For Zuck's Sake

Also inside: 100 nice things, not even counting the 52 Lego bricks. (#511)

David Bauer

10 Jan 2025 — 4 min read

This is David, your non-billionaire curator who believes facts are good and hate speech is bad. Welcome to a new issue of the Weekly Filet, the newsletter that helps you make sense of what’s happening, and imagine what could be. It's great to have you.

1. Meta surrenders to the right on speech

While most coverage focused on Zuckerberg getting rid of fact checkers, I'm with Casey Newton here: The bigger issue is that Meta's platforms will allow much more harmful content to stay online – because they'd rather throw vulnerable people under the bus than curtail some MAGA guy's right to free (hate) speech. Casey quotes a former trust and safety employee: «"I can't tell you how much harm comes from non-illegal but harmful content. This is degrading, horrible content that leads to violence and that has the intent to harm other people.»

2. How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy in 53 Days

«The big joke on democracy is that it gives its mortal enemies the means to its own destruction.»

3. 100 things that made my year (2024)

Sounds like writer and artist Austin Kleon had a pretty good 2024. What I really like about this list is how hardly anything on it can be copied – and this from the guy who wrote «Steal Like An Artist»! – but how it gets you thinking what you have in your life (or what you could change) that creates the same joy.

4. Gigantic SUVs are a public health threat. Why don’t we treat them like one?

There is exactly one thing that makes me angry every single day, and I'm not exaggerating. It's the absurd prevalence of huge cars. This gets to the heart of it: «Much like secondhand smoke, driving a gigantic vehicle endangers those who never consented to the danger they face walking, biking, or sitting inside smaller cars.»