Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Peter Nayland Kust's avatar

Zuckerberg's 11th-hour conversion to anti-wokeism seems steeped in self-interest. I would venture to say he sees the political winds shifting and that the "woke" ideologies are rapidly falling out of favor everywhere.

It's not hard to see why he would conclude this: Olaf Scholz' government in Germany collapsed, the centrists in Austria cannot form a government that does not include the "far right" Freedom Party, Michel Barnier in France saw his government collapse even as it was beginning, and now Justin Trudeau has bowed to the inevitability of fate and resigned as Canadian PM.

All these things occurred as Trump was being elected the 47th President of the United States.

Regardless of whether the MAGA coalition is a true populist movement or a well conceived authoritarian takeover of the US, what seems certain is that the MAGA coalition's political ideals are very much ascendant not just in the US but in Canada and Europe as well. Major markets for Meta's technologies are shifting away from the "woke" mindset.

Zuckerberg, if he has seen this shift in the preveailng trends, is adapting to the new political and cultural reality in order to maintain not just control of Facebook but Facebook's relevance as a dominant social media platform.

That would be shrewd business judgement--and whatever faults Zuckerberg has, being stupid is not one of them.

However, what I doubt will ever change is Zuckerberg's desire to control and manipulate the Facebook userbase. He still wants to exploit Facebook's userbase, he's just changing the priorties behind the exploitation.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Expand full comment
Guidothekp's avatar

Lipstick on a pig.

Expand full comment
46 more comments...

No posts