How old was he when he said that? 18? I look back on some of the stuff I said when I was 18 and it was a lot worse than this, and I think I'm a pretty decent guy overall. Big difference between a kid right out of high school and a 30-year old.
We all need to just admit, as you've done, that we all say and do things all the time which would paint us in a very bad light if taken in the wrong context. As an obvious example, there are things that everyone says to friends that they'd never dream of saying to their boss, or parents, or their kids' teacher, or other friends for that matter.
Judging Mark Zuckerberg based on this quote is exactly like that. He's not addressing an audience, he's not giving a considered summary of his world view or philosophy. Rather he's almost certainly joking with a friend, simply saying something abrasive just to give an impression of being confident or alpha etc, the way people sometimes do when they're joking- especially young, relatively unconfident people. We've all done that at some point.
I'm 100% certain if his mother had walked into the room immediately after he'd said this and said 'Mark! Is that what you really think, that all your classmates are.. what did you call them.. dumb fucks?' he would have apologised profusely and corrected himself, clarifying that he was simply joking and said a silly thing in the heat of the moment. Like all teenagers do. Like all humans do.
The prototypical example of this is the FB privacy panel which, last I checked, took more than 100 separate actions to set everything private. (making it very hard and confusing to get privacy). And there's been the incidents where FB then single-handedly undid some or all of those settings without notice.
And then there's FB's participation in PRISM starting in 2009.
he's dedicated enormous energy into destroying privacy and into selling us to others.
As such... I tend to think he'd used more nuanced language now, but I absolutely believe he is a sociopath who has created a cancerous company that makes the world a materially worse place. I absolutely believe that all of his company's actions are aligned with his 18 year old's disrespect for other people.
Some part of him is obviously a good dude... but his company is a fucking travesty.
Facebook is an advertising platform, and the best one at that. It's also a place people post intimate details of their lives for others to see.
I don't know that I find fault in their ability to use that data to better target you with ads or content.
Even to this day, depending on who I'm talking to, I say silly things in private - things that aren't representative of who I am or my intentions in the real world.
It's not fair to look at someones private communications and judge them on it. Especially at 18. It's no way to measure a person.
Not that this means anything - I completely agree with you - but there's something 'funny' about it.
yeah, fuck that logic. you're extremely responsible at 18. moreso at 18 than at 70, if anything.