
The Zuckerberg delusion - NN88
https://www.ft.com/content/580f18d6-c951-11e7-aa33-c63fdc9b8c6c
======
andrenotgiant
A convincing op-ed, even the suggestion of "train thousands of people" as a
better use of Zuckerberg's fortune resonates, but then...

> He might even fund a newspaper to make up for social media’s destruction of
> local journalism.

I'd rank a lot of other things higher than social media on a list of
"destroyers of local journalism"

1\. Craigslist 2\. Google Maps 3\. Online publishing 4\. Blogs 5\. Social
Media?

Regardless of who is at fault for the destruction of local journalism, I am
surprised to hear journalists advocating for "billionaire philanthropy" as a
sustainable business model.

~~~
gerbilly
> I'd rank a lot of other things higher than social media on a list of
> "destroyers of local journalism"

Why is that? I would rank it pretty high.

It's true that online advertising killed of a lot of the ad revenue that
newspapers relied on, but I think social media are also killing the newspapers
simply by displacing people's 'news browsing' behaviour from a newspaper or
magazine to a facebook feed.

A lot of people get all their news from social media, and that proportion is
growing.

To add to that behavioural effect, media outlets also give away their content
on facebook as well, believing that it would be better to have a presence than
to ignore the platform .

They are basically giving their product away for free on one of the very
platforms that is destroying the industry.

~~~
andrenotgiant
Maybe Social Media is a nail in Local Newspaper's coffin, but Craigslist and
Google Local came first, and put them in the coffin.

From Wikipedia's "Decline of Newspapers"[1]

>Free services like Craigslist have decimated the classified advertising
departments of newspapers, some of which depended on classifieds for 70% of
their ad revenue

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_of_newspapers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_of_newspapers)

~~~
gerbilly
Both are factors, and I don't honestly know which is the larger factor,
however, it's no longer just local papers that are affected.

The large national dailies are getting thinner and thinner each year, each
month it seems.

Compare a Sunday times from today to one from the early nineties if you
remember them.

This is not good. A clickbait article on facebook that has been targeted to
appeal to your biases is not the same thing as real journalism.

------
thisisit
From the related article:

> Mark Zuckerberg sounded a warning on Friday about the social and political
> fragmentation caused by America’s opioid crisis

He is trying to diverge attention away from FB by blaming opioids, lost jobs
etc but has zero charisma.

Promoting his views in form of a trending Facebook news feed story might
provide him a better platform /s

And I still don't get why don't these guys simply do away with the news feed
and/or stop collecting data which allow advertisers target a specific
political leaning.

~~~
hinkley
I dont care for either of them, but I don’t understand why we bag on
Zuckerberg, who has at least realized at an almost reasonable age that there
are other humans in the world. Meanwhile Bezos is what, ~fifteen~ twenty years
older, and still seems to long for the return of serfdom. In 2012 Bezos was
pretty much Bill Gates before Ted Turner and others took Gates to task for
being Ebenezer Scrooge. Since then, Bezos has donated to his alma mater and to
projects that are within walking distance of Amazon’s main campus. Big man.

Amazon is the new Walmart. When humans have a moment of clarity and learn to
go outside instead of going on FB, all the shops will be gone or called
Amazon, and Bezos will be swimming in his bank vault.

~~~
thisisit
Frankly I feel tired by this level of discussion. If you feel I am wrong about
Zuckerberg, sure downvote my post or given points against it. But there has to
be another place and time to discuss Bezos and Amazon. Currently your argument
is nothing but whataboutism.

------
justboxing
Says protecting community is more important....

> "Protecting our community is more important than maximising our profits,” Mr
> Zuckerberg said

then goes out and sues said community, build walls to keep the community at
bay

> In the past year alone, the 32-year-old billionaire spent $30 million to buy
> up the four homes surrounding his Palo Alto abode, only to demolish them,
> and later built a six-foot-tall wall around his 700-acre plot of land in
> Hawaii, to the chagrin of his Kilauean neighbors.

Source: Man Of The People Mark Zuckerberg Sues To Keep Native Hawaiians Off
His Kauai Estate => [https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/01/mark-zuckerberg-
sues...](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/01/mark-zuckerberg-sues-to-keep-
native-hawaiians-off-his-kauai-estate)

~~~
danans
> then goes out and sues said community, build walls to keep the community at
> bay

People who are wealthy and famous like him take these measures because they
fear for their family's personal security. As an unknown person who also takes
my family's security seriously, it's hard to fault him for that.

But that is really unrelated to the concept of "community" on Facebook. One
can be quite concerned about social media's negative effect on society
(promoting tribalism, othering) while granting that Mark Z has exceptional
security needs.

~~~
ryandrake
I find it utterly hilarious that Mark Zuckerberg is concerned about his own
privacy given the product he’s unleashed upon the world. Hypocrisy doesn’t
begin to describe it.

~~~
danans
I agree, but physical security and privacy, while related, are different. And
physical security measures are different when someone's wealth puts a big
target on their back.

~~~
Density
This is ridiculous. The wealthy don't have big targets on their back.

------
NN88
Full Text: [http://archive.is/FEwBC](http://archive.is/FEwBC)

------
supernumerary
Regarding the 'Opioid Crisis' ... while very real, the pain and suffering it
is responsible for being very large - as a 'talking point' in a political
context, it is very much a construct that has emerged only very recently
(especially in the context of how long these drugs have been available and
detrimental to communities)

In Canada for example, CBC radio which i listen to - covers the issue
extensively and it is clear that the government is pushing it as an issue,
directly and with long-form podcast type pieces about related issues.

It is clear that this is propaganda at the State level.

Reasoning for this approach is clear: One having citizens nodding off across
the socio-economic spectrum is costly. Two: It is very easy to build consensus
that addressing this is 'A good thing', in the same vein - prior recurrent
talking points in the Canadian context are issues regarding native peoples.
Three: The need to build consensus is a correction(carrot) for the failed 'the
war on drugs'(stick) - itself a piece of political theater. Four: A successful
approach to this problem will make the government look good.

Essentially, a solid 'problem' for 'government' to 'solve'. But perhaps other
more systemic issues are being ignored ... and we are being distracted by the
State's shallow performance of magnanimous and utilitarian care.

Examples of tackling more substantive and more divisive issues would be
penalizing the pharma companies, doctors or the profit-driven market they
operate in. In terms of the endless hand-wringing over the plight of native-
peoples - addressing systemic racism with reparations...

So to re-iterate - the recent injection of the 'Opioid Crisis' in Zuckerberg's
PR narrative is an action that is rooted in the State's performance of a
'duty-of-care' at the level of propaganda. It is hardly likely to have come
from his cursory tour, and rather from careful study of Facebook's omnipotent
data feed and its close relationship with the secret services and those
responsible for Propaganda in this country. Basically it represents the
capitulation of a very powerful private organization to the forces of state-
hood. Something that Zuckerberg's clear ambition for political power might
address. At the very least it represents how the State and Facebook are
assimilating have already assimilated.

In terms of the substantive issues that would represent a non-capitulation, or
non-assimilation, I have written about that here:
[https://iainmait.land/posts/20170201-transitional-
object.htm...](https://iainmait.land/posts/20170201-transitional-object.html)

~~~
defined
This is a very good point. Create a diversion to move people's attention away
from the State's failures or underperformance; political theater all the way.

This is not to say that an opioid crisis does not exist, only that it is being
used for nefarious purposes.

It's not rocket science to predict the outcome, based on current events:
opioids become so difficult to get, even for legitimate purposes like
breakthrough cancer and post-surgical pain, that the genuine users suffer
along with the so-called abusers; politicos declare victory; and we get stuck
with more dangerous pain relief that has not (yet) come under scrutiny.

This is another turn of the screw that crushes the populace a little further
into servitude.

Hyperbole? No.

Taken together with the other almost invisible attacks on our freedoms, such
as

\- not being able to deposit $5,000 or more in totally legitimate cash without
being reported to the finance cops,

\- the loss of 7th amendment rights by more and more contracts incorporating
mandatory binding arbitration clauses, and

\- the need for good credit ratings effectively forcing us to have at least
some debt,

a reasonable person will surely agree that the sum of these, and upcoming,
small tyrannies, if unchecked, will leave most of us in servitude to the State
and the "Corporate State".

------
dagw
_He might even fund a newspaper to make up for social media’s destruction of
local journalism._

Yes! Because if it's one thing the world sorely needs its yet another
newspaper owned by an out of touch billionaire with dubious political
ambitions.

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misterbowfinger
non-paywall: [https://outline.com/VV54Uc](https://outline.com/VV54Uc)

