The Guardian's Rebecca Shaw has written a withering takedown of major tech CEOs including X owner Elon Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for what she describes as their embarrassing efforts to ingratiate themselves with President-elect Donald Trump.
In her column, Shaw says that the coming destruction that will be waged by the second Trump administration is being made all the more painful by the presence of Silicon Valley CEOs who appear intent on acting as his henchmen.
"I knew that one day we might have to watch as capitalism and greed and bigotry led to a world where powerful men, deserving or not, would burn it all down," she contends. What I didn’t expect, and don’t think I could have foreseen, is how incredibly cringe it would all be. I have been prepared for evil, for greed, for cruelty, for injustice – but I did not anticipate that the people in power would also be such huge losers."
ALSO READ: 'Flood the zone': NYT report reveals top Trump aide's plan to crush foes
She takes particular relish in roasting Zuckerberg for putting on a "bro disguise" and appearing on Joe Rogan's podcast to talk up the need for more "masculine energy" while at the same time tearing up Facebook's restrictions on hate speech.
"What could be more masculine and cool than selling out vulnerable communities and women to impress the alpha male?" she asks rhetorically before describing Zuckerberg and Musk's attempt to be cool as "a unique horror, one that science fiction has failed to prepare us for."
All of this leads Shaw to wonder if it's time to "bring back bullying" before concluding, "It’s time for us to start getting revenge on the nerds."