Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta, recently appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast to lament the absence of “masculine energy” in the corporate world.
“I think a lot of the corporate world is pretty culturally neutered,” Zuckerberg said during his nearly three-hour conversation with Rogan, adding, “Masculine energy is good, and obviously, society has plenty of that, but I think corporate culture was really trying to get away from it.” Zuckerberg continued, “I think having a culture that celebrates the aggression a bit more has its own merits that are really positive.”
It’s unclear what, exactly, Zuckerberg meant by this. Men dominate most high-paying and high-status fields. A large majority of high-level corporate executives, from vice presidents and senior vice presidents to C.E.O.s and C.F.O.s, are men. In the world of Silicon Valley — that is to say, Zuckerberg’s world — women remain a minority. About 25 percent of tech jobs are held by women, and according to a 2021 report, a scant 4.7 percent of companies in the Silicon Valley 150 have a woman as chief executive, compared with the roughly 6 percent of companies in the S&P 500 that can say the same.
If, even as a small share of the work force and corporate leadership, this is so many women that it demands a return to more “masculine energy,” it would be interesting what Zuckerberg thinks is the optimal level of female employment in his industry.
But the Meta C.E.O.’s complaints of emasculation aside, I was struck — watching his interview with Rogan — by Zuckerberg’s presentation. He has grown his hair and appears to have put on a little muscle. He wore an oversize T-shirt and a gold chain. He is nearly a year past 40, but he dresses like a bro. Imagine a 22-year-old at an S.E.C. tailgate.
And consider the venue: Rogan’s podcast, where long and meandering conversations are punctuated by moments of transgression and where manhood is often held to be the celebration of that transgression.
When Zuckerberg speaks of “masculine energy” and “aggression,” he seems to be imagining the “masculinity” of an older teenager or a younger adult. The masculinity of someone unburdened by duty, obligation or real responsibility. More Jordan Belfort in “Wolf of Wall Street” than Ed Tom Bell in “No Country for Old Men.” There is no apparent interest, from either Zuckerberg or Elon Musk or anyone else bemoaning the current cultural cachet of masculinity, in cultivating an image of responsible manhood. We have a clique of powerful middle-aged men who want nothing more than to be boys.
But then this is exactly what you would expect in a country where the standard-bearer for the “return” of masculinity to the political and cultural world is Donald Trump, a selfish, petulant and narcissistic man-child who celebrates his rejection of the traditional masculine virtues of duty and restraint and who has done so for his entire career on the public stage. Trump stands for masculinity as misogyny, dominance, exploitation and — as per Zuckerberg — aggression.
More concretely, Zuckerberg and like-minded tech moguls have direct material interests in cultivating Trump’s good favor by performing his brand of manhood. Meta, for instance, wants to undermine its competitors, suppress regulation and free itself from the threat of antitrust enforcement. Other tech billionaires want to leverage state power to secure their investments in artificial intelligence, ahead of a potential collapse in the value of A.I. stocks. If the bubble pops, they want Uncle Sam — and thus the American taxpayer — to be the one holding the bag. Their pose and presentation, then, are all obviously strategic.
And yet it is all still a sign of the times — of a broad move toward something ugly and profane. “How easily men may be corrupted,” Machiavelli observed, “and how they may transform themselves and give themselves a completely different nature, no matter how good and well educated they may be.”
This may not be exactly true of Zuckerberg and the others — I’m not sure that they have merely begun to be, to borrow from Machiavelli again, “friends of tyranny for the little bit of profit it provided them” — but it is undoubtedly true of those who have and will contort themselves for Trump in search of some advantage for themselves.
What I Wrote
I wrote about all the ways Trump’s second-term agenda seems to be a recapitulation of many of the worst parts of America in the 19th century.
Imposing tariffs, expanding territory, a new Mexican war and a traditional vision of the American people — these are what the nation needs, Trump says, to be “great again.” In which case, MAGA cannot possibly refer to anything in the 20th century, when the United States essentially built the modern international order, as much as it must refer to some time in the 19th century, when the United States was a more closed and insular society: a second-rate nation whose economy was far smaller and less prosperous than our own.
Now Reading
Lila Shapiro on Neil Gaiman for New York magazine’s Vulture:
Sexual abuse is one of the most confusing forms of violence that a person can experience. The majority of people who have endured it do not immediately recognize it as such; some never do. “You’re not thinking in a linear or logical fashion,” Pavlovich says, “but the mind is trying to process it in the ways that it can.” Whatever had happened in the bath, she’d been through worse and survived, she thought.
Rebecca Shaw on the tech moguls for The Guardian:
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 didn’t expect, and don’t 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.
Andrea Pitzer on resisting the new administration for her Beehiiv newsletter:
But in the meantime, don’t just stand there waiting to get hit. We need to get ourselves and as many people as possible off the tracks, whether it’s immigrants, protesters or civil servants. A lot of people have been working to get free already and just need a little backup. Others are still in deep danger or have fewer options. In each case, we need to act now.
Brett Murphy on how President Biden’s State Department allowed Israel to get away with atrocities in Gaza, for ProPublica:
Time and again, Israel crossed the Biden administration’s red lines without changing course in a meaningful way, according to interviews with government officials and outside experts. Each time, the U.S. yielded and continued to send Israel’s military deadly weapons of war, approving more than $17.9 billion in military assistance since late 2023, by some estimates. The State Department recently told Congress about another $8 billion proposed deal to sell Israel munitions and artillery shells.
Samantha Hancox-Li on failed blue state governance for Liberal Currents:
It is sometimes said that Democrats don’t have the political will to spend money to solve social problems. But money is not the problem. Los Angeles voters appropriated billions of dollars to build housing for the homeless; you only need to look around to see that it hasn’t solved the problem. The California Legislature appropriated $300 million for first-time home buyers, a fund that was depleted in fewer than two weeks by fewer than 3,000 people. In New York City, the Second Avenue subway extension project, underway since 2016, is estimated to cost more than $6 billion — for about a mile and a half of subway. Money is not the problem. We spend enormous amounts of money to get nothing. An unwillingness to do what’s necessary to turn that money into results is the problem.
Photo of the Week
This is just a cool sign I saw while walking around downtown Memphis last year.
Now Eating: Kale Soup With Potatoes and Sausage
It is cold, and I would like to eat soup. That is the extent of my commentary here. Recipe is from the Cooking section of the New York Times.
Ingredients
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1 pound linguiça, or uncured Spanish chorizo, sliced into ⅛-inch-thick coins
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1 large onion, peeled and chopped
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2 large baking potatoes, peeled and cut into ¼-inch cubes
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1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
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1 ½ bunches kale, stemmed and coarsely chopped (about 6 cups)
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4 cups chicken broth, homemade or low-sodium canned
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1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
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2 teaspoons kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
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Freshly ground black pepper
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3 plum tomatoes, cored and cut into ½-inch dice
Directions
Place the sausage in a large pot over medium-low heat and cook until it begins to render its fat, about 2 minutes. Add the onion and cook for 2 minutes. Add the potatoes and garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add the kale and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes longer.
Stir in the chicken broth, vinegar and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 1 hour. Season with pepper. Stir in the tomatoes and cook, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Divide among 4 bowls and serve.
The post Mark Zuckerberg’s New Bromance Is Off to a Strange Start appeared first on New York Times.
