It certainly is polarizing.
Sorry, didn't mean to create any conflict. Actually, my negative association the 'the Z man' had nothing to do with politics. Obviously today, Mr Z is a very controversial figure in American politics, but didn't start out that way.
No, some >25 years ago Facebook started as a very new concept providing everyone with digital space to meet, greet, share & update friends, family and both new & old acquaintances with real-time events, thoughts, prayers, etc - Todays it's referred to as simply 'social media'.
Back then, lots of people joined, including myself. In its beginning, there was nothing political and certainly not manipulative about Facebook. Heck, I had hundreds of Facebook 'friends' sharing all manner of life happenings, thoughts, sure some opinion, but just friendly stuff we freely chatted 'bout.
Mr Z seemed happy to provide this new computer based social function as a positive tool for everyone's benefit - Strengthing person relationships and broadening mutual understanding. Really talked up the social benefits of this open media for the common man/woman..
Well, all that common good came to a screaching halt when we saw how Mr Z did Facebook's Initial Public Offering or IPO. We understand these new startup companies must attract venture capital and those 'insiders' are expected to get advantaged treatments when a successful business goes public.
However, Mr Z structured his IPO in a way that exclusively benefited himself and a few hundred insiders, at the expense of 'the common people' his application was said to benefit.
I saw this IPO was clearly very poorly structured with an impossible initial pricing so we didn't participate. Sadly, MANY did - Bloomberg's estimate is that retail inventors lost some $650 million in Facebook's IPO.
Gotta say that I felt terrible about my posting of hundreds of pictures and thousands of lines of FREE content on Facebook. Heck, that I had in some small way contributed to a financial disaster for thousands of individuals, while greatly enriching Mr Z and a few hundred of his insiders - Puke!!
Sure, today 'Meda' Facebook's actual company's name remains a favorite big-tech stock, that many have both done financially well or not. But IMO, Mr Z's current dark political reputation was signaled long ago with his IPO's original design.
Sorry, probably shouldn't dwell on my 'Z man' rant - It's a story from long ago, in a now far away place..
Cheers