“Twitter owner calls Facebook founder a ‘cuck’ as rancour grows over launch of Threads, a competitor to Musk’s network”
Man I thought this was The Onion at first
Zucc gives an impression of an android-reptilian hybrid, but he handles PR a lot better. And this is because he doesn’t spout every thought that runs in his head on social media without filter.
Every time the “reptile” line gets trotted out, I can’t help but feel it’s insulting neurodivergent people that don’t exactly share neurotypical body language or traits or mannerisms, but it gets a pass because it’s Zuckerberg, a person people really don’t like.
I also really don’t like ad hominem stuff. By all means, hate Zuckerberg for the actual stuff he’s done wrong. But his looks and mannerisms aren’t why he’s a bad person and I feel bad for innocent people who share a physical resemblance or some mannerisms and constantly see his get dunked on. “Am I also unacceptable? Are they just bringing up anything they can to be hurtful, or does this have an actual basis in reality and they legit have a problem with his looks and mannerisms? What does that say about how people think about me, about how I’ll be treated? Am I commonly perceived as a robot who’s faking their way through humanity too?”
The reptilian conspiracy theory can be considered at least antisemitism-adjacent, which makes its popularity with respect to Zuckerberg… interesting.
As someone of Jewish heritage, I agree there was anti-Semitism attached to the idea in the past, it’s passed into public discourse as a joke without that malice attached, especially as people were laughing at nutters like David Ike, that I don’t see the harm in it at this point.
A weakness of inclusive leftist language is it removes most of the rhetorical shorthand insults that are useful for negative propaganda. What is rhetorically sticky is insulting people looks, behaviors, etc. But it also participates in the stigma of that stuff. Explaining the real reasons your political enemies are bad takes more work, which makes it lose out in comparison to your opponents who don’t have this limit.
There are ways to walk this line, but it’s very difficult. Stigmatizing language is the norm with stuff like “stupid” and “crazy” which are ableist. There often aren’t better alternatives that are equally effective rhetorically.
I don’t really have a point here, just acknowledging that this is an issue that arrives from a conflict that isn’t as easy to solve as it seems at first.
rhetorical shorthand insults that are useful for negative propaganda
Honestly never thought of the insults as actually useful, just people wanting to vent aggression. “Hateful fascist” has meaning and depending on context, it might make me investigate the person being called such to see if that checks out, or even totally dismiss them. It tells me about the other person’s views. “Inhuman reptile” gets thrown in the trash immediately. And stuff about someone being ugly, that’s a reason for me to not hire you as a model or take your advice on how to look good. Not a reason to join the side against you. A lot of it really just looks like aggression. This stuff is mostly useful for evaluating “how popular is this side and how much can I expect to be personally attacked for it if I publicly side with them?”
I’m also neurodivergent. So perhaps in this case what’s effective on others might not work on me. I also have a history of getting emotional and hating any “not nice” behavior even if it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the ocean of legitimate awful behavior the other side does. I end up recognizing and siding against the ocean of awfulness, but still get very upset at “not nice” behavior against them that seems to serve zero purpose to actually stop them. And this kind of insulting definitely flags as “not nice” regardless of its ends. Unlike violence in self-defense against someone trying to punch you, I can’t think of when this would become a necessary evil. But again, it’s through the lens of my own experiences, where this kind of talk immediately gets tossed out.
EDIT after we seem to have finished discussion, just saw a relevant thought somewhere else online (old Reddit comment of mine that I was in the process of deleting) that seemed very relevant to this conversation. Adding it for any onlookers.
Some of the insults could be taken as conditional acceptance for minorities. If you stay in line, your identity is valid, if you step out your identity is now unacceptable. I’m thinking things like misgendering an awful trans person. The point is probably just to hurt that person and show disapproval for their legitimately harmful actions, but it could probably make other trans people wonder if the person doing the misgendering is actually a trans ally, or if they don’t actually accept trans people but keep their mouth shut around pleasant people and now they’re going mask off now that their target is someone they don’t care about. Keeping your mouth shut around pleasant people is still better than always being visibly unaccepting, but I imagine seeing a person misgender a bad trans person could shake the faith of trans people in just how much support they have. After all, we don’t misgender horrible cis people.
Same deal with insulting based on stuff we are fighting against. Do you really accept us neurodivergent, us less-than-conventionally-attractive and it’s just a propaganda tactic, or do you not accept us but choose to hold your tongue in most situations? How much real support do we have? If you dislike us, will we get the same identity-based insults that we see online towards people like Zuckerberg or do you just reserve that for big public figures and murderers? Is your acceptance of our demographic/identity conditional on your personal feelings towards us?
Elon is just doing whatever possible to get attention and keep publicity circling him and his shitpile website. He has no dignity left to sell, and is now hyping his genitals in the public square to try to help his business. I have serious doubts that Zuckerberg’s wife has cuckolded him given what I know about them, but the behavior described above is objective proof that Elon is a whore.
I don’t like a billionaire like the rest of us poor people. But I’ve met quite a few working in a tech and being in leadership. I’m ADHD/spectrum, Zuck reminds me of me. I feel like a reptile when I’m forced to talk about shot I don’t want to, but talk about what I want like “smoking meats” I’ll talk your fucking ear off.
Trump isn’t a reptile nor is Clinton just rich assholes. I’ve also met non assholes that are rich. Zuck and Bezos were the non assholes.
Jokes aside, Zucc’s non-verbal side reminds me of people on the autistic spectrum. This also gives people the creepy vibe, even though it isn’t intentional. My favorite YouTube channel Charisma on Command made a good video about the subject.
I am autistic. I want to make friends with other people and not alienate them. So I watched that video and there’s a part I’m having trouble with.
The part about his smile going away pretty fast, which causes people to subconsciously assume it’s faked, has a comparison video to someone else. That person doesn’t stop smiling at all! So how am I supposed to figure out how long I need to drag out the transition between going from happy to neutral in order to not seem like I’m faking stuff?
Yet both are mega rich, can we assume theres no correlation between the decorum of their posts and their success?
it’s not an assumption at this point. They are just a pair of losers who got lucky. They are the best argument imaginable for restoration of a 90% tax rate and inheritance taxes.
If I wasn’t so busy laughing at him, I’d be embarrassed on his behalf.
Is Musk acting more and more juvenile because he can’t deal with the fact that he’s in his early fifties now?
Musk is actually kind of impressive at this point. It takes some real talent and determination to make Zuckerberg look like the good guy in comparison. There are not many people in the world who can even manage to pull that off once or twice, and Musk is doing it over and over again.
It takes true talent to make Zuckerberg look like a saint.
Calling the cave diver a pedo wasn’t cringe enough, he seems to be trying hard to legit impress his high school mates.
Even as a bloke, this is embarrassing, and I hope woman don’t use Musk as an example which represents the rest of us. We want him to shut up too
Reading that article was a highlight of my day. I dislike FB/Meta but at least Zuckerberg can string a sentence together than doesn’t make him sound 13 and going thru a phase.
Thats the crazy thing. I don’t think the way facebook operates is great. But, I can’t recall Zuckerberg doing anything weird/bad in public (a lot of crap he gets, seems unwarranted, and you could easily go out and get a beer with him).
Whereas with Musk. He actually seems like the kind of guy whose friends have to make excuses for him, and are likely sick of him acting like a right-wing-extremist boomer
Right, most of the complaints people have about Zuckerberg is that he’s a stereotypical tech bro ceo lacking a moral compass.
People calling Zuckerberg a lizard person or robot mostly come from how he talked and acted when under intense public questioning by legislators regarding user privacy and their business model. That’s a high pressure situation where he was coached on what he could and could not say by legal to minimize the fallout, so his awkward expressions and stilted speech are understandable.
People don’t like him because he’s a ruthless ceo, and that requires some level of sociopathy pull off. Musk, on the other hand, actively antagonizes people and seems to thrive on controversy. His primary goal seems to be ego-driven, unlike Zuckerberg who’s solely in it for the money.
