The article criticizes recent media coverage portraying Mark Zuckerberg as “cool” again based on his success with Threads and a shirtless photo he posted. The author argues that Zuckerberg’s photo looks like that of a middle-aged man cheating on his wife, and that Threads’ success is questionable given it is mostly used by journalists and brands. The author concludes that despite any business success, Zuckerberg’s role in Facebook’s issues make him unlikely to ever be truly “cool”, and urges journalists to stop describing him as experiencing a “Hot Zuck Summer”.


Gross

  • Kantiberl@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    The author argues that Zuckerberg’s photo looks like that of a middle-aged man cheating on his wife

    I would argue the author is a petty asshole.

    • sab@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      “Look at this guy having a hobby, he’s probably in a mid life crisis and cheating on his wife haha”

      There are so many valid criticisms of this guy, and equally many things you could say that’s not really a valid criticism but still kind of a good point. This is just bullshit and if anything distracting from all the things we should be criticizing him for.

    • variaatio
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      1 year ago

      Yeah. Unless he has evidence… Yeah, don’t go around spewing that kind of stuff. How about going with “looks like middle-aged man having midlife crisis and currently in the “gym rat” phase of it”… little dig in there, but you know more realistic. Yeah he is little funny with the shirtless sports posing, so throw some shade over it. However it in no way implies cheating on his wife. Don’t know if he is, don’t know if he isn’t, but getting the middle life crisis hobby of “jiu-jitsu” doesn’t tell anything about that.

      As said I think him getting in shape, sports and posing is way more about just bulk standard mid-life crisis. “Oh I’m getting little old. When did that midsection and belly got so wide. I should start a sports hobby to get in shape and avoid cardiovascular disease”. Some people get a motorbike to catch the lost youth. Others become gym rats/sports nuts to try to catch back their lost youth body.

      Again which really wouldn’t be that interesting except billionaire and also him apparently getting so hooked on it, that he started competing in tournaments.

      Doesn’t also remove anything from his horrible record of business ethics. He has absolutely horrible business ethics as most of these silicon valley billionaires in the advertising/social media sphere. Comes with the territory. One doesn’t start a targeted advertising social media business, if one values the ethics of peoples right to privacy.

  • tyo_ukko
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    1 year ago

    Here is an Iron Law I have learned from two decades on Facebook: If you are 39 years old and married with two children, you do not get this ripped unless you are deeply unhappy.

    Oh man, that hurt.

    • AnarchoYeasty@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Yeah just because the author is fat and lazy and is surrounded by fat and lazy friends doesn’t make this true. This is one of those telling on yourself comments.

      • mayooooo@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, we should all worship our zuckerbergs, rub our faces on his feet. I think he can probably survive without you defending him. Oh, Elon is a piece of shit too, and Gates.

        • Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de
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          1 year ago

          You can dunk on zuck without getting into weird rants about how all the people who work out are unhappy and stupid. Moreover, you can just criticize people for the bad things they are doing. Starting weird rants about their appearance doesn’t help anyone.

          • mayooooo@beehaw.org
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            1 year ago

            Sorry, I missed the part where people who work out arent happy. It’s hard to insult somebody when you can’t use language you know would hurt them, I guess

            • Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de
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              1 year ago

              If you are 39 years old and married with two children, you do not get this ripped unless you are deeply unhappy.

              It’s that part. But well, if your goal is to hurt someone no matter what, it’s one thing. If your goal is to shame evil people for the evil they are doing, you might reconsider your strategy.

              • mayooooo@beehaw.org
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                1 year ago

                Yeah, I understand what you mean, but I’m a married fat guy with kids and I don’t feel offended. Maybe the online anglo thing with policing the way we curse and shittalk is bad?

                • Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de
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                  1 year ago

                  Have you ever considered that “It doesn’t bother me personally therefore it shouldn’t bother anyone” isn’t as sound logic as you might imagine?

    • catarina@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Or maybe, hear me out, he has enough time and money to dedicate to taking care of his body. This article is a super petty attack.

    • echo
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      1 year ago

      he’s in good shape, but he’s not like unbelievably ripped or anything. the author just seems furious he has a hobby for some reason

    • Barry Zuckerkorn@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Weird. I’d say the correlation is much stronger that people who try to tear down others for fitness accomplishments tend to be more likely to be “deeply unhappy.”

      If anything, poor health is a more reliable indicator of unhappiness.

  • mrmanager@lemmy.today
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    1 year ago

    The PR team got the task to improve his reputation, and they paid newspapers and online sites to write positive things about him.

    Nothing new under the sun.

    Even a pic where he doesn’t look like a lizard. Well done.

    • Boz (he/him)@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      Probably the shirtless pic was a carefully calculated move to short-circuit theories about his lack of humanity, by showing that he has a navel. [/s]

      …for real, though, at least the man utilizes his paid PR staff.

      • mrmanager@lemmy.today
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        1 year ago

        Yeah Elon could learn something here. It seems Zucks ego is smaller than Musks actually since Zuck doesn’t post random shit to Twitter for attention.

        But he is still an awful human being.

        • Boz (he/him)@lemmy.one
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          1 year ago

          I don’t know, I think Musk might actually have an inferiority complex. He’s obsessed with himself, but he puts an awful lot of effort into trying to prove that he’s cool. But yeah, they’re both terrible, it doesn’t really matter who’s worse.

  • Diabolo96@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    I don’t find the zuck cool but i hate all the jokes of him being awkward and weird while he’s obviously in the spectrum. You can make fun of him for being evil and immoral but he didn’t choose to be like this.

  • orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts
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    1 year ago

    The funny thing with Threads is that they can technically say it has the same amount of users as Instagram since it uses your Instagram profile entirely. If you have an Instagram account, you essentially already have a Threads account waiting to be used. So they can fudge the numbers.

  • millie@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    There’s a lot to legitimately criticize Zuckerberg about, but not ‘being cool’ for learning jujitsu isn’t one of them.

    This article is so crass and petty that it completely undercuts the point of the immense social damage his forays into social media have caused. It comes off as exactly the kind of toxic bullshit that’s perpetuated on his platforms. We don’t need it.

    The solution isn’t picking a new side and being childish, it’s being honest and thoughtful as we exercise our autonomy far away from tech bros with too much money and let them be as irrelevant as they ought to.