Saturday, October 02, 2010

HBD on the big screen

It's fun to see life and art conforming to the HBD view of social reality. The script for The Social Network could have been written by someone from this corner of cyberspace. We see Internet innovation dominated by young white males. Especially Jewish ones. Not a woman or NAM in sight. But the innovators are nerds who cannot get a date until their creativity brings recognition and social status. They hit it off with smart Asian girls in particular. Ethnic differences are portrayed as well. You have high-minded, athletic WASPs and shrewd Jews. Good stuff--didn't look at my watch even once.     

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:41 AM

    From what I understand, the movie portrays Mark Zuckerberg as your basic antisocial introverted nerd, when in real life he wasn't like that at all.

    Peter

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous1:15 PM

    There was that whole issue with "ConnectU." Zuckerberg was hired by identical twin brothers at Harvard, the Winklevoss twins, who are WASPy Nordic rowers, to do the programming for a social network website they started called "ConnectU" that was like Facebook. Zuckerberg worked for them for a bit before leaving and releasing Facebook shortly thereafter. Zuckerberg allegedly copied their idea and illegally used source code intended for the website he was hired to create.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ConnectU

    As you can tell this already reads like a typical Hollywood movie with the Jewish hero and WASP/Nordic villain, and this conflict between Zuckerberg and the Winklevoss twins is part of the movie. It's not too surprising a movie was made out of this considering all the "pre-packaged" elements it has: the Jew hero, WASP villain conflict, a technology they want to promote heavily, a future oligarch they want to promote, etc.

    Aaron Sorkin, the writer of The Social Network, the new movie about Zuckerberg and Facebook, says that by the end of the movie Zuckerberg is a "tragic hero" and that most people want to "give Mark a hug" at the end:

    http://tv.gawker.com/5651081/aaron-sorkin-the-social-network-will-make-you-want-to-give-mark-zuckerberg-a-hug

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous1:17 PM

    This film is mythmaking that will serve to increase Zuckerberg's status and "legend" in the eyes of ordinary people and thus his power and influence. Guys like Gates and Jobs, both of whom started far more important and impressive enterprises, did not have Hollywood movies glorifying their lives made so early in their careers. There haven't been any major Hollywood films made about Gates or Jobs, just some TV specials. Facebook and Zuckerberg are being promoted very hard. This is the sort of kingmaking and mythmaking that we've seen before. With technology like the following being associated with Facebook, it's not too surprising that they'd pull out all the stops:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUv0GU5rfHg

    Matt Parrott had an interesting satirical piece not about Facebook but about Google that nevertheless has some important points that I think apply to Facebook as well:

    http://delightsome.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/protocols-of-the-elders-of-google/

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous4:58 PM

    ^^^Nice job copypasting comments from Mangan's blog.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You guys are kidding right?

    Zuckerberg is portrayed as a conniving awkward loser. He's not the hero at all. He's depicted as a liar and a cheat.

    The Winklevoss twins have actually praised the movie:

    http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5ijOA0uGbg-alFnDUWDbGRpZNcJJg?docId=4692814

    "They really did work hard to get this thing right and believable," Winklevoss said.

    "I feel it tells a true story of two betrayals: one being myself, Cameron and Divya, and the other, of course, between Mark and his best friend," he said. "It does lay out three perspectives of what happened. It reflects very well the public record, the ample amount of public record, the documents, the legal proceedings.

    "It is a nonfiction film."

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous11:55 PM

    You guys are kidding right?

    No. I'll take Sorkin's word for it over yours. I think he knows what he's doing.

    ReplyDelete
  7. There haven't been any major Hollywood films made about Gates or Jobs, just some TV specials.

    Did you miss Pirates of Silicon Valley?

    ReplyDelete

Are gun owners mentally ill?

  Some anti-gun people think owning a gun is a sign of some kind of mental abnormality. According to General Social Survey data, gun owners ...