… so much BUSINESS is always how I’ve looked at it. There are only so many exploitable resources left in the world and “economies of scale” is really the new “old growth forest” or “westward expansion” in terms of being able to find a new thing to sell to people. And the old snake oil tricks still work in this frontier so you see a lot of coercive tactics and a lot of aggressive business-ing all wrapped up in the trappings of upstarts and underdogs.

The internet, and the web, stopped being owned by the freaks and geeks and queers and started being owned (though usually not governed by…) businesses who were intent on extracting surplus value from it. And that scenario rarely results in decreased inequality because it necessitates an underclass to even function. We can only buy our things from Amazon’s if we don’t have to think too hard about the terrible working conditions of the people who work there, to say nothing about the people building our phones and moderating our comments.

Appreciated your rant, it mirrors one of my own.