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Mark Zuckerberg in heavy-framed augmented reality glasses
[112][ ]
Mark Zuckerberg is a different kind of cringe but cringe all the same. His
cringe moments drip through more sparingly but, when they do, my body tries to
turn inside out at my bellybutton, Rebecca Shaw writes. Photograph: Bloomberg/
Getty Images
[113]View image in fullscreen
Mark Zuckerberg is a different kind of cringe but cringe all the same. His
cringe moments drip through more sparingly but, when they do, my body tries to
turn inside out at my bellybutton, Rebecca Shaw writes. Photograph: Bloomberg/
Getty Images
[115]Opinion[116]Technology
I knew one day Id have to watch powerful men burn the world down I just
didnt expect them to be such losers
[117]Rebecca Shaw
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerbergs desperation to be cool as they suck up to
Donald Trump is so cringe it makes my skin crawl
Thu 16 Jan 2025 09.00 ESTLast modified on Thu 16 Jan 2025 09.03 EST
[118]Share
I dont know if anyone else has noticed this but everything seems to be going
down the tubes quite fast. And not fun tubes, like at a waterpark. The “ending
in shit” kind. The issues are complicated, the reasons diverse, but there are a
few culprits who have been making themselves extremely visible.
Alongside those holding political office, tech gragillionnaires (I had to
invent a new number) like Elon Musk and [119]Mark Zuckerberg obviously wield
huge global influence with their computers and numbers and whatnot. There has
been a lot written about them and there will be more, as they continue to shape
the world and win favour with Donald Trump. Big, scary, probably ruinous things
lie ahead. But Im here to discuss the smaller part. The insult to injury, the
sprinkling of salt in the wound.
Whether I am engaging with the news, or with Musk tweeting constantly like a
man with no job or friends, or with Zuckerberg sending out weird videos and
appearing on Rogan, I am in pain. Not just because I dont like what they are
doing but because they are so incredibly, painfully cringe.
[120]
Move fast, break things sprint to kiss Trumps ring. Its the tech bros
inauguration derby | Marina Hyde
Read more
I knew that one day we might have to watch as capitalism and greed and bigotry
led to a world where powerful men, deserving or not, would burn it all down.
What I didnt expect, and dont think I could have foreseen, is how incredibly
cringe it would all be. I have been prepared for evil, for greed, for cruelty,
for injustice but I did not anticipate that the people in power would also be
such huge losers.
Ive always been someone who cannot tolerate embarrassment. I hate being
embarrassed more than just about any other emotion and Ive always skipped
content based on cringe humour like Meet the Parents, Borat or Nathan for You.
It makes my skin crawl and it makes the contents of my stomach try to crawl out
of my mouth. But I cannot skip world events.
Nor can I skip Musks clear desperation, even as he holds this much wealth and
power in his hands, to be thought of as cool. There are [121]endless examples
of him embarrassing himself while attempting to be funny or to gain respect.
Unfortunately, while you may be able to buy power, its impossible to buy a
good personality. Watching his Nigel-no-friends attempts to be popular, his
endless pathetic tweets that read as though they come from the brain of an
11-year-old poser, has made me start to believe we should bring back bullying.
If yet another humiliating report in the last couple of days is to be believed,
he appears even to have lost the respect of some of his gamer audience, [122]
who the report claims suspect that he may have been lying about his
achievements in hardcore gaming (cursed sentence).
Zuckerberg is a different kind of cringe but cringe all the same. His cringe
moments drip through more sparingly but, when they do, my body tries to turn
inside out at my bellybutton. His physical makeover for Maga reasons, [123]
performing music because no one will stop him, trying to [124]look cool on a
surfboard all these are extremely difficult to watch. He has been trying to
suck up to Trump, [125]going on Joe Rogans show to say society has been
“neutered” and companies need “more masculine energy”.
Putting on what is clearly a bro disguise to join the boys club and sit at the
big boy table it should feel humiliating. This came as Zuckerberg [126]rolled
back hate speech and factchecking rules at Meta, in a clear swerve to the right
before Trumps inauguration. What could be more masculine and cool than selling
out vulnerable communities and women to impress the alpha male?
Climate crises keep coming, genocides continue, women keep getting murdered,
art is being strangled to death by AI, bigotry is on the rise, social progress
is being rolled back … AND these men insist on being cringe? Its a rotten
cherry on top. This combination of evil and embarrassment is a unique horror,
one that science fiction has failed to prepare us for. The second-hand
embarrassment we have to endure gets even more potent when combined with other
modern influences on young men, like [127]Jordan Peterson and Andrew Tate.
[128]
Is Andrew Tate going to reinvent himself as a politician and save Britan [sic]
? | Arwa Mahdawi
Read more
Peterson is a big voice in mens rights well, a small Kermits voice in mens
rights and hes also an embarrassment. So much so that he has his own [129]
Know Your Meme page, which covers that time [130]he[131] [132]reportedly
retweeted an image from a fetish film, apparently believing it was a Chinese
communist “sperm extraction” facility. He deleted it shortly afterwards.
Tate is facing human trafficking charges but rose to fame as a voice for young
men, a misogynist in bad outfits who does really cool things like smoking
cigars, wearing sunnies inside and trying to drag human rights back 100 years.
Living your life to impress other men by hating women is one of the most
embarrassing things I can imagine. Looking up to any of these men for how to
live your life is even sadder.
Ive worked hard to keep these kinds of men out of my personal life, to keep
them away from me, out of my goddamn sight. Now they are in my face daily, not
only influencing the world for the worse but making me nauseous at how uncool
and pathetic they are, on top of their other sins. Its too much, I cant take
it, there needs to be a change.
Its time for us to start getting revenge on the nerds.
• Rebecca Shaw is a writer based in Sydney
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