Post #158191

2026-01-26 16:03 UTC

Ohhhh. It all makes sense now. Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr points out that Trump's trade shenanigans are all part of a long history of US enshittificaton of the international trade system, for all the same reasons as Facebook's and YouTube's decline. Who would have thought that an international trade system could be vulnerable to enshittificaton? It turns out that it breeds in the shadows of all kinds of monopoly. https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/26/i-dont-want/#your-greenback-dollar

Replies (3)

@Flisty@mstdn.social 2026-01-26 18:32

@qole @pluralistic on the same theme, Ed Zitron has just done a piece on how enshittification has moved up to the next step into the stock markets. He hasn't mastered the art of succinct writing but TL;DR - the US stock bubble is propped up by tech stocks and none of the analysts have any motivation to be honest with their analyses. https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-enshittifinancial-crisis/

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@rudiboo@mastodon.social 2026-01-26 18:46

@qole @pluralistic The enshittification is baked into the system. With unlimited growth necessary, it's crazy how this wasn't obvious to more people from the beginning. We have to keep getting squeezed for their business to survive.

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@hakona@im.alstadheim.no 2026-01-26 21:39

@qole A functioning society (i.e. one that adds real value compared to a "rugged individualism" ) is dependent on *trust*. Trust needs trustworthiness. Enshittification is at its core *abuse of trust*. The platonic ideal of a limited liability company says the shareholders own a stake in a going concern, reaping dividends of the value created. Then people start gambling on *future earnings*. Then insiders start abusing the model. I'd say that’s textbook enshittification. @pluralistic

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