Only Three Tech Employees Attended an Obama Border Official's Talk
Marc Andreessen · Ben Horowitz & Marc Andreessen: Why Silicon Valley Turned Against Defense (And How We're Fixing It) · Nov 19, 2025 · at 19:02
Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, recounts an incident during 2017 tech employee revolts over government border contracts to argue that tech activism was superficial.
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“He went out and actually got a former director, ah, actually, he got, ah, a guy who had actually been in the Obama administration, as basically the head of border, the head of the border security in the Obama administration, to basically come in and give an hour-long seminar at the company and just explain, like, here's what's actually involved in the border, here are all the things that make it complicated, here's all the stuff involving, you know, not just, you know, not, Not just people coming across, but also children and, you know, sex trafficking and like all, you know, drugs and like all, all the other aspects of it. And he was, he came into an hour long talk and, you know, and the entire company was invited and, you know, three people showed up.”
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