Meanwhile: “DOGE chief Musk asks X users if staffer who quit over racist tweets should be rehired” (https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/07/elon-musk-doge-racist-treasu...)

This is the guy who said things like:

“You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity.”

“Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool.”

“Normalize Indian hate.”

“I just want a eugenic immigration policy, is that too much to ask.”

Why is YC normalizing what looks a whole lot like neo-nazism with a smug grin?

I suppose it is “venture capital” and not “venture ethics.”

I think the absolute least one could expect from notionally respectable businesses is to not invite people currently staging coups against the US to their shitty promo days.

Live footage of Italian attendees at Elon's AI Startup School

https://youtube.com/shorts/zAvaGi7WS9M?si=8td7VYH2Dvh2ZWf7

Sam altman and elon at the same conference? I'd wanna come just to see that

With Elon being such a politically contentious figure, I'm surprised the organisers are expecting his name to be anything but trouble by June. Then again, if his actions up till now haven't gotten him shunned yet, maybe nothing will.

What about people who aren't interested in autocratic racists who throw out the nazi salute?

This would've been a cool event if they didn't invite elon. He adds no value to this event

Very sad times for YC/HackerNews.

Drop Elon and it's an interesting event.

How does he have time for that beside CEO-ing several companies and hacking the government?

Ugh. No. This ain't it.

One thing I always loved at YC was that it always felt like the aspirational version of what the tech industry could be. As big tech became the "bad guys", YC has continued to forge the inspirational path... quietly helping the builders and the makers.

Inviting Elon Musk, who is a Nazi sympathizer currently trying to take down the American government, really sucks.

Did YC apply pressure on HN to unflag this thread? Mods, can you comment?

This tacit endorsement by YCombinator of the likes of Elon Musk and Sam Altman must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Like Sam Altman's abrupt Face-Heel turn from staunch and eloquent Trump critic into gushing bootlicker [0], it is a shocking wakeup call that Silicon Valley monied interests either lack principles entirely, or else adhere to principles fundamentally at odds with liberal democracy [1].

I found myself hesitating to post this, here on news.ycombinator.com. This forum has always discouraged "politics". But in the final analysis, you cannot separate politics from everything else. The suffering and death that Donald Trump and Elon Musk are currently in the process of expediting[2] is no less real for being "political". And if criticizing YCombinator for endorsing - or at least turning a blind eye to - this death and suffering, is considered "off topic", then this will be my last comment on this platform.

[0] https://abcnews.go.com/US/openais-sam-altman-warned-america-...

[1] This video is currently trending: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RpPTRcz1no

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/07/donald...

What is Musk going to rage about this time?

if you're 18/19 and know how to install kali linux, you might be able to attend this event and leave with a job at the helm of the treasury department

Just when you thought SV couldn't get any more sleazy

Musk has shown he has a real lack of business acumen about most things. He ran Twitter into the ground and is doing the same with Tesla. I have no interest in what he has to say. That of course is leaving aside everything else going on.

Y Combinator is really showing an incredible lack of judgement in even thinking this was a good idea. SV bubble I guess?

How very fitting that this story is flagged too.

https://events.ycombinator.com/ai-sus

Certainly sus...