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   JA Westenberg (daojoan@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jan-2025 22:24:33 JST JA Westenberg

   Remember that kid in high school who would suddenly discover a deep passion for whatever music the popular crowd was into that week?

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     JA Westenberg (daojoan@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jan-2025 22:24:31 JST JA Westenberg

     in reply to

     This isn’t cynicism on my part — it’s pattern recognition.

     Meta’s behavior follows a simple path:
     • Detect where power is concentrated
     • Align with that power
     • Profit

     It’s not news that Meta does this — it’s news that anyone ever expected different.

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     JA Westenberg (daojoan@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jan-2025 22:24:32 JST JA Westenberg

     in reply to

     Don’t get me wrong; Dana White is an appalling figure and Meta’s obsequiousness in the face of moral bankruptcy is distasteful.

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     JA Westenberg (daojoan@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jan-2025 22:24:32 JST JA Westenberg

     in reply to

     But the surprising part is that any of this has come as a surprise.
     It’s as if progressives genuinely believed Meta’s previous embrace of progressive causes reflected conviction rather than careful calculation.

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     JA Westenberg (daojoan@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jan-2025 22:24:32 JST JA Westenberg

     in reply to

     Imagine an alternate 2025 where Kamala Harris won the presidency. Would Meta be hiring conservative pundits and scaling back content moderation? Of course not.

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     JA Westenberg (daojoan@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jan-2025 22:24:32 JST JA Westenberg

     in reply to

     They’d be announcing expansive DEI initiatives, hosting climate change awareness campaigns, and Mark Zuckerberg would probably be spotted wearing a “The Future is Female” t-shirt while doing his morning surfing routine.

     mark and Rich Felker repeated this.
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     JA Westenberg (daojoan@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jan-2025 22:24:33 JST JA Westenberg

     in reply to

     Meta is essentially that kid, except instead of switching between pop-punk and indie rock, they’re pivoting between political ideologies with billion-dollar implications.

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     JA Westenberg (daojoan@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jan-2025 22:24:33 JST JA Westenberg

     in reply to

     The surprise over Meta’s rightward pivot — from hiring Dana White (who has a history of domestic violence) to quietly dismantling fact-checking programs — reveals a blindness in progressive thinking.

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     JA Westenberg (daojoan@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jan-2025 22:59:11 JST JA Westenberg

     in reply to

     The current conservative tilt isn’t betrayal any more than a weathervane “betrays” the west wind by pointing east when the wind changes. Meta is simply doing what Meta has always done: following the money.

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     JA Westenberg (daojoan@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jan-2025 22:59:11 JST JA Westenberg

     in reply to

     When the political winds inevitably shift back toward progressivism (as American political cycles suggest they will), Meta will pivot too. They’ll release statements about “recommitting to our values” and “listening to our community.”

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     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jan-2025 22:59:11 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     @Daojoan Our job is to ensure they won't because they'll be dead by then. Make this turn towards offering up tutorials on recommended types of hate speech fatal to the company.

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     JA Westenberg (daojoan@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jan-2025 22:59:12 JST JA Westenberg

     in reply to

     Corporations of this scale don’t have ideologies; they have quarterly earnings targets. The progressive policies Meta championed in the past weren’t expressions of moral conviction — they were expressions of META stock price optimization.

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     JA Westenberg (daojoan@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jan-2025 22:59:36 JST JA Westenberg

     in reply to

     And maybe, just maybe, we can finally stop being surprised when corporations act like corporations.

     That is to say, moral vacuums with an affinity for politically themed cosplay.

     Rich Felker repeated this.
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     Pēteris Krišjānis (peteriskrisjanis@toot.lv)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jan-2025 22:59:36 JST Pēteris Krišjānis

     in reply to

     @Daojoan I agree with all you just said, however it feels the first time corpos openly bend a knee to aggressive political posture, instead of relegating it to the PR department.
     I know context matters as well, majority of these corpos have made incredibly wasteful bets and will see reckoning soon, so boards and CEOs are playing survival there.

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     JA Westenberg (daojoan@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jan-2025 22:59:37 JST JA Westenberg

     in reply to

     But the reality is — this is what we’ve got. Grey faced corporations alternating between rainbow body paint and the lash.

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     JA Westenberg (daojoan@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jan-2025 22:59:37 JST JA Westenberg

     in reply to

     The true lesson here isn’t about Meta at all — it’s about the stories we tell ourselves about corporations. When they align with our values, we want to believe they share our convictions. But they don’t share convictions — they share incentives.

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     JA Westenberg (daojoan@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jan-2025 22:59:37 JST JA Westenberg

     in reply to

     The next time Meta (or any tech giant) makes a grand gesture toward progressive causes, remember this moment. Remember that the same algorithm that made them turn right will make them turn left again. The weathervane hasn’t developed a conscience — it’s just detected a new wind.

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     JA Westenberg (daojoan@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jan-2025 22:59:38 JST JA Westenberg

     in reply to

     Progressives will celebrate. LinkedIn will flood with rainbow logos. And nothing fundamental will have changed.

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     JA Westenberg (daojoan@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jan-2025 22:59:38 JST JA Westenberg

     in reply to

     This is the core trap: mistaking algorithmic behavior for moral behavior. Meta isn’t moral or immoral — it’s amoral. Expecting ethical consistency from Meta is like expecting ethical consistency from a calculator. It’s category error all the way down.

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     JA Westenberg (daojoan@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 08-Jan-2025 22:59:38 JST JA Westenberg

     in reply to

     You can argue back and forth about whether corporations have a responsibility to become moral agents. I can certainly argue that aligning with a political force intent on trashing the planet is hardly an intelligent strategy for Meta’s long-term shareholder value.