‘We’ Hate Zuck Because He’s Better Than Us

Meta stock has finally crossed $300 again, as I said it would:

META up 20% today, on top of huge gains over the past month, as I said would happen. It’s going back to $350 soon. TSLA up 30% over the past month, going back to $300. TUR is still falling, also as I said would happen.

And the chart showing a perfect uninterrupted rise:

The above post was written two months ago after Meta surged 20 percent to $240/share on blowout earning; it has since gained another $60.

Meta has staged the ultimate corporate comeback. In over 14 years of tracking stocks and companies, I have never seen anything like this–from being left for dead in late 2022, or at least its best days behind it–to in just six short months resolidifying the dominance it enjoyed back in 2008-2012 after the demise of Myspace, in which the void was filled by the duo of Facebook and Instagram (the latter which was acquired by Facebook in 2012). With TikTok on the down-swing and at risk of being blocked in the US (and not being very profitable, at that), Meta now has almost a total grip on social networking between its major properties, those being Instagram, WhatsApp, and of course, Facebook, in addition to progress and gains in AI and VR.

And then over the weekend, in response to Musk’s boneheaded move to throttle tweet-reading to save bandwidth costs, angering many Twitter users, pounced on his rival’s unforced error to launch a competitor to Twitter, Threads.

Additionally, Meta is very profitable, excluding Metaverse losses, unlike the vast majority of social network, such as Twitter. Meta has super-expensive mobile ads for high-paying niches that that target the deep-pocketed boomer and gen-x demographics, such as ads for healthcare, annuities, insurance, and wealth management, paid for by multinationals.

In terms of politics, the right’s antipathy towards Mr. Zuckerberg does not make much sense. Politically, he’s more of a moderate or a left-centrist, similar to Warren Buffett. He checks the boxes on the basic ‘blue’ issues, but he’s far from radicalized. I can think of far more worthy targets of such focused derision. On the political axis, someone like Bernie Sanders sits way to the left of Mr. Zuckerberg, even on social issues. The online rivalry with Mr. Musk, which may turn physical if all goes according to plan, is likely a contributing factor too: the new owner of one the 12-the or so websites in the worlds has sicced its 400 plus million users on him.

It’s not that Zuck is merely an avatar of liberal politics, but that also he’s better than you. And worst of all, this is not an entirely unfounded or inaccurate assertion or claim. We can dismiss many of our rivals as being demonstrably inferior or in some way defective, such as being poor, not that smart, obese or decrepit , having messy personal lives, etc.–but not him. He’s not some adjunct or intern journalist writing for pennies, or begging for reviews or kissing ass in order to keep his or her job. He’s one of the richest people in the world, smart enough to create (or steal, depending on who you ask) Facebook, and now ‘ripped’ and can kick your butt, too. And he’s calling the shots, whether it’s Facebook/Meta or politics. It seems like he enjoys a high degree of autonomy and fun, like MMA sparring, not that he’s encumbered by having to do the bidding for some shadow global elite, like Soros, who is 90 and looks every year of it. Or Epstein, whose life was abruptly ended when he became too much of liability.

In the end, he confirms that at least some of our elite may actually be cut from a better cloth compared to every else, and seem to have better lives overall. It’s not like these people are just arbitrarily chosen for leadership roles or power, but really are our ‘betters’ as much as we may hate their politics.