Telling Photos from the Mark Zuckerberg Presidential Campaign Trail | Hacker News Reader

Telling Photos from the Mark Zuckerberg Presidential Campaign Trail

observer.com

38 pointsmoonka31 comments

Zuckerberg has the charisma of a damp rag, he'll embarrass himself if he actually runs for president. Clinton had experience and all the data in the world thanks to Eric Schmidt and still lost to a novice because she lacked any charisma at all.

The fact he thinks corny stuff like this actually makes him more relatable to the average american really says it all about how out of touch he is.

Could you explain further?

I was very impressed with his ability to learn Chinese and speak it semi-formally in a room filled with Chinese. I think that showed a certain charisma.

I'm not personally a fan of him and I agree that this stuff is representative of being out of touch, yet this behavior does win elections.

I think he would actually be a decent centrist (Obama-style) candidate. He's mildly progressive (not full out Bernie) has no serious negative legacy (this imperfect pledge to run a mile a day stuff is a non-starter) like HRC.

The reason trump was successful is because he didn't apologize for being rich. On the other end you have hillary clinton pouring beer terribly and spending hours planning which meal to get a chipotle to appeal to the most voters. People aren't dumb and they see right through that type of stuff.

As for charisma nearly every interview I've seen of him has been painfully awkward and it's pretty hard to learn something like that.

On paper he's a great candidate, but on paper nobody thought Trump would make it past the Iowa primaries and now he's in the white house.

Trump was successful not because he was unapologetic for being rich, but rather because he said things that a large plurality of voters wanted to hear and was able to win states that gave him a big victory in electoral college votes. The only people who didn't think he had a chance are those who cannot hear or understand those voters, and what's disturbing about that is that inability to understand those voters is supposed to somehow delegitimize his victory.

What delegitimizes him is that he is a notorious lier.

I think he's not there yet, but he has decades to change his persona. If he starts to distance himself from facebook and spend more time on charity over the next decade, he could easily become a Gates level international philanthropist by the time he's 50. If he wants to parlay that into a prestige position like President (a move many thought infeasible until the last year or so) I could see a practical path toward a run. It's anybody's guess as to what it actually takes to win the presidency these anymore.

>he'll embarrass himself if he actually runs for president..

I think you are underestimating the power of facebook (& fake news). He has money (64 billion USD) & he controls media (44 percent of all adults get their news from Facebook). he has already won, keep watching.

Totally agree with you on his image. At this point, I think it would take, at the very least, tens of millions of dollars and use of a platform through which his message could reach an audience of hundreds of millions to overcome, and no one seems to have an answer as to how Mark Zuckerberg is going to be able to swing that.

He would/will get slaughtered. The guy lives in a bizarro world, surrounded by a legion of handlers and yes-men. I strongly believe that history will be very, very unkind to him.

Replace "he" with Trump and I would've agreed with you 6 months ago.

Now imagine Zuckerberg 2020 VS Trump 2020. Who has better chances?

I'd have my money on Waldo 2020, much more loveable

This is a stark contrast to what people felt was going to happen when Trump announced he was running. How could Mark Zuckerberg possibly win the presidency? All he has behind him is control of one of the most widely used information dissemination platforms in the world and billions of dollars.

"In regards to finding a family to visit, the local newspaper The Vindicator reported he asked his staff to find Democrats who voted for Donald Trump."

No doubt an easy task using GraphQL or whatever more powerful version they have internally.

I keep saying this to anyone who will listen — I doubt very much that he's interested in running for anything. As CEO of Facebook, if he's not as powerful as a US president yet, he very well might be in 5 or 10 years. He hinted in his globalization "manifesto"[1] that he wants Facebook to become what the UN could not be. I recommend everyone read it in full, as well as some critical commentaries.[2][3][4]

If anything, it's much scarier to think he sees this as a necessary part of his job as Facebook CEO.

[1] https://www.facebook.com/notes/mark-zuckerberg/building-glob...

[2] https://medium.com/@CharlieBeckett/facebook-grappling-with-p...

[3] http://www.roughtype.com/?p=7651

[4] https://stratechery.com/2017/manifestos-and-monopolies/

I completely agree. I think people like Zuck and Gates are better off doing work via the private sector and philanthropy.

Also, regarding the types of people he's meeting. Yes, they are people one would expect a politician to meet with while campaigning. However, given our past election I don't think it's surprising that a man as intelligent as Zuck would want to meet them. He seems to genuinely care in his mission statement, even though I believe he's out of touch, and this tour does truly make sense as it is stated.

Does anyone have any information on what his political views actually are? I assume he'd run as a Democrat but that provides me with little comfort given his history.

Please don't consider the facts-loose movie based on the tabloid hit piece as history. It's a great movie, but it intentionally washes the story out in ways make the characters look absolutely horrible.

I highly recommend The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick. It's a great read and a far more accurate book on the history of Facebook and who Mark Zuckerberg really is. https://www.amazon.com/Facebook-Effect-Inside-Company-Connec...

I'm not concerned about any arbitrary depiction in a movie (The Social Network?), I take issue with the move fast and break things attitude taken by the platform he created regarding news distribution, privacy, individual liberties, and mental health.

I'm as big of a critic of the implications of social networking as anybody, but:

> news distribution

Increased people's ability to share news with their friends.

> privacy

Made changes to give users nearly complete control over it (outside of the very legitimate concerns around advertising targeting, but does anyone really think running a successful advertising company disqualifies someone to be president?)

> individual liberties

Hasn't yet formed a paramilitary group of SA-like jack booted thugs to hit opponents with billy clubs, confiscate their guns, and replace their health insurance with death panels.

> and mental health

Is working on hiring more staff to deal with suicide intervention issues, which they have to do either way because the police ultimately get involved and start issuing subpoenas, and it's illegal to not respond to valid subpoenas in a timely fashion.

> Increased people's ability to share news with their friends.

So they can now share a filter bubble. Also, the US 2016 Election debacle followed by a push to become the arbiter of truth on the internet (after significant complaint and shaming from users)

> Made changes to give users nearly complete control over it

After significant complaint and shaming from users.

> does anyone really think running a successful advertising company disqualifies someone to be president?

I do? I'd prefer someone with his skill level in solving the worlds problems, not telling the world about how he's solving them.

> Hasn't yet formed a paramilitary group

I'm not arguing they're using physical violence. They're an ad company.

> Is working on hiring more staff to deal with suicide intervention issues

After significant complaint and shaming from users.

Notice a trend? I've watched them exploit people over the past decade. I don't like what facebook has done to my more vulnerable friends. Elected office is the same deal, only you (inexplicably) get to ignore the public outcry every time you screw up.

he's pushing for immigration and criminal justice reform: https://www.fwd.us

Imagine what our country would look like if the guy who owns every bit of people's digital legacy and information is now running the country of people who depend on his services? Now imagine if someone like Trump, who appears just a bit upset anytime he is criticized, had access to everyone's Facebook account in this country and others?

Just my two cents but, would anyone truly believe that Zuck has the public's best interest in mind? If so, what if his interpretation of the public's best interest is built around a growing dependence on platforms he's created?

I get that the whole thing smells like overpolished PR, but personally I think it's a neat idea and more power to him for just getting out there and meeting so many people.

I will believe this is a genuine and earnest attempt to connect with people, because what other options do you think he really has?

It's all too easy to find some way to criticize his actions: Meet with Kids? - FB shouldn't and doesn't target kids for privacy reasons. He's the CEO of the most massive and influential social media company, he'd better do more than just sit behind a computer, but he also can't spend all his time socializing either.

According to wikipedia facebook has 17,048 employees. Couldn't he have chosen 50 of those instead ?

All 17,048 employees are in the same open-plan office. Wouldn't be much of a tour.

I meant that he could easily find one from every different state there. Not much of a tour indeed but it would fulfill the objective he set himself.

People who move out to California to work at Facebook are very far away from a representative sample of the country.

Corporate CEO goes on cross-country tour to show "regular folk" how relatable he is.

Barf. What shit "news".

I don't think anyone wants him to run... and he's young. 2020 he'd be barely old enough to be on the ballot. Lots of time left...

I think this is some sort of weird "I'm a billionaire and I make money by selling your secrets, here let me show you pictures of me doing human things so you won't think I'm creepy" tour.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com