in all their glory, are some bad tweets.
Benedict Evans, partner at Andreessen Horowitz
https://twitter.com/embed/status/702539759231574016
https://twitter.com/embed/status/759198459933057024
https://twitter.com/embed/status/770028801522827268
https://twitter.com/embed/status/785271269218328577
Nick Bilton, technology writer for Vanity Fair
https://twitter.com/embed/status/706850188325859329
https://twitter.com/embed/status/758127597578432512
Chris Sacca, investor
https://twitter.com/embed/status/717848438134558721
https://twitter.com/embed/status/742452960114839552
Ah, yes. The classic line of a patronizing billionaire.
Sam Altman, president of Y-Combinator
Back to work tomorrow on a new project to stop Trump.
— Sam Altman (@sama) October 17, 2016
i don't talk much about them because i generally think it's bad for the head of an org like YC to be a political activist
— Sam Altman (@sama) October 18, 2016
If your candidate wins tonight, be humble. We go back to being one country.
— Sam Altman (@sama) November 8, 2016
Paul Graham, investor and co-founder of Y Combinator
Others may be reassured to hear Trump has only a 15% chance of winning, but it terrifies me. In Silicon Valley 15% is a good chance.
— Paul Graham (@paulg) October 14, 2016
Will you give this "billionaire class" stuff a rest? Nearly all the Silicon Valley "billionaire class" supports Hillary.
— Paul Graham (@paulg) September 28, 2016
If Trump wins, I'm joining the Resistance.
— Paul Graham (@paulg) October 11, 2016
Few have done more than Sam Altman to defeat Trump.
— Paul Graham (@paulg) October 18, 2016
I'd take Bush again over a 50% chance of Trump.
— Paul Graham (@paulg) August 1, 2016
Zero people won't vote for Hillary because of the mail server she used. If this is the best dirt available, she must be pretty clean.
— Paul Graham (@paulg) March 11, 2015
@wesleyfsmith Trump and SJWs are poles of extremism.
— Paul Graham (@paulg) March 4, 2016
Nathan Jurgenson, Snapchat “researcher” and “social media theorist”
this is a reminder to reread Boorstin's 1962 "The Image". and also to point out Trump challenges that theory of political performativity
— nathanjurgenson (@nathanjurgenson) October 19, 2016
mostly i want to reflect on a politics of virality that is marked by chaos, confusion, and distraction
— nathanjurgenson (@nathanjurgenson) October 19, 2016
Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce
Amazing U2′s Bono Skewers Donald Trump On Stage! https://t.co/gZlEua7f9V
— Marc Benioff (@Benioff) October 6, 2016
Balaji Srinivasan, board member of Andreessen Horowitz
https://twitter.com/embed/status/758527005415485440
https://twitter.com/embed/status/746124126671147008
Mark Pincus, founder of Zynga
The female moderator is embarrassingly bad. She's not supposed to argue with trump even if he's wrong.
— mark pincus (@markpinc) October 10, 2016
@BarackObama has more followers than 2012 votes 68m vs 62m. I guess its harder to vote.
— mark pincus (@markpinc) January 13, 2016
Something reads wrong. @POTUS quote protecting free speech followed by trump attack. Ends never justify the means. Obama reminding us all. pic.twitter.com/5M7zw3C3oK
— mark pincus (@markpinc) November 6, 2016
Edward Snowden, NSA whistleblower
No matter your party, the decline of political culture apparent in the words "Clinton versus Trump" is the tragedy of our times.
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) July 27, 2016
Shervin Pishevar, co-founder of Hyperloop One and Sherpa Capital
https://twitter.com/embed/status/766470214309425152
Clinton-Kasich 2016 would be a brilliant idea. Not mine but I've passed it on.
— Shervin (@shervin) July 10, 2016
Clinton/Swift 2016. @HillaryClinton @taylorswift13
— Shervin (@shervin) June 22, 2015
Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus VR
Bob Parsons, billionaire and founder of GoDaddy
Giuilani's rigged election quote gave me a smile: "Dead people generally vote for Democrats." As for me, I remain undecided.
— Bob Parsons (@DrBobParsons) October 17, 2016
Does our friend Hillary have herself … in a bit of a pickle? Thanks to Lars Larson for the pic. pic.twitter.com/TULEUPoP8T
— Bob Parsons (@DrBobParsons) March 13, 2015
Anil Dash, entrepreneur
Leave your "I voted" sticker on my grave so I know it's real.
— anildash.com (@anildash) November 8, 2016
And now for some honorable mentions, some of which aren’t tweets but deserve to be recognized anyway:
Clay Shirky, internet “thinker”
Hispanic Trump supporters running out of evens with which to can https://t.co/4HOMhxDTDy pic.twitter.com/yBQAHK2AQ0
— Clay Shirky (@cshirky) September 1, 2016
Carl Icahn, billionaire investor and former Apple fan
From an October interview with CNBC about Trump’s leaked Access Hollywood tapes:
“Over my years I’ve listened to a lot of salacious talk in locker rooms, bachelor parties, et cetera, by a lot of high-level people, some of whom are now supposedly so outraged … All I can do is refer to that great quote, ‘Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone.’
It’s amazing that everyone is outraged by something that everyone knows is going on in every locker room in the country.”
Robert Scoble, Google Glass-wearer
Rob Rhinehart, CEO of Soylent
From a July interview with the Financial Times:
I ask if he will at least vote in November’s presidential election. “Probably not. I can’t stand all the coverage. I don’t have a TV. I’d rather study. I study my textbooks rather than get wrapped up in all that drama.
“Humans have this novelty bias where they think that new information is somehow more relevant, but most of the information generated in a day is noise and what’s really important is the patterns that have held true through generations. I feel like I could be reading a philosophy book that has held true for centuries or I could get stressed out by what’s on the news today.”
On the bright side, the darkness comes for us all eventually, and today, we all move one step closer.
We’ll be updating this post throughout election day. And if we forgot any bad tweets from this putrid election cycle, be sure to let us know in the comments.
