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And maybe for a moment in the late ‘00s, Facebook offered a semblance of synthetic connection, be it hate-scrolling an ex or stalking your high school class from ‘75. But now? It’s about world domination . And its Muppet savant overlord makes no bones about his vision: “Company over country.” The Atlantic has noted that the company is now a country with billions of citizens, borders that know no bounds, and a burgeoning crypto, Diem. Its judicial system includes an Oversight Board and Integrity Committee, both plucked right out of the novel 1984 . And just like floating around international waters, it seems you can get away with anything on Facebook – sex trafficking, domestic terrorism, and an obscene amount of unsolicited labradoodle pics. Everything goes , and nothing comes out of it. It’s gluten-free bread and a viral circus, with little Zuckerberg self-cast as Augustus Caesar (complete with a janky version of the haircut). WELCOME TO THE ZUCK The Wall Street Journal recently dropped a thorough investigative report dubbed The Facebook Files , a Pentagon or Afghanistan Papers for the tech set. Along with whistleblower Frances Haugen’s damning testimony on Capitol Hill, it
copy of Milton Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom ). And you can stroll off a Tesla lot with a smug smile and a new Model S. What exactly are you getting out of Facebook’s newsfeed? If quaint 20th-century TV was the opiate of the masses, social media is the Fentanyl. With Facebook or its sister company Instagram, you are the product – they’re using you for data to regurgitate targeted ads (more than $50 billion worth in 2021 alone). When you log on, you’re mere grist for the algorithm as they mine your minds, all curdling into a glorified cesspool of hate, humblebrags, and ALL CAPS idiocy. THE SUCKERBURBS At its start, the seed of Facebook was cachet – in the words of the Winklevoss Twins, harvard.edu : a network dripping with exclusivity and an invite-only protocol. Unfurling from the Ivys, the original social media app crept from campus to campus, moving then to its egalitarian rollout for plebians until everyone and their dead grandmother were posting away. It’s gluten-free bread and a viral circus, with little Zuckerberg self- cast as Augustus Caesar (complete with a janky version of the haircut).
American Consequences
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