Post #4169316
2026-01-14 00:46 UTC
Replies (1)
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@dialecticalmusings@app.wafrn.net 2026-01-14 00:59
@lina@mastodon.catgirl.cloud @atax1a@infosec.exchange To be fair: Doctorow’s book and articles and blog posts sketch a terrifying and accurate picture of how capitalism is using the internet for exploiting people “every instant” “everywhere”. The ability to insert computers and cameras and a bewildering array of sensors in factories, offices, departmental stores, farms, vehicles, public places, and homes; and in everyday things like refrigerators, cradles, televisions, tractors, etc.; has enabled giant monopoly corporations to relentlessly exploit people—as workers, as consumers, as petty producers. This documentation is the most valuable part of Doctorow’s work. To his credit, he also tries to analyze the political economy of the internet ecosystem, something that most celebrants and skeptics of the internet fail to do. However, as I pointed out earlier, Doctorow’s analysis has no awareness of how over 80% of the world population, residing in the global south, fits into this picture of “enshittification”. He argues that a “competitive market”, with sound regulatory guardrails, existed in the USA roughly until the 1970s, and was then dismantled; this eventually culminated in the enshittification of every aspect of life we see today. Doctorow’s proposed remedies boil down to bringing back this “competitive market” capitalism. Unfortunately for Doctorow, there is ample historical documentation showing that actually existing capitalism never resembled this mythical "competitive market" beast.