Mark Zuckerberg Hits the Road To Meet Regular Folks -- With a Few Conditions (foxbusiness.com)

Mark Zuckerberg is trying to understand America, so he's embarked on a journey to meet people like hockey moms and steelworkers who don't typically cross his path. But there are rules to abide by if you are an ordinary person about to meet an extraordinary entrepreneur. From a report: Rule One: You probably won't know Mr. Zuckerberg is coming. Rule Two: If you do know he's coming, keep it to yourself. Rule Three: Be careful what you reveal about the meeting. While the Facebook CEO has built a social network that inspired people around the world to share the most intimate details about their personal lives, his team goes to extraordinary lengths to keep his movements under wraps and control how he is perceived. Midway through a "personal challenge" to travel to 30 states he'd never visited, the 33-year old aims "to talk to more people about how they're living, working and thinking about the future," he wrote in January on his Facebook page. Among those people was Kyle McKasson, manager of the Wilton Candy Kitchen, a century-old shop on the town square in Wilton, Iowa. He was at work one Monday afternoon in June when two men and a woman dressed in jeans and button-down shirts entered the store, which is a regular stop on Iowa's presidential campaign circuit.

Comments

What a pompous ass

[Anonymous Coward]

"Meet regular folks". Yeah, you're the moron living in an ivory tower dude. Just fuck off and leave us alone.

Re:What a pompous ass

[ranton]

"Meet regular folks". Yeah, you're the moron living in an ivory tower dude. Just fuck off and leave us alone.

There is a real problem in this country where people stay within their own "bubble", whether that is a liberal elite bubble or rural American bubble or whatever. Making a concerted effort to reach outside of those bubbles is a good thing and not something which should be criticized. You may criticize the method used to reach out if you feel it is ineffective, but deriding the entire idea of reaching out to people in different socioeconomic and cultural circumstances is hopelessly ignorant of this issue in our society.

Re:What a pompous ass

[phantomfive]

He's planning on running for office. If Trump can do it, why can't he?
Sadly, I can't disagree with that argument.

Re:What a pompous ass

[Anonymous Coward]

rural American bubble

The rural American bubble? What sort of imaginary nonsense is that? The rest of the planet has — as its mission — the duty to keep any such bubble from ever forming. There is no form of media from printed news to Facebook, foreign or domestic, broadcast or otherwise, that doesn't hesitate to shit on the deplorables of rural America. Nothing. It is simply impossible to come anywhere near any form of published or syndicated media and not immediately know what a irredeemable pile of excrement you are as a bitter, clinging rural American. To the extent that a "rural American bubble" could possibly be theorized to exist it must be as a manifestation of being the only class or strata of people in the nation that can be openly hated without consequence, and only group of people responsible for their own condition.

Re:What a pompous ass

[cayenne8]

I'd rather have a few drinks with Keith Richards....while we still have him.

Re: What a pompous ass

[saloomy]

I'm sorry, but if you think someone who founded a $300B company in 10 years before he was 30 to be "regular folk", sho me someone extraordinary. He learned Chinese and did after all, bring the worlds people together, reconnected old friends, and helped spread information into populations under total Ian regime rule. He isn't regular, he leads an incredibly productive life, and helping him understand the plight of people less successful, and fortunate, than him; if not for his money and how he could spend it philanthropically but also for his ability to solve problems. Jealous much?

Re: What a pompous ass

[Anonymous Coward]

No...someone else wrote the code. He's no different than Trump...marketing, salesmanship, etc.

Re: What a pompous ass

[WrongMonkey]

sho me someone extraordinary

Most people have some special talent. Some people are good at math. Some people can run fast. Some people are good cooks. Some people are funny. Some people are sensitive and caring. The fact that Zuckerberg's particular set of talents happen to be financially lucrative does not automatically make him more extraordinary than anyone else with a different set of talents. In fact, our society's obsession with financial success above all else will probably be its downfall.

Re: What a pompous ass

[Anonymous Coward]

Ripping off someone else's idea and learning a foreign language makes you a visionary now? Call me when he comes up with something novel.

Being rich doesn't mean you're worth anything; if he'd never have been born we'd still have a MyBook, FaceSpace InterSphere or whatever. If he wants to spend his money helping people then why not lobby for tax reform so that people like him have to pay their fair share in the first place?

Be careful what you reveal about the meeting

[turkeydance]

or what?

Re:Be careful what you reveal about the meeting

[DontBeAMoran]

Or he'll make unwanted connections to your Facebook account that will make the CIA flag you as a potential terrorist?

Rule 4:

[John Jorsett]

Make no eye contact. Rule 5: Under no circumstances touch Mr. Zuckerberg. Rule 6: Do not speak unless Mr. Zuckerberg speaks to you first. Rule 7: When dismissed, leave as quickly as possible.

Re:Don't talk about the Mark Zuckerberg meeting

[Digital Avatar]

1. The first rule of Zuck Club is you do not talk about Zuck Club.
2. The second rule of Zuck Club is YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT ZUCK CLUB.
3. Third rule of Zuck Club: Someone yells 'fascist!', 'racist!', or 'bigot!', that argument is over.
4. Fourth rule: Only two sides to an argument.
5. Fifth rule: One argument at a time, fellas.
6. Sixth rule: No hate speech, no hatred.
7. Seventh rule: Arguments will go on until the fascist admits defeat.
8. And the eighth and final rule: If this is your first night at Zuck Club, you have to argue.

Mischief. Mayhem. Rigging the narrative. ZUCK CLUB.

Coming to an election near you, 2018. Rated PC-13(88).

A Gentle Creature

[tylersoze]

I don't know I've liked what I've seen so far.

http://www.somethingawful.com/...

why?

[jm007]

some kid gets lucky with an app and becomes rich; sure, maybe he's a good programmer, dunno, but by far the majority of his financial success is from luck; good for him, no grudge on my end and maybe I could learn something from how it all happened

so why does he get special air time for anything outside of that? our society has a strange way of giving folks who've done something of note in one area a free pass in other areas for which they have no credentials

for example, asking an actor who they recommend for president..... really? someone who is good at pretending to be somebody else is now someone we should listen to about such weighty issues? sure, they *might* be a pundit of sorts but that credibility has to be earned outside of them being famous for acting

similar to how we pedestalize sports and entertainment figures and report on their every mouth fart on topics far outside playing with a ball or singing and dancing

if he had not become rich/famous at 20-ish and was just another programmer at some XYZ corp.... would he be listened to as intently by an eager reporter? has he enough life experience to run his mouth intelligently on anything? so since he DID get rich/successful while very young, and lived in a rich-guy bubble since then wherein his posse constantly cups his balls, do you think he's lived the kind of life to qualify as someone to be taken seriously outside of any of that?

he's still a child, stunted by not having to live his critical 20's dealing with regular-guy shit like the rest of us; if he's got something important to say to me, it'll have to be done while NOT riding on the coat tails of his super-lucky app success