I'm somewhat amazed someone can write a comment like this in (almost) 2024 without a hint of sarcasm. Especially when they're taking someone to task about giving too much weight to what someone "said" twenty years ago.
Sure, disregard what the founder said when he initially founded the company. Just, oh I don't know, give a little weight to all that the company -- not said mind you -- but actually did in the last twenty years with regards to the data in question. Recalling all the scandals within that period, you'll find that they nicely line up with that sentiment that was expressed by the founder twenty years ago.
You can say he's no worse than Musk perhaps, but going around telling people to disregard what someone said some time ago when the quote actually corroborates all the action taken since then is a rather bad faith interpretation of the author's intent.
And adding caveats like "I'm not saying Zuck has changed" just comes off as a weird cop-out. When someone is quoting that statement, they are explicitly arguing that he hasn't changed. So unless you're arguing that he has changed, the content of your comment is almost entirely vacuous.
> And adding caveats like "I'm not saying Zuck has changed" just comes off as a weird cop-out.
My main point is that you can't really judge someone by something they said 19 years ago, as a young & naive startup founder. I don't know about yourself, but I've definitely said things over a decade ago that I find quite embarrassing now.
There are much more pressing points to highlight, some of which your comment discusses, but hand-picking decades-old quotes feels quite vacuous in itself.
Sure, disregard what the founder said when he initially founded the company. Just, oh I don't know, give a little weight to all that the company -- not said mind you -- but actually did in the last twenty years with regards to the data in question. Recalling all the scandals within that period, you'll find that they nicely line up with that sentiment that was expressed by the founder twenty years ago.
You can say he's no worse than Musk perhaps, but going around telling people to disregard what someone said some time ago when the quote actually corroborates all the action taken since then is a rather bad faith interpretation of the author's intent.
And adding caveats like "I'm not saying Zuck has changed" just comes off as a weird cop-out. When someone is quoting that statement, they are explicitly arguing that he hasn't changed. So unless you're arguing that he has changed, the content of your comment is almost entirely vacuous.