Super Zuck, champion of “Masculine Energy”

Zeynep Tufekci, Zuckerberg’s Macho Posturing Looks a Lot Like Cowardice, NYTimes, Jan. 15. 2024.

I really, really wanted to like Mark Zuckerberg’s gushing appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast last Friday. [...] On the podcast, Zuckerberg told Rogan about how society had become too “neutered or emasculated” and gushed about “masculine energy” and his newfound devotion to jujitsu.

I’m not their target audience but I feel their vibe. A.C.L. tears, which they spent some time commiserating about, are pretty nasty. And I have a soft spot for martial arts content.

But one of the most recent actions that Zuckerberg’s supposedly emboldened company took was to banish tampons from office men’s rooms. (The products had been provided for transgender or nonbinary employees.) “Masculine energy,” my lady-parts — that is the most snowflake move I’ve heard of in a long time. If the men in your company can’t even handle the sight of a box of tampons, you’ve got bigger problems than an A.C.L. tear.

Also:

This week Meta announced a change to Facebook’s Messenger App. Users who want to customize their wallpaper can still do so, but they will no longer have the option to use themes with colors of the transgender and nonbinary flag.

Whatever one’s position on transgender rights, limiting people’s ability to express themselves — in private conversations with their friends — is not a great way to kick off a free-speech crusade.

It’s a long way from where Zuckerberg was during the Biden or the Obama administration. In those very different political climates, he apologized for Facebook’s role in promoting fake news and hate speech and vowed to take action. The platform even kicked Donald Trump off on Jan. 7, 2021.

But Trump (and his buddy Elon Musk) doesn’t like restrictions on hate speech, and now neither does Zuckerberg. Transgender rights are a flashpoint for Trump’s base, so tampons and theme colors have got to go. Flattery and obeisance are how powerful people keep themselves in favor with strongman regimes. Cash works, too.

Jujitsu to the rescue:

When discussing his love for jujitsu, Zuckerberg told Rogan that the sport let him “just express myself, right?”

“It’s like when you’re running a company, people typically don’t want to see you being this ruthless person who’s just, like, ‘I’m just going to crush the people I’m competing with,’” he said. But in martial arts, “you’re rewarded” for being ruthless.

What is the reward for boasting about your own toughness while charting your umpteenth cowardly zigzag in order to please the people in power? I guess we’re about to find out.

There's more at the link.