Look below the fold. Clay Jones deserves a Pulitzer, which I somehow doubt the committee will have the courage to award.
ordinarily the CEO of a publicly traded company should not declare, in public, that he doesn’t give a shit if their users leave, but meta is not a normal publicly traded company
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) January 9, 2025 at 1:08 PM
This is an act of incredible weakness. No healthy organization lets a policy that uses these terms leave the stable.
— Chatham Harrison is tending his garden (@chathamharrison.bsky.social) January 7, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Actually, wrapping billionaires in giant gold chains & requiring them to live with that daily burden might not be the worst idea anyone's ever had
— Chatham Harrison is tending his garden (@chathamharrison.bsky.social) January 9, 2025 at 12:48 PM
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Baud
Lapassionara
Good morning. Time to virtue signal my way off of Facebook.
Ramalama
When I was at Nantasket beach south of Boston, a few years ago my wife was convinced mark zuckerberg was there too. It was right after Labor Day and the place was empty, everyone back to work and school. His wife was Asian and preggers. It was hot. I was hitting the waves one last time before going back to Quebec. The swimming was great. “That’s NOT him,” I told my wife. “You’re crazy. Why would this zillionaire come to this beach of all places?”
It was mostly a Masshole beach. Tourists didn’t usually frequent it due to the long winding roads to get there. The town was mostly fisherman, townies, and people who’d grown up going to this beach for summers only. Even if they normally lived far away like New Orleans, they’d grown up there. It’s an insider’s place.
My wife has a photographic memory. One time in NYC I’d left behind my bag with laptop in a taxi. My friends who we were visiting said that my bag was gone. No, my wife said. We’re getting it back, she paced and willed herself to recall the name and photo of the drivers taxi badge that hung on the passenger side. No way, I said. I’m screwed.
We called the taxi company and she recalled the guy in such detail, including mostly his name along with a threat to curse the man all his life, like she was a genie from a bottle, that it worked. I got my bag back, laptop and all.
She took stealth photos of this flaccid white man and his wife with a cute baby bump on the beach even though we were the only people out there, the mile Long Beach that was enjoying crashing waves. Two other women spotted us from their beach house and came out to swim, too. They were out there clearly to swim with us as it really was iffy to be in the water on our own. It was the nicest thing anybody in that town had ever done, or maybe I had frequented the beach enough to finally get my masshole bona fides , my vibes.
Turns out his wife is from nearby Quincy, I think. So maybe?
I don’t know if I kept those photos but if I did you better be sure that I’m going to publish them on Facebook.
p.a.
Good morning!
re: our billionaire overlords, despicable.
I flippantly asked this in a comment a while back: has tRump ever driven a car? Any photos of him driving a car? Not posing in a Bugatti he bought for shits and giggles, but just driving somewhere. Always in limos?
Did the billionaire New Yorker ever go to the Met? MOMA? Met Opera? Probably went to some Lincoln Center events as a chance to show off. Ever serve on the board of a cultural institution?
Can you imagine having that (yes, inflated) wealth and living like he does?
Echoing Atrios’ comment on so many of these fekers: imagine having all that $ and spending it to make other people’s lives worse. Why not just go buy a nice tropical archipelago and enjoy yourself?
suzanne
Probably more appropriate for the thread downstairs, but there’s a rumor that the Pizzagate gunman is the brother of the Hawk Tuah girl. Man, time really is a flat circle.
Baud
@p.a.:
Why would wealth extinguish the desire to bully people?
p.a.
@Baud: More options for other things.
Baud
@p.a.:
I don’t think bullying is caused by boredom.
montanareddog
@suzanne: Both surnamed Welch. But she is from Tennessee and he is from North Carolina. Siblings end up living in different places, sure, but more likely it is just one of those dumb, speculative posts that take on a life of their own.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@p.a.: Like one of the rotating tags here says, for some people, the cruelty is the point.
Baud
Ramalama
@Baud: sweet. Also …
matt
Leaving the platform is the opposite of signaling.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: Haha! Nice!
JoyceH
@p.a.: Golf appears to be his absolute only leisure activity. He doesn’t read. The only TV he watches is Fox. He doesn’t play bridge or poker or chess or checkers. He doesn’t play an instrument or practice a handicraft or swim or dance. He doesn’t drink. He doesn’t have a pet! He schemes and he golfs and he instigates quarrels among his minions and he eats junk. And that’s about it.
narya
@p.a.:
@JoyceH: I’ve thought about this, especially but not only for TFG. What a sad, mean (in the sense of impoverished) life. And so many of his followers seem to aspire to it as well. I miss seeing so much of our VP and Tim.
Baud
The NYT is garbage.
p.a.
@JoyceH: GF lives near a major music venue as well as a golf course that has in the not-too-distant past hosted PGA events. The neighborhood used to be inundated with visitors until the city cracked down. She said the absolute worst, arrogant, ignorant, were the golf fans. Next country music. Parking, pissing, trash etc…
ETA: most arrests at Gillette always country music fest, although now that Pats suck they will become competitive. I was at the MNF game in, ’81 IIRC vs Dallas where it got so bad the team was banned from MNF for about a decade.
narya
@Baud: that is impressive trolling.
Professor Bigfoot
@rikyrah: Good morning!
MagdaInBlack
@Baud: Yes, I’ll be petty: Someone mentioned she hadn’t even done her hair, and holy cow, that looks like my hair on a weekend of sloth
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: Bwahahahahahaaaa!
Starfish (she/her)
When Facebook is full of grandmas and no one else, it is not cool to young people. Zuckerberg has been pretty clear that he does not mind losing the olds for a cool trendier user base.
Facebook has been less appealing to men in general. It seems weird to go so hard for a group of users that are not interested in your platform AND are going to chase grandma, and anyone else left, off the platform.
I think the manifestation of mid-life crisis is more visible now, but it has been going on for several years. I would say somewhere around taking up MMA and buying a huge chunk of Kauai to build his bunker.
p.a
Fbook started out as the cool, college-centered site, and Myspace was for proles. Everyone online then migrated to Fbook. Now he’s flailing to keep it relevant.
Baud
More evidence that the price of eggs ruined the economy.
Starfish (she/her)
@Baud: It turns out that if you make the regular seats small enough to comfortably seat a 12 yo child, you can get regular adult humans to pay more money to not have their knees tucked up right beneath their chins.
Starfish (she/her)
I really enjoyed this Irish man (sorry Twitter link) responding to an Elon Musk tweet about the IRA.
different-church-lady
@Baud: “HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO VACATION IN EUROPE IF I DON’T HAVE DIRT CHEAP EGGS??2?”
Geminid
@MagdaInBlack: Or like the hair on a weakened sloth. She moved faster though.
different-church-lady
I bet he sues for libel over that last cartoon.
Gvg
We forget the past sometimes too. Facebook was behind the influencing operation in the UK for I think Brexit, for Cambridge analytica scandal. Zuckerberg has leaned right for years. It’s not recent. I would also say he is better at it than Musk and the Trump weirdos. The only hopeful thing I can point out is that some of the long time right supporters we have worried about seem to have lost support or fallen out of fashion, and the cycle is getting faster. Perhaps now that they seem near their goals, cooperation is breaking down and they are fighting over whose version of their ideals gets implemented plus who gets the most power. At any rate, the rich each seem to have a few politicians bought and they aren’t all cooperating with Trumps destructive plans. Zuckerberg is a competent businessman unlike Musk or Trump. I am pretty sure he doesn’t want to destroy the dollar and understands enough to avoid that. Most of the rest of the GOP, let alone Trump and frankly most American voters don’t understand that and if that happens everything becomes much harder even if democrats win afterwards. They won’t be able to fix things in one cycle, and voters won’t accept the reasons why I am afraid.
Its just better all around if it doesn’t come to that.
Citizen Dave
TFG rarely laughs–in fact I’ve never seen it. He cracks sick mean jokes but doesn’t laugh. I heard his and Obama were joking yesterday but I’m avoiding him visage if I can.
I’d like the WH press to–when he mentions some batshit idea–start their question with “Sir, what have you read that leads you to this proposed policy” or “What are the steps necessary to enact this proposed policy?” Stop giving him ridiculous material in your questions, like “Can you absolutely rule out using our space alien technology to solve this issue?”
different-church-lady
One of the worst things about Facebook is how utterly fucking unnecessary it was to have it in the first place.
Ken B
Is there any chance the EU could ban twitter and/or Fascbook down?
different-church-lady
@Citizen Dave: Like, has anyone simply said, “Why Greenland?” to him?
Starfish (she/her)
@different-church-lady: Social media is not about necessity and never has been.
prostratedragon
Historical heads-up from The Atlantic:
Gin & Tonic
@p.a: I’ve mentioned before, my daughter was the original target market, a student at an Ivy when “the Facebook” started up. Obviously she joined. I don’t think she’s posted anything on it in 6-7 years now.
Another Scott
@MagdaInBlack: (It was extremely windy in DC yesterday. The guys holding the flags outside were almost blown over.)
Best wishes,
Scott.
JML
I’d be more enthusiastic about dropping FB if I wouldn’t lose track of so many friends that are scattered about the country and the world. I’m bummed every time a friend leaves the platform and I hear about them less.
Another Scott
@different-church-lady: Probably can’t.
(repost) – TheShovel.com.au (from May 2020).
[ chef’s kiss ]
Best wishes,
Scott.
Mr. Mack
Recently lost every photo on my hard-drive. Found them (most of them) of FB. I interact with far flung family and friends. Sometimes, I visit Marketplace to buy or sell something. I never check my feed. I never click on ads. It has its uses, but I understand the desire to quit it altogether.
kalakal
@JML: That’s always been the only reason I’m on FB. Sadly last year was how I found out 2 of them had died.
different-church-lady
If Facebook is the only way to keep up with your friends, are they really your friends?
Uncle Cosmo
Zuck Fuckerberg.
stinger
@narya:
This. So much this.
Geo Wilcox
I just scrubbed my Facebook account of everything. I need it to play some games I really enjoy so I cannot delete it without losing access to those programs. Several games migrated off Facebook, they used to use it to let you add players in your game to give gifts to. I am so glad but I wish all the other ones would do the same.
Starfish (she/her)
@different-church-lady: Agreed. These relationships are a mile wide and an inch deep. Various people can keep up with my cousins and my high school classmates and tell me about it. But it is not like I am taking any of these folks a casserole if someone dies.
p.a.
@Gin & Tonic: Most of the (very few) younger, say 35 & under, single people I know (not even as Fbook friends, just know they
postposted), when I’ve gone to check on their posts about restaurants, travels etc, maybe 2019 is the most recent thing. Don’t think any (only talking 6,7 people total) have closed down their page.Younger w kids is a different story. Doing it for grammy/grampie I assume.
Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog
@Baud:
Slovenian, I believe.
Shakti
It’s not FaceBook which causes the dilemma; it’s migrating off Whatsapp and Instagram/Threads.
Meta owns all three.
A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno)
@Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog: Well played, sir.
bluefoot
Yet another instance where Zuckerberg’s practices/platform is actively and intentfully working toward harming people.
most of the younger folks I know are on Instagram, as well as artists and creators of all types. I don’t know what they are going to do now.
There go two miscreants
BACK UP YOUR STUFF! Even if it’s just to a thumb drive, which is better than nothing and cheap. USB-attached disks are not that expensive.
Madame Bupkis
@MagdaInBlack: They look like they’ve just had an argument. Neither one looks happy to be with the other.
TerryC
@Gin & Tonic: I was even then an old but I had been waiting and joined in June 2004.
Timill
@There go two miscreants: Or in the cloud. Most of my stuff is on OneDrive, so even if I lose all my computers, the data should be there.
TONYG
@different-church-lady: Good question. My actual friends (and my relatives) I keep in touch with via phone, text, email and sometimes face-to-face. Many of them never got an account on Facebook (or any other kind of “social media”). The people that I’m “in touch with” on Facebook are people who were friendly acquaintances decades ago. In the pre-social-media era I wouldn’t be in touch with them at all now, and that would be fine. Facebook is a habit, but it’s a habit that I could quit with no downside.
Almost Retired
@Citizen Dave: I watched (to my detriment) the footage of Trump at the funeral making faces that in a regular human would be considered a “smile” or a “laugh.” And it looked vaguely familiar. And then it hit me. It’s the same expression used by C. Montgomery Burns when he’s fired a nuclear power plant employee or the Grinch when he surveys the family room devoid of ornaments and gifts with steepled fingers.
Ruckus
@Lapassionara:
I’ve been off for a number of years.
Life seems better without it.
Ruckus
@JoyceH:
What he does requires very little humanity and keeps him away from all the normal humans, you know the one’s he can’t measure up against in any positive way.
Ruckus
@TONYG:
I was on FB early on and have been off for a number of years now.
Most of the time it seemed like 24/7 back fence gossip and nothing more. Haven’t missed it in the least.
Shakti
So what are y’all doing to convince your friends and family to get off IG/Threads and Whatsapp? Because that’s where most of mine are active, especially Whatsapp?