4 ms·

This is why I don't want Mark Zuckerberg in any public office. I really think the guy has no moral compass because all his actions point to a very sinister "mon

This is why I don't want Mark Zuckerberg in any public office. I really think the guy has no moral compass because all his actions point to a very sinister "money is everything" attitude and that everything has a price.

joshAg 9y ago
well, yeah. He's just another dude in SV that either has no clue about, or pretends to have no clue about, ethics.
rndmize 9y ago
Come now, Zuckerberg doesn't even need public office. He's more powerful where he is now than he could ever be in an elected position. Just based on the information in the article, he could offer technical embeds to campaigns he likes and ignore the ones he doesn't, or provide them with a much smaller degree of assistance, with no one the wiser. I don't think there's a single person in the world with as much potential to impact elections and policy choices as Zuckerberg today.
- lsc 9y ago
  I suppose the proof of the pudding is in the eating... but my personal hope is that the current election was a fluke caused by things like facebook advertising being so new; The theory, of course, being that we build up immunities to certain kinds of advertising; there's always a race between us humans building up that immunity, and advertisers striving for novelty. If that theory holds, advertisers have a huge advantage every time a new platform rolls out, and that advantage is slowly eroded over time, as we humans get used to the new medium. Is it true? i don't know.
  - meri_dian 9y ago
    Or maybe there's nothing flukey about it. Trump talked about things people cared about in a straightforward, albeit bombastic, way. You may disagree with his approach, but others appreciated he was at least talking about things they cared about. Sure Hillary talked about those issues too, but she wasn't able to set a clear vision or ground her campaign in clearly defined and solid themes. We can only learn from failure by accepting it and studying it, not by dismissing it as a fluke.
    - apearson 9y ago
      I agree, it was a close election and yes the system has it's flaws but there was nothing that went majorly wrong with this election.
      - pstuart 9y ago
        There was serious disenfranchisement of voters through onerous laws designed to keep people from voting.
        tux1968 9y ago
        The laws didn't change drastically from the time a few years earlier when all those people managed to get out and elect Obama. That doesn't seem like a deciding factor at all.
        wavefunction 9y ago
        Voter ID laws definitely changed. All the kicking people off voting rolls definitely got stepped up. Quite a few things were different.
        tux1968 9y ago
        Not really. There have been such allegations going back to every election. There is no evidence that they were more prevalent this time around. In any case, it really seems to not be relevant in a statistical sense of playing a deciding role in the election.
      - ssalazar 9y ago
        There is literally a special investigation right now that is attempting to determine how and where things went wrong.
    - JoshMnem 9y ago
      I don't think that is what happened. The media didn't hold him accountable for what he said. They wanted viewers. Websites wanted clicks. There was disinformation everywhere. Even in discussions with people who could calmly talk about it, Trump supporters would cite obviously fake blog posts and other completely fake information that could easily be discredited with quick online searches. Even when shown that the information was fake they would not change the opinions that the fake information had created in their minds. He was talking about things that they cared about, because they had little grip on basic facts about reality. They cared about the wrong things.
  - hkmurakami 9y ago
    You don't think real people in this country had real grievances?
    - lsc 9y ago
      You will have to do a lot of talking to convince me that the people with real grievances voted for deep tax cuts for the rich and deep cuts to social programs for the poor. My theory is that the average Trump voter made more than the average Clinton voter. There is some evidence for this: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-mythology-of-trumps-working-class-support/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-mythology-of-trumps...
- freeflight 9y ago
  > He's more powerful where he is now than he could ever be in an elected position. Exactly, an elected position would come with even more publicity, actual responsibilities and the possibility of being held accountable for his actions. It's far more convenient and efficient for him to stay out of that system and just play it from the outside.
  - 659087 9y ago
    > Exactly, an elected position would come with even more publicity, actual responsibilities and the possibility of being held accountable for his actions. Having full control of the platform a large portion of the population depends on for news and communication could help him evade much of that.
    - freeflight 9y ago
      Why put yourself in a position where you have to evade it in the first place? There'd be no advantages for him in it, only disadvantages. The only reason he would want to go for public office, at least I could think of, is to influence government policies. But he already has an army of experienced and well-paid people doing exactly that.
  - kelukelugames 9y ago
    I don't know if that's true. Do we have more transparency into Trump's income, businesses, or even taxes after he became president?
    - joelrunyon 9y ago
      > I don't know if that's true. Do we have more transparency into Trump's income, businesses, or even taxes after he became president? Owning a bunch of hotels is a fundamentally different type of power than owning a demographic database + messaging system used to manipulate people's moods.
- oh_sigh 9y ago
  Then why is he going on his "I'm running for President" tour of America, eating at blue collar family homes and visiting historically black churches? Being in governance gives you power that you can only glance at as a private citizen. Being a billionaire and president of the US will make you far more powerful than merely being a billionaire.
  - abiox 9y ago
    it's hard to imagine that he believes he stands a chance. i'm sure any worthwhile consultant or polysci adviser could let him down gently.
- 659087 9y ago
  What could be more powerful than a US president who also happens to have direct control of a large portion of the world's communications and information consumption?
- Zelphyr 9y ago
  I agree but the allure of that kind of power is intoxicating for people like him. Not to mention the deals he could set up for himself and Facebook when he goes back to the private sector.
qubex 9y ago
I’m not American but I keep hoping Bill Gates’ philanthropic inclinations will eventually get the better of him and lead him to casually pour a billion or so into getting himself nominated and elected President in a ”battle of the billionaires” and end this horror.
- romanovcode 9y ago
  Same here, I actually think he would be very good as a president for U.S. But AFAIK he is not interested in politics at all.
  - qubex 9y ago
    As far as I know, he isn't either, but as I said, I keep hoping that somehow it dawns on him that salvaging the USA from this hideous path it's on is within the domain of ‘philantropy’ that he is pursuing.
matte_black 9y ago
Personally I don’t want him in office because of his liberal politics, not his Silicon Valley ethics.
- cgmg 9y ago
  Which aspects of his politics are you referring to?
christmasity 9y ago
How does this differ from anything or anyone. Is Trump any less greedy? Are the clintons any less greedy? Is Bloomberg any less sinister? What's starting to look sinister is the daily "facebook is evil" propaganda by the media.
basic-gongfu 9y ago
I would be really careful about saying anything negative about one of dangs lover boys around here, (s?)he'll fuck up your account in no time at all if you mess with the money.

joshAg 9y ago

well, yeah. He's just another dude in SV that either has no clue about, or pretends to have no clue about, ethics.

rndmize 9y ago

Come now, Zuckerberg doesn't even need public office. He's more powerful where he is now than he could ever be in an elected position. Just based on the information in the article, he could offer technical embeds to campaigns he likes and ignore the ones he doesn't, or provide them with a much smaller degree of assistance, with no one the wiser. I don't think there's a single person in the world with as much potential to impact elections and policy choices as Zuckerberg today.

lsc 9y ago
I suppose the proof of the pudding is in the eating... but my personal hope is that the current election was a fluke caused by things like facebook advertising being so new; The theory, of course, being that we build up immunities to certain kinds of advertising; there's always a race between us humans building up that immunity, and advertisers striving for novelty. If that theory holds, advertisers have a huge advantage every time a new platform rolls out, and that advantage is slowly eroded over time, as we humans get used to the new medium. Is it true? i don't know.
- meri_dian 9y ago
  Or maybe there's nothing flukey about it. Trump talked about things people cared about in a straightforward, albeit bombastic, way. You may disagree with his approach, but others appreciated he was at least talking about things they cared about. Sure Hillary talked about those issues too, but she wasn't able to set a clear vision or ground her campaign in clearly defined and solid themes. We can only learn from failure by accepting it and studying it, not by dismissing it as a fluke.
  - apearson 9y ago
    I agree, it was a close election and yes the system has it's flaws but there was nothing that went majorly wrong with this election.
    - pstuart 9y ago
      There was serious disenfranchisement of voters through onerous laws designed to keep people from voting.
      - tux1968 9y ago
        The laws didn't change drastically from the time a few years earlier when all those people managed to get out and elect Obama. That doesn't seem like a deciding factor at all.
        wavefunction 9y ago
        Voter ID laws definitely changed. All the kicking people off voting rolls definitely got stepped up. Quite a few things were different.
        tux1968 9y ago
        Not really. There have been such allegations going back to every election. There is no evidence that they were more prevalent this time around. In any case, it really seems to not be relevant in a statistical sense of playing a deciding role in the election.
    - ssalazar 9y ago
      There is literally a special investigation right now that is attempting to determine how and where things went wrong.
  - JoshMnem 9y ago
    I don't think that is what happened. The media didn't hold him accountable for what he said. They wanted viewers. Websites wanted clicks. There was disinformation everywhere. Even in discussions with people who could calmly talk about it, Trump supporters would cite obviously fake blog posts and other completely fake information that could easily be discredited with quick online searches. Even when shown that the information was fake they would not change the opinions that the fake information had created in their minds. He was talking about things that they cared about, because they had little grip on basic facts about reality. They cared about the wrong things.
- hkmurakami 9y ago
  You don't think real people in this country had real grievances?
  - lsc 9y ago
    You will have to do a lot of talking to convince me that the people with real grievances voted for deep tax cuts for the rich and deep cuts to social programs for the poor. My theory is that the average Trump voter made more than the average Clinton voter. There is some evidence for this: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-mythology-of-trumps-working-class-support/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-mythology-of-trumps...
freeflight 9y ago
> He's more powerful where he is now than he could ever be in an elected position. Exactly, an elected position would come with even more publicity, actual responsibilities and the possibility of being held accountable for his actions. It's far more convenient and efficient for him to stay out of that system and just play it from the outside.
- 659087 9y ago
  > Exactly, an elected position would come with even more publicity, actual responsibilities and the possibility of being held accountable for his actions. Having full control of the platform a large portion of the population depends on for news and communication could help him evade much of that.
  - freeflight 9y ago
    Why put yourself in a position where you have to evade it in the first place? There'd be no advantages for him in it, only disadvantages. The only reason he would want to go for public office, at least I could think of, is to influence government policies. But he already has an army of experienced and well-paid people doing exactly that.
- kelukelugames 9y ago
  I don't know if that's true. Do we have more transparency into Trump's income, businesses, or even taxes after he became president?
  - joelrunyon 9y ago
    > I don't know if that's true. Do we have more transparency into Trump's income, businesses, or even taxes after he became president? Owning a bunch of hotels is a fundamentally different type of power than owning a demographic database + messaging system used to manipulate people's moods.
oh_sigh 9y ago
Then why is he going on his "I'm running for President" tour of America, eating at blue collar family homes and visiting historically black churches? Being in governance gives you power that you can only glance at as a private citizen. Being a billionaire and president of the US will make you far more powerful than merely being a billionaire.
- abiox 9y ago
  it's hard to imagine that he believes he stands a chance. i'm sure any worthwhile consultant or polysci adviser could let him down gently.
659087 9y ago
What could be more powerful than a US president who also happens to have direct control of a large portion of the world's communications and information consumption?
Zelphyr 9y ago
I agree but the allure of that kind of power is intoxicating for people like him. Not to mention the deals he could set up for himself and Facebook when he goes back to the private sector.

qubex 9y ago

I’m not American but I keep hoping Bill Gates’ philanthropic inclinations will eventually get the better of him and lead him to casually pour a billion or so into getting himself nominated and elected President in a ”battle of the billionaires” and end this horror.

romanovcode 9y ago
Same here, I actually think he would be very good as a president for U.S. But AFAIK he is not interested in politics at all.
- qubex 9y ago
  As far as I know, he isn't either, but as I said, I keep hoping that somehow it dawns on him that salvaging the USA from this hideous path it's on is within the domain of ‘philantropy’ that he is pursuing.

matte_black 9y ago

Personally I don’t want him in office because of his liberal politics, not his Silicon Valley ethics.

cgmg 9y ago
Which aspects of his politics are you referring to?

christmasity 9y ago

How does this differ from anything or anyone. Is Trump any less greedy? Are the clintons any less greedy? Is Bloomberg any less sinister? What's starting to look sinister is the daily "facebook is evil" propaganda by the media.

basic-gongfu 9y ago

I would be really careful about saying anything negative about one of dangs lover boys around here, (s?)he'll fuck up your account in no time at all if you mess with the money.