Hey y’all!
We’ve been sold a romantic idea that becoming extremely rich gives you freedom—that with enough money, you can finally say “f*** you” to the systems that restrain the masses. But watching people like Mark Zuckerberg (estimated net worth $207B) move through the world, pleading their case in pursuit of the goodwill of wannabe authoritarians, tells a different story.
These tech billionaires with so-called “f*** you money” are not bold. They are reactionary. They are obsequious. And they are laser-focused on protecting their empires, no matter who gets hurt in the process.
I just finished Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, a memoir by Sarah Wynn-Williams, who used to work at Facebook as Director of Global Public Policy. What she describes is not surprising, but it is horrifying. Facebook didn’t stumble into complicity with repressive regimes or mass violence. They walked straight into it, with eyes wide open, for profit.
I don’t believe Zuckerberg had a grand plan to place himself at the center of an ideological maelstrom. He doesn’t have political beliefs in any meaningful sense. His only consistent value is the importance of protecting his image as a tech visionary. That’s how you end up collaborating with The Chinese Communist Party one day and Donald Trump the next. If it helps the stock, it’s on the table.
The Facebook that used to connect eager adolescents is long gone. It’s now a weaponized surveillance machine optimized to mine your data, manipulate your emotions, and monetize your insecurities. They have metrics for suffering, and they know exactly how much of it they are willing to allow.
We are now in the lawless Meta era. The rollback of Instagram and Facebook content moderation is not about principle; it’s about profit. The company is willing to tolerate what it would’ve deemed hate speech just a few short months ago in exchange for engagement. Everything is on the table as long as it will keep the MAUs up. No company has profited more from the decline in public trust across areas ranging from elections to fundamental facts.
Facebook is free to the public, but the world has paid an inestimable toll. We paid with our minds—our attention, our cognition, our mental health, our ability to focus. The architects of these systems send their own kids to schools that ban the very technology they built. That tells you everything.
We are entering the next phase now, with AI accelerating the downward spiral of trust and cognition. Now, a new crop of people selling these tools swear they’re value-neutral. But we’ve seen this movie before. They will call it democratization. They will call it connection. But it is always about power.
And just like every other revolution in tech and industry, the biggest losers will be the people already pushed to the margins. Women, Black folks, queer folks, immigrants. The ones who cannot afford to be naive.
Yes, I’m livid. What makes me angriest is that they knew. They knew what it would cost. They knew what it would break. And they did it anyway.
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
💜Kim
Extra Credit: A Silicon Valley School That Doesn’t Compute
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