Passionfruit newsletter: Musk and Zuckerberg pull a page from Putin’s playbook
Issue #159 | August 15, 2023
Back in July 2022, amid an ongoing Dogecoin racketeering lawsuit and a court battle over the future of Twitter, Elon Musk took a little getaway to Mykonos on a $20,000-per-week luxury yacht. When topless photos of the richest man in the world were leaked by paparazzi, the internet ruthlessly fat-shamed him and bullied him for his pale skin.
The moment harkened back to the July 2020 beach days of Mark Zuckerberg, who was caught by paparazzi with a ghostly face full of white sunscreen and looking like a little kid slathered in sunscreen by his mom. The photos came amid an ongoing lawsuit and advertiser exodus over allegations of Facebook’s “failure on racial issues,” and they probably did not provide the portrayal of seriousness and strength Zuckerberg was hoping for at that moment.
If recent events are any evidence, neither billionaire forgot how the internet made them feel.
In June 2023, they announced they were interested in displaying their physical prowess in an MMA-style cage match—once again making summer headlines for things other than their ongoing lawsuits and advertising woes. This week, they are reigniting media interest with a heated, manly debate about whether or not they will actually get shirtless and fight each other. Over the weekend, Zuckerberg said it probably isn’t going to happen because Musk isn’t “serious” enough about the full-contact sport of mixed martial arts, while Musk announced last night he wanted to show up uninvited to Zuckerberg’s home to settle the duel.
On the surface, the battle of the pale middle-aged billionaires is just a bizarre, dystopian meme. But it’s also a tried and true method to change the narrative. To better understand why, I’d like to direct you to some notoriously ridiculous, hyper-manly, shirtless pictures of Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin that went viral in 2017. ...
– Grace Stanley, Newsletter Editor
In Today's Newsletter:
- Lil Tay Hoax Hysteria Proves You Shouldn’t Believe Everything You Read
- We Talked to the Creator Who Made Gucci Mane’s Viral ‘Woppenheimer’ Art
- The Try Guys Are Ready for Their ‘F*ck It, Let’s Do What We Want’ Era
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