Do we need more 'masculine energy' at work?

Mark Zuckerberg wants to celebrate aggression but his suggestion that office life has become less competitive is nonsense.

- Jo Ellison

Mr Mark Zuckerberg wants to unleash more testosterone in the workplace. Speaking on The Joe Rogan Experience recently, the Meta chief executive set out his vision. "A lot of the corporate world" has become "pretty culturally neutered", he said during a near three-hour interview with the podcaster.

"Society has plenty of that, but I think... having a culture that celebrates the aggression a bit more has its own merits that are really positive." Hell yeah! Following his Lizard Person and "Wife Guy" guises, the protean Zuckerberg has now entered his Jordan Belfort era, albeit one that involves wearing a grown-out "fro" and a gold medallion (inscribed with the Jewish prayer Mi Sheberach that he sings to his daughters every evening when he tucks them into bed).

Gone is the pasty complexion of the replicant last seen testifying at the Senate; the Zuck skin is bronzed, the bod is buffed from his current obsession with martial arts. It was the study of Brazilian jiu-jitsu that apparently helped inform his chauvinistic epiphany: he told Mr Rogan that hanging out with his male friends while they "beat each other" had enabled him to redefine his relationship with masculinity. Hmm.

These latest pronouncements follow the bigger news that Meta will no longer be using fact-checkers in the US, all part of a rather craven effort to win favour with the incoming Republican regime. It's a far cry from the snivelling penitent who was last year apologising to those parents who had lost children to sexual exploitation or harassment via his social media platforms.