It's been almost a week since it happened, but Donald Trump's meeting with Silicon Valley's most influential leaders continues to gnaw at me.

I shouldn't feel betrayed, but I do

I follow and write about technology as a matter of passion. It's easy for an idealist like me to get sucked in by the effects of new technology and to start attributing some ethical agency on the part of its creators. New tech is inherently democratizing and equalizing; it destroys privilege by turning it into a mass-market commodity; and it generally builds toward a brighter, more optimistic future. With some gentle nudging from the tech industry's leaders, I've fallen into the trap of believing that tech companies are our friends, and that they're here to help us live better lives. But that meeting with Trump reminds me, and should remind us all, that tech companies are no different from the hated oil or pharmaceutical giants we so readily distrust: duty-bound to pursue profit above all else.

I shouldn't feel betrayed, but I do. For years, Google has led the fight to protect net neutrality, ostensibly to secure a better internet for all of us. Earlier this year, Apple earned my appreciation when it fought doggedly against an FBI demand that wanted it to break user privacy by allowing access to an encrypted iPhone. In both cases, a big US corporation was acting to protect its users' best interests, and neither company has been shy about accepting credit for its seemingly altruistic work. But, of course, there's no altruism on Wall Street, and there's no altruism among companies traded on the stock market. Google wants net neutrality because that protects its web services from being shut out by internet service providers, while Apple considers the privacy of its devices a strong selling point and therefore works hard to preserve it.

Where the so-called Trump tech summit enters into this story is by exposing the raw and unvarnished hypocrisy of every tech company in attendance. Donald Trump is not just another president, he doesn't have a clean slate to work with, and anyone who collaborates with him as if he is or does is essentially erasing history. Trump is a self-documented misogynist, a bigot, a thinly veiled racist, and a climate science denier.