The tech billionaire war on "woke" is really targeting workers

[marmar]

The tech billionaire war on "woke" is really targeting workers
Mark Zuckerberg wants "masculine energy" and "aggression" at the office — sounds like a toxic workplace

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published January 17, 2025 6:00AM (EST)


(Salon) Our eyes do not deceive us: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is going full MAGA.

After releasing a chilling video announcing that Facebook, Instagram and other Meta companies will unleash a firehose of fascist disinformation on their platforms, Zuckerberg went — where else? — on Joe Rogan's podcast to celebrate. Complete with his new frat daddy look, Zuckerberg raved about how he thinks the "corporate world" has been "culturally neutered" and complained about being "surrounded by girls and women." He praised "masculine energy" and said a culture that "celebrates the aggression a bit more has its own merits that are really positive." He claimed he's not trying to exclude women, but then immediately pivoted to romanticizing his "masculine" martial arts training space, which is presumably segregated by gender.

....(snip)....

But, as with Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen and other tech billionaires, the pivot to MAGA isn't just about overgrown nerds trying (and failing) to compensate for high school insecurities. It also seems to be fueled by a deep loathing of the very people who have made these capitalists their money: the fleets of mostly desk workers who make the companies run.

Musk frequently rants on X about the "elites," a word he uses almost exclusively to describe college-educated professionals who draw middle-class or upper-middle-class incomes, i.e. the class of people doing the work that makes him rich. Yes, it's people who can often afford home ownership or summer vacations, but they still have to work for a living. Most make less in a year than Musk or Zuckerberg spend in a single trip to Mar-a-Lago. The war on "woke" is ultimately a war on workers.

....(snip)....

Meanwhile the more authoritarian, anti-worker regime at Meta has already kicked off. As the New York Times reported earlier this week, "Meta typically" invites "employees, civic leaders and others to weigh in" before a big policy change, but not this time. The new policies allowing more disinformation and hate speech on the platform were sprung on "most of Meta’s 72,000 employees" during the public announcement. The unwillingness to involve employees in the decision-making process has resulted in policies that don't just degrade the platforms. Employees complained "training materials that Meta created for the new policies were confusing and contradictory." For instance, Facebook users still cannot say "white people have mental illness," but they can say "gay people have mental illness." ......................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/01/17/the-tech-billionaire-on-woke-is-really-targeting-workers/

[usonian]

1. IMO, "anti-woke" is just another dogwhistle for racism, misogyny and so on. NT