The path of least resistance

“Dry January is over, culturally,” my friend texted the other day. “People are like, ‘I pick alcohol abuse actually’.”

I agreed with this observation and thought about why for a little bit. My mind had instantly gone to Mark Zuckerberg, Meta head honcho. Ahead of Donald Trump’s Monday inauguration as US president, Zuckerberg — previously a “backer of liberal causes” — underwent somewhat of an ideological coming out, unveiling a host of measures concerning Meta that can be basically summed up as ‘anti-woke’.

I saw one person call these changes — which included scrapping fact-checkers and explicitly green-lighting the use of hate speech on Meta platforms — “theater”. I couldn’t agree less. Yes, Zuckerberg was showboating for Trump (perhaps campaigning to be his new Tech Billionaire Ass Kisser in Chief once Elon Musk gets too annoying), but I think such directives are also quite personal. Nothing was more indicative of this than this edict to Meta facilities managers: remove tampons from the men’s toilets in the company’s California, Texas and New York offices. This was accompanied by the scrapping of customisable transgender and nonbinary ‘themes’ on Meta’s Messenger chat app. Such cruel and petty details, I think, have to come from the heart, at least a little.

In 2022, Mark Zuckerberg got very into MMA. He might be 40 years of age, but anyone who has even vague acquaintance with routes into far right radicalisation and descriptions of Zuckerberg’s character (or just that of a generic US tech tsar) could smell trouble. He is a man who seeks domination (even if he believes for a greater good); who in his past, may have felt excluded or disrespected. People anecdotally say he is not awkward or insecure, as he was famously characterised in 2010’s The Social Network; he is very confident. And he wants others to recognise that he is the boss. Yes, he loves Roman emperors.

I consider Mark Zuckerberg’s rightward pivot and people giving up on Dry January as connected phenomena. They are examples, in my mind, of people choosing the easiest option presented to them right now, a capitulation to the little voice that says ‘fuck it, why bother?’

I hear this little voice a lot. Surely every human does? I suppose medieval peasants would term it the devil on one’s shoulder.