Zuckerberg's Macho Posturing Looks a Lot Like Cowardice | Hacker News Reader

Zuckerberg's Macho Posturing Looks a Lot Like Cowardice

nytimes.com

31 pointsartur_makly24 comments

Wow, another New York Times article that's against West Coast technology companies.

At this point, I don't think the NY Times needs writers, an LLM can easily cover their mandate to disparage tech and anything that rivals the American Northeast as a center of political, cultural or economic power.

You have the true spirit of philosophy in you -- attack the writer without engaging the content at all.

You raise an interesting question: when do observations about some media outlet's articles indicate more than that outlet is just writing articles?

It's certainly possible for a given media outlet to have a metaphorical axe to grind. It's also possible to read too much into everything. How do we distinguish?

Keeping the spirit of Schopenhaurer v Hegel alive. /s

More seriously, why would journalists spend any time at all giving billionaires gold stars? The core of journalism is to speak truth to power and tech is one of the major powers.

The core of journalism is to simply investigate and report facts to the public. Not to speak truth to power. An activist makes a poor journalist.

Maybe next time focus on disputing the reporting rather than attacking the reporters -- might make your comment seem a bit more credible.

Proof that literally nothing is more important than profits. Zuckerberg and his ilk have willingly sold their souls.

"…willingly sold their souls."

Trouble is, they know they have and don't care a damn.

I think the not caring a damn is a condition of the sale.

Atheists who rely on STEM to make choices focused less on religious poetry more on quality of their lived experience. What a shock

It would be nice if more people set aside their high minded story mode melodrama and demanded a better lived experience instead of living through some vain obligation to nation state or religious and their austerity for all but a few ring kissers

Trouble is, most don’t care enough about themselves to argue for better for themselves. The masses just throw up their hands

Zuck and the politicians come from American institutions and communities which are full of fatalistic losers who see life as a dead end

> losers who see life as a dead end

Sorry to have to break it to you but dead is the end.

The real news HERE is that NY Times is turning on Zuck. They are so angrah [sic] because it turns out Meta is a business that operates within a government regulatory structure and is accountable for following it for the benefit of its actual shareholders, not actual cheerleaders.

All macho posturing comes from a position of insecurity and cowardice.

https://archive.is/sZjc8

According to this article[0] about Stephen Miller's meeting with Zuckerberg, Zuck blamed Sandberg for the encouraging self-expression in the workplace (and promised to change things, which he did).

I have lost what little respect I had left for Zuck.

I understand companies not wanting to antagonize the government who might enact policies that impact them negatively. And I'm okay with the argument that the DEI initiatives at companies went too far in an effort to go along with what they perceived as public opinion and needed a measure of course correction. But the level of groveling going on here is truly disgusting.

Zuck better enjoy his $billions, because he won't find satisfaction in much else.

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/16/us/politics/stephen-mille...

The way Zuckerberg prostrated himself before the US-Führer and his president just confirmed my assumptions about the oligarchies that own the united states.

Interestingly, the new mainstream media - podcasts - are washing many of these tech founders! The hook is that these poor billionaire souls have been oppressed all along, and they had to bend to the "deep state" and their "masters", meaning George Soros, big corporations, etc and their interests.

This was the whole conspiratorial narrative: everyone was being controlled by private interests through the deep state.

But what they seem to be avoiding in those conversations is that the tech billionaires, literally the richest bunch in the world, are now mingling with the upcoming government - somehow... this is ok :) as long as they are Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Zuckerberg, M. Andreessen, Bezos, etc

So now the non-conspiratorial narrative that is welcomed by the new-mainstream media: everyone is being controlled by private interests of tech founders through the deep state, and that's cool!

Why?

George Soros is an old creep... greedy and manipulative..

Elon Musk is a gamer just like us! He was the top-ranked player in Diablo and Path of Exile 2! He's just like you and me, cool nerds very relatable! Also he's so edgy with memes :P

Zukerberg does Jujitso! He's just like one of the bros, look at his new hairstyle and necklace! He wakes up just like us, gets to grinding, and does cold plunges and sht.

Bezos is doing TRT just like Joe Rogan and the gang, and he's jacked! I guess he's cool!

Somehow this aesthetic is sticking with a big group of people, not realizing these are the richest people in the world, whose wealth only grew while everyone else got squeezed... like mass layoffs don't ring bells...

These guys now have direct access and a say in US Governance. Common folks believe this reality is good and in the best interest of everyone, not the private interests of multibillionaires. It's so non-sensical it's hard to understand.

Edit: For clarification in case anyone missed it - Elon Musk was caught being boosted on Path of Exile 2. If he lies about this stuff for an aesthetic, imagine what else he lies about.

I'm showing my age here, but I remember when the tech community actually advocated for free and open speech without all the qualifiers like 'freedom of speech, not REACH' being pushed by the very groups who -used- to advocate genuine freedom of expression.

Cryptography was going to save us from govt prying and overreach, the internet was going to allow us to connect and share thoughts and ideas (even if they were offensive or disagreeable) -- and that was a good thing!

Now everyone WANTS to be treated by toddlers and coddled by a govt who knows best.

First it was 'well it's their platform man, what are you going to do? They have a right to editorialize their website - go start your own if you want to say unpopular things!'

Then it's 'well we didn't actually expect you to do that... we need to bankrupt any web host or payment processor who dares do business with you. BTW are you sure you don't want to setup a portal for the exclusive use of our state AG's to censor (I mean moderate!) your site? Maybe we could let one of the crappy payment processors keep doing business with you if you could meet us half way...'

'You can't possibly have thought posting online was really anonymous, and we all agree that opinion means your employer should be harassed until you are homeless - thems just the breaks'

Whatever it is, it's just never enough now - you must be 100% aligned with the current thing, and if you aren't whatever right you think you have in the public square doesn't apply online or we will string you up... don't you know, there could be children nearby!

Zuckerberg is a menace who should be shunned anywhere and everywhere he goes, but articles like this (and the mentality they represent) is just as demented as anything he has done.

If your world view is so fragile a social media post can shatter it, it deserves to be shattered and you aren't nearly as firm in your 'beliefs' as you would like to loudly make sure everyone else hears you assert that you most definitely are.

If you can't figure out how to block or mute or keyword filter content you don't want to see, maybe it's you who needs to be kept off of the internet rather than everyone else? The rest of us are still going to have opinions on things, no matter how much you screech.

The fact things have gotten so bad that I am basically being forced to defend a billionaire who made his fortune as an appendage of the state sanctioned spying apparatus is absolutely bonkers. I hate this guy as much as I can hate any human, and yet here we are it turns out I hate the current 'zeitgeist' more than the founder of FaceBook. Quite the feat!

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