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Billionaires Trump, Zuckerberg, and Musk join forces to crush America's enduring decency

Frederic Legrand/COMEO/shutterstock; Phatooo/shutterstock

Mark Zuckerberg brazenly mimics Elon Musk, ditching safety on its platforms, and putting Trump sycophant Dana White on its board, writes John Casey.

I keep telling everyone I know that this country will never see the likes of our 39th President Jimmy Carter again, one whose decency extended far beyond his presidency which many Americans don’t even remember.

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And to me that all fits. It makes sense that his presidency isn’t remembered — or let’s be honest, even cared about — since we elected an indecent human being as our 47th president 47 years after Carter was sworn in. In 47 years, decency was torn apart and is now being swept away.

I’ve written about it before. I really think we’ve become so selfishly insular — all about ourselves — that we don’t give a damn about anyone else. I think the root of this is social media, the way we bark our opinions like everyone gives a rat’s ass about what we say. We tear apart those we don’t understand. We hype ourselves up with pretty pictures and ceremony, in a “look at me, look at me” in an egocentric way.

When Elon Musk bought Twitter, he was prophetic in changing the name to X because what X did was basically X out all those who had different opinions than Musk’s extremism, and X’d out all those who felt marginalized. One by one, dozens by dozens left X because it was fast becoming the same horror chamber as Donald Trump’s Truth Social.

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Many went to Threads, which Meta smartly ramped up when Mark Zuckerberg saw X becoming an unmitigated and unhinged disaster. There were rules of decorum on Threads, like Facebook and Instagram, that seemed to make Meta’s social platforms less unwieldy and less crass. I dare say that many felt safer under the Meta banner. Let’s be honest, it wasn’t always perfect, but at least someone was keeping an eye on things.

But no more.

After Zuckerberg went to Mar-a-Lago on bended knee and stuck his nose up as far as he could up Trump’s fat derriere, he pulled the plug on fact-checking and hate speech and more this week on his social platforms. At the very same time, he also appointed Trump’s BFF, UFC CEO Dana White to the board of Meta. That was announced on “Fox & Friends” of course. Undoubtedly, Zuckerberg will be taking his cues from the hate-mongers at Fox moving forward.

Did you happen to see White speak on election night after Trump won? He was given one of the coveted spots, and he railed like the unhinged jerk that he is and stroked Trump’s ego. Yes, Meta not only bumped off tolerance but also elevated intolerance in just one day.

As a refresher, Meta the corporate giant behind Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, announced sweeping changes to its content moderation policies. These revisions, which strip away essential safeguards against hateful rhetoric, send a chilling message: our society no longer prioritizes decency, nor does it honor the values of inclusion and respect. Instead, it is bowing to the loudest voices of division, even at the expense of marginalized communities.

Dana White over innocent transgender individuals, for example.

At the core of these policy changes lies an insidious shift. Meta’s new guidelines explicitly allow rhetoric targeting LGBTQ+ individuals, women, and immigrants, groups already disproportionately affected by online hate speech.

Where previous policies sought to curb dehumanizing language, the revised rules now grant room for discriminatory commentary under the guise of fostering "political discourse." Um, no Mark Z. What you mean to say is that it fosters more MAGA discourse.

Joel Kaplan, Meta’s chief global affairs officer, jokingly tried to defend these changes by arguing that what can be said in Congress or on television should also be permissible on Meta’s platforms.

This rationale is as alarming as it is flawed. Comparing Meta’s platforms, global spaces accessible to billions of users, to Congress or TV networks ignores the critical role social media plays in shaping societal attitudes and behaviors. Unlike traditional media, social platforms provide an unfiltered megaphone to anyone, amplifying harmful narratives at an unprecedented scale.

One of the most egregious aspects of these changes is the explicit permission for content that excludes or insults individuals based on sex, gender, or sexual orientation. Meta’s guidelines now allow discourse advocating for the exclusion of people from restrooms, sports leagues, and health groups based on their gender identity or sexual orientation. This kind of rhetoric is not merely divisive; it’s dangerous. It provides fertile ground for the spread of misinformation and fuels the normalization of discrimination against vulnerable populations.

Even more disturbing, Meta’s policies now condone arguments that tie mental illness or abnormality to gender or sexual orientation. Such claims are not just scientifically baseless, they are harmful tools of stigmatization. By allowing these narratives to persist under the pretense of “political and religious discourse,” Meta is legitimizing bigotry and invalidating the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals and again, amplifying “MAGA discourse.”

The broader implications of these changes are staggering. They send a clear message to bad actors: hate speech and discrimination are welcome here. For marginalized communities, this translates to an increase in harassment and abuse, further eroding their sense of safety and belonging online.

This is particularly troubling for LGBTQ+ youth, who already face heightened risks of mental health challenges and suicide due to societal rejection. Allowing platforms to become breeding grounds for hate speech exacerbates these risks, undermining efforts to create supportive and inclusive environments.

See, because Zuckerberg’s nose is up Trump’s hind, he somehow forgets or doesn’t remember that droves came back to Facebook and Instagram, and logged onto Threads because many believed that it was the antithesis of Musk’s X.

Now, just as there is no gray area between X and Truth Social, there is no gray area between Trump’s bro Musk, and Zuckerberg who donated $1 million to the cash cow that is Trump’s inauguration. Now remember, the Supreme Court said that outside companies and organizations had no limit on what they could give political candidates because hindering donations is the same as hindering free speech.

My God, how the right manipulates free speech by hiding behind free speech.

Let’s be clear: This is not about free speech. It’s about accountability. Social media companies have a responsibility to create environments that uphold dignity and respect for all users. Freedom of speech does not equate to freedom from consequences, nor does it justify the proliferation of harmful content.

But it’s all a metaphor for what I talked about at the beginning — the ruining of decency. The U.S. government, led by the president of the United States also have a responsibility to create a country that upholds dignity and respect for all.

In a nutshell, all Zuckerberg did was mimic what’s about to happen to our federal government after Trump takes office. I shudder to think about how indecency will rush the shoreline and do away with the last sands of decency that will be swallowed whole, perhaps for generations to come.

Meta’s changes are more than a policy shift; they are a litmus test for the kind of society we want to build. Do we stand for respect, empathy, and inclusivity, or do we allow hate and division to dictate the terms of our discourse? The decent Carter would say “no.” And the indecent Donald Trump will say “yes.”

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