This from @jvl.bsky.social is one of the most insightful columns about the relationship of the tech industry to politics that I've read in a long time. Very smart. It's paywalled, but you should really subscribe to Bulwark these days.
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How are people supposed to subscribe to all these newsletters, in addition to everything else offered on a subscription basis? And at a time like this when people need to be most informed? Gift the article or leave out tasteless directive to subscribe out of posts. JFC
Right, independent reporting is very splintered right now, and often highly duplicative. Legacy news is flawed but imagine if you had to pay for each article read in a single newspaper on one day?
Last's key idea is that tech investor/executive thinking is the opposite of Microecon 101 and the invisible hand. It's centered around attaining monopolies and then drawing massive profits even as you enshitify the product. You can have lots of failures as long as you have one of those "successes."
This culture looks at politics with this frame. They see their political party's natural goal as becoming a monopoly, that is, authoritarianism of some type. And they treat the government also as if it can fail most of the time. As long as you crush the opposition and become a monopoly you win.
How is it different, other than easier, in this oligarch history moment as compared to the last one? I also want to carve out some space for Old tech vs new tech. It also might be player dependent, i.e. Thiel and Elon are from the same tech tree - less inventors than businessmen. @jvl.bsky.social
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https://www.npr.org/2024/05/14/1197964565/the-winner-take-all-problem