Today's links

• Monopoly is capitalism's gerrymander: Handcuffs for the invisible hand.
• Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
• This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023
• Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
• Recent appearances: Where I've been.
• Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Colophon: All the rest.

Monopoly is capitalism's gerrymander (permalink)

You don't have to accept the arguments of capitalism's defenders to take those arguments seriously. When Adam Smith railed against rentiers and elevated the profit motive to a means of converting the intrinsic selfishness of the wealthy into an engine of production, he had a point:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/28/cloudalists/#cloud-capital

Smith – like Marx and Engels in Chapter One of The Communist Manifesto – saw competition as a catalyst that could convert selfishness to the public good: a rich person who craves more riches still will treat their customers, suppliers and workers well, not out of the goodness of their heart, but out of fear of their defection to a rival:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/19/make-them-afraid/#fear-is-their-mind-killer

This starting point is imperfect, but it's not wrong. The pre-enshittified internet was run by the same people who later came to enshittify it. They didn't have a change of heart that caused them to wreck the thing they'd worked so hard to build: rather, as they became isolated from the consequences of their enshittificatory impulses, it was easier to yield to them.

Once Google captured its market, its regulators and its workforce, it no longer had to worry about being a good search-engine – it could sacrifice quality for profits, without consequence:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/#prabhakar-raghavan

It could focus on shifting value from its suppliers, its customers and its users to its shareholders:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/15/they-trust-me-dumb-fucks/#ai-search

The thing is, all of this is well understood and predicted by traditional capitalist orthodoxy. It was only after a gnostic cult of conspiratorialists hijacked the practice of antitrust law that capitalists started to view monopolies as compatible with capitalism:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/20/we-should-not-endure-a-king/

The argument goes like this: companies that attain monopolies might be cheating, but because markets are actually pretty excellent arbiters of quality, it's far more likely that if we discover that everyone is buying the same product from the same store, that this is the best store, selling the best products. How perverse would it be to shut down the very best stores and halt the sale of the very best products merely to satisfy some doctrinal reflex against big business!

To understand the problem with this argument, we should consider another doctrinal reflex: conservatives' insistence that governments just can't do anything well or efficiently. There's a low-information version of this that goes, "Governments are where stupid people who can't get private sector jobs go. They're lazy and entitled." (There's a racial dimension to this, since the federal government has historically led the private sector in hiring and promoting Black workers and workers of color more broadly.)

But beyond that racially tinged caricature, there's a more rigorous version of the argument: government officials are unlikely to face consequences for failure. Appointees and government employees – especially in the unionized federal workforce – are insulated from such consequences by overlapping layers of labor protection and deflection of blame.

Elected officials can in theory be fired in the next election, but if they keep their cheating or incompetence below a certain threshold, most of us won't punish them at the polls. Elected officials can further improve their odds of re-election by cheating some of us and sharing the loot with others, through handouts and programs. Elections themselves have a strong incumbency bias, meaning that once a cheater gets elected, they will likely get re-elected, even if their cheating becomes well-known:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/gold-bars-featured-bob-menendez-bribery-case-linked-2013-robbery-recor-rcna128006

What's more, electoral redistricting opens the doors to gerrymandering – designing districts to create safe seats where one party always wins. That way, the real election consists of the official choosing the voters, not the voters choosing the official:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REDMAP

Inter-party elections – primaries and other nomination processes – have fundamental weaknesses that mean they're no substitute for well-run, democratic elections:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/30/weak-institutions/

Contrast this with the theory of competitive markets. For capitalism's "moral philosophers," the physics by which greedy desires led to altruistic outcomes was to be found in the swift retribution of markets. A capitalist, exposed to the possibility of worker and customers defecting to their rival, knows that their greed is best served by playing fair.

But just as importantly, capitalists who don't internalize this lesson are put out of business and superceded by better capitalists. The market's invisible hand can pat you on the head – but it can also choke you to death.

This is where monopoly comes in. Even if you accept the consumer welfare theory that says that monopolies are most often the result of excellence, we should still break up monopolies. Even if someone secures an advantage by being great, that greatness will soon regress to the mean. But if the monopolist can extinguish the possibility of competition, they can maintain their power even after they cease deserving it.

In other words, the monopolist is like a politician who wins power – whether through greatness or by deceit – and then gerrymanders their district so that they can do anything and gain re-election. Even the noblest politician, shorn of accountability, will be hard pressed to avoid yielding to temptation.

Capitalism's theory proceeds from the idea that we are driven by our self-interest, and that competition turns self-interest into communal sentiment. Take away the competition, and all that's left is the self-interest.

I think this is broadly true, even though it's not the main reason I oppose monopolies (I oppose monopolies because they corrupt our democracy and pauperize workers). But even if capitalism's ability to turn greed into public benefit isn't the principle that's uppermost in my mind, it's what capitalists claim to believe – and treasure.

I think that most of the right's defense of monopolies stems from cynical, bad-faith rationalizations – but there are people who've absorbed these rationalizations and find them superficially plausible. It's worth developing these critiques, for their sake.

Hey look at this (permalink)

• The Real Entitlement Crisis: Good Reporting Is in Short Supply https://prospect.org/economy/2024-05-16-real-entitlement-crisis-good-reporting-social-security/

• P = NP? Not exactly, but here are some research questions from the FTC Office of Technology https://www.ftc.gov/policy/advocacy-research/tech-at-ftc/2024/05/p-np-not-exactly-here-are-some-research-questions-office-technology

• The Monopoly That Gets 'Em When They're Grieving https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/the-monopoly-that-gets-em-when-theyre

This day in history (permalink)

#20yrsago Bad writerly advice https://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/005212.html#005212

#20yrsago LotR movies remixed as trenchant Russian political satire https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jun/22/film.lordoftheringsfilms

#20yrsago First-person account of Massachusetts gay marriage https://web.archive.org/web/20040605123821/http://www.circa75.com/showArticle.php?article=130

#20yrsago PayPal disgraces itself, cuts off FreeNet https://web.archive.org/web/20040604050939/http://freenet.sourceforge.net/

#15yrsago Pinkwater’s EDUCATION OF ROBERT NIFKIN: zany and inspiring tale of taking charge of your own education https://memex.craphound.com/2009/05/18/pinkwaters-education-of-robert-nifkin-zany-and-inspiring-tale-of-taking-charge-of-your-own-education/

#15yrsago Technology Bill of Rights https://web.archive.org/web/20090521124424/http://www.infoworld.com/d/data-management/toward-technology-bill-rights-867

#15yrsago Debt-collectors and credit card companies: the psychologists of predatory lending https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/magazine/17credit-t.html

#10yrsago Anti-Net Neutrality Congresscritters made serious bank from the cable companies https://web.archive.org/web/20140520184355/http://maplight.org/Contributions to House Members Lobbying against Net Neutrality from Cable Interests

#5yrsago Apple removed a teen’s award-winning anti-Trump game “Bad Hombre” because they can’t tell the difference between apps that criticize racism and racist apps https://memex.craphound.com/2019/05/18/apple-removed-a-teens-award-winning-anti-trump-game-bad-hombre-because-they-cant-tell-the-difference-between-apps-that-criticize-racism-and-racist-apps/

#5yrsago Pangea raised $180m to buy up low-rent Chicago properties “to help poor people,” and then created the most brutally efficient eviction mill in Chicago history https://chicagoreader.com/news-politics/pangea-has-taken-thousands-to-eviction-court-the-story-of-an-apartment-empire/

#5yrsago AOC grills pharma exec about why the HIV-prevention drug Prep costs $8 in Australia costs $1,780 in the USA https://web.archive.org/web/20190628120032/https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ocasio-cortez-confronts-ceo-for-nearly-2k-price-tag-on-hiv-drug-that-costs-8-in-australia/ar-AABsDP0

#1yrago How to save the news from Big Tech https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/18/stealing-money-not-content/#beyond-link-taxes

Upcoming appearances (permalink)

• Media Ecology Association keynote (Amherst, NY), Jun 6-9
  https://media-ecology.org/convention

• HOPE XV, Jul 14 (Queens, NY)
  https://www.hope.net/talks.html

• American Association of Law Libraries keynote (Chicago), Jul 21
  https://www.aallnet.org/conference/agenda/keynote-speaker/

Recent appearances (permalink)

• Libraries in Response
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUQZPn9ffSs

• Suur Futuroloogiline Kongress
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hITj793htg&t=398s

• That Word Chat
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miwEy_mACEY

Latest books (permalink)

• The Bezzle: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2024 (the-bezzle.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3062/Available_Feb_20th%3A_The_Bezzle_HB.html#/).

• "The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3007/Pre-Order_Signed_Copies%3A_The_Lost_Cause_HB.html#/)

• "The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245).

• "Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com. Signed copies at Dark Delicacies (US): and Forbidden Planet (UK): https://forbiddenplanet.com/385004-red-team-blues-signed-edition-hardcover/.

• "Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com

• "Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone technothriller for adults. The Washington Post called it "a political cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface.html

• "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a solution. https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59?sk=f6cd10e54e20a07d4c6d0f3ac011af6b) (signed copies: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2024/Available_Now%3A__How_to_Destroy_Surveillance_Capitalism.html)

• "Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html

• "Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed copy here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2682/Corey_Doctorow%3A_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer_HB.html#/.

Upcoming books (permalink)

• Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025

• Unauthorized Bread: a graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources:

Currently writing:

• A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING

• Picks and Shovels, a Martin Hench noir thriller about the heroic era of the PC. FORTHCOMING TOR BOOKS JAN 2025

• Vigilant, Little Brother short story about remote invigilation. FORTHCOMING ON TOR.COM

• Spill, a Little Brother short story about pipeline protests. FORTHCOMING ON TOR.COM

Latest podcast: Precaratize Bosses https://craphound.com/news/2024/04/28/precaratize-bosses/

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"When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla

(I am still elbow-deep in the guts of The Regicide Report, hence paucity of recent blog entries.)

I must admit that I used to be a big fan of conspiracy theories—or applied psychoceramics, as we called it back in the nineties—but the rise of social media has lifted the carpet to reveal a mass of wriggly creepy-crawlies under the rug, some of which are very not nice at all: as witness the rise of QAnon (which is basically the old anti-semitic Blood Libel in a new coat of paint), the enthusiastic adoption of a bunch of really nasty racist conspiracy theories by the far right (who use them to market Nazism via the internet), and so on.

I mean, vaccines against a pandemic virus with a mortality rate that trended towards 10% where public healthcare services were overwhelmed (in the darkest months of 2020) are actually a conspiracy by Bill Gates to inject 5G radio receivers into God-Fearing White People to mind control them? Really? Whoever came up with that one clearly didn't understand anything about radio propagation or the limits of miniaturization or mRNA; but they tapped into a deep wellspring of paranoia about government that intersected with ignorance of biology and a cult of individuality and formed a hellish brew that threatens to undermine two centuries of public healthcare. Worse: because our political ruling class are mostly managerialists and lawyers, they share the public ignorance and appear incapable of grasping the basics of epidemiology or responding effectively.

I probably don't need to describe how social media have allowed stories that appeal to our "common sense" beliefs but are actually misinformed to spread virally, never mind the ease of confusing satire and reality online, or the use of media channels by hostile state actors to spread propaganda designed to incite chaotic or self-destructive behaviour in rival powers' populations. Do I?

Anyway: in an attempt to cheer myself up I'm trying to come up with some new conspiracy theories that don't exist yet and provide plausible, appealing explanations for the way things are. Kind of like Birds Aren't Real, only new.

Theory the First: Projection, meet Lizard People!

The Reptilian conspiracy theory is one of those right-wing tropes that I alluded to earlier: David Icke, an anti-semitic conspiracy theorist, claims shapeshifting reptilian aliens control Earth by taking on human form and gaining political power to manipulate human societies. Icke has stated on multiple occasions that many world leaders are, or are possessed by, so-called reptilians. (Icke's main field of expertise before coming up with this batshittery was kicking a soccer ball around a muddy field.)

Now, we know for a fact that whenever we hear an accusation from a right-wing politician, it is almost always a confession. (Just ask yourself how many days it's been since a homophobic Republican politician was caught in a public toilet, or a Southern Baptist youth pastor was caught with child pornography on his phone (sorry about the link pointing to a DuckDuckGo search, it's just such a target-rich environment I couldn't pick just one example)).

So: when we consider the Reptilian conspiracy theory in the context of the "every accusation is a confession" axiom, we are forced to conclude that right wing politicians are Reptiloids in human-suits. (And so, probably, is David Icke.)

Theory the Second: Ayn Rand was a Communist Spy!

Want to know what's wrong with the brainworms infecting so many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs? Well, many of them were exposed at an impressionable age to the fiction and philosophical maunderings of Ayn Rand (Alisa Rosenbaum), a Russian emigre and novelist who made Robert Heinlein look like a Maoist. I feel this explanation is necessary because this is a UK-centric blog and Rand is almost unknown in the UK—she's rightfully obscure over here, for which I am very grateful, because I fear that if I'd been exposed in my teens I might have been suckered into a brief, highly embarrassing Objectivist phase.

Objectivism was her pet philosophical-political creed, and is unique in American discourse in that it's both non-religious and to the right of Libertarianism. It's based on ferocious materialism and almost undiluted selfishness: Gordon Gekko's "greed is good" in Wall Street is an almost perfect expression of Objectivism.

Anyway: I hypothesize that Ayn Rand was a GRU agent*, trained by followers of Trotsky (while he was running the show as Commissar for Military and Naval affairs—he got booted in January 1925, shortly after Stalin became General Secretary of the CPSU). She was sent to the USA in 1925/26 specifically to act as a chaos agent—ordered to accelerate the collapse of capitalism by inflaming all its worst internal tendencies towards self-destruction. As a highly articulate, not to say charismatic, writer she did this by writing implausible propaganda fiendishly designed to warp young minds (such as that of Peter Thiel, now CEO of Palantir Technologies).

Consider that Trotskyism emphasizes the global struggle against capitalism rather than "communism in one country" (Stalin's policy). Trotskyites are entryists, well known for infiltrating other political factions and sewing dissent and strife among their enemies (including other factions on the left as well as the right). Trotskyites are left-accelerationists, seeking to accelerate the demise of capitalism by speed-running it until it provokes a revolution or disintegrates under its own internal contradictions. And Russian Agent Rand would have been trained at Leningrad State University and then the State Technicum for Screen Arts to take up the role of a resident agitprop agent in America.

Theory the Third: Through synthesis of Theory One and Theory Two: Ayn Rand was a Reptiloid (and so are her glassy-eyed techbro billionaire followers, at the highest level of Silicon Valley management).

Can you refute this? (And by the way, Birds are Dinosaurs and we know Birds Aren't Real, they're robots created by the CIA, so Ayn Rand was probably a robot too ...)

Die haben ja wohl alle Lack gesoffen!

Update: Haha, Kreditkarten hinzufügen geht auch "gerade" "temporär" leider nicht. Ich habe also genau eine Zahlungsoption. Paypal. Die für die Bahn soweit ich weiß deutlich viel schlechtere Konditionen haben als wenn sie mich einfach per Kontoeinzug zahlen lassen würden, von demselben Konto, das da seit 20 Jahren hinterlegt ist und mit dem ich seit Ewigkeiten alle meine Tickets kaufe.

Was für frontallobotomierte Versager sind eigentlich bei der Bahn am Ruder? Haben sie Mehdorn oder Pofalla zurückgeholt? Oder haben die sich von Scheuer-Andi beraten lassen?

Michael Kalus posted a photo:

Aber auf der anderen Seite gibt Apple hier der EU einen weiteren fetten Sieg in die Hand, denn das schafft ja Spezialisten-Arbeitsplätze in der EU. :-)