1. Your point about signal and noise is accepted in principle. 2. However, the relational database which FB has built is “unparalleled in human history” in its scope for surveilling the world. 3. The dictators I name would undoubtedly have been very satisfied to use it. 4. Schmuck is name-calling. But as far as schmuck means contemptible, it’s true. In the race to the bottom to build a low friction, high addiction monopoly social network, Facebook and Zuckerberg are the undisputed kings of the jungle.

When the signal is obfuscated by a massive PR and lobbying exercise, then sometimes cutting through that noise to call a spade a spade - or in this case a Zuck a schmuck, is indeed the correct response. I hope this is not a flamewar, but instead see it as my pointing out that metaphor and comparison are rhetorical devices to draw attention to wider truths, and I think that’s fair.