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The General Theory of Enshittification (Paul Krugman)
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-general-theory-of-enshittification Everyone loves enshittification. Not the thing itself, of course. But Cory Doctorow’s neologism was an instant hit, neatly encapsulating the public’s growing disappointment, sometimes bordering on rage, with what was happening to internet platforms. His pithy summary of the process was also brilliant:
I argued earlier this week (1) that enshittification has a lot to do with the way the tech industry has fallen out of public favor:
And the increasingly anti-democratic rage of tech bros is, I’d argue, in part driven by their awareness that people don’t love and admire them the way they used to, and their belief that they should still be the culture heroes they once were.
Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.
I argued earlier this week (1) that enshittification has a lot to do with the way the tech industry has fallen out of public favor:
And the increasingly anti-democratic rage of tech bros is, I’d argue, in part driven by their awareness that people don’t love and admire them the way they used to, and their belief that they should still be the culture heroes they once were.
—————
(1) Enshittification and the Bitterness of Billionaire Bros
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/enshittification-and-the-bitterness
One of the many weird, ugly developments in these weird, ugly times has been the MAGAfication of a number of Silicon Valley billionaires. In a fully functional democracy the views of a handful of people with anti-democratic ideas wouldn’t matter. But we live in a corrupted democracy in which wealth buys power, so when people who accumulated vast fortunes largely thanks to U.S. scientific preeminence begin backing a deeply anti-scientific movement, it matters quite a lot.
Silicon Valley used to be generally pro-Democratic. So did the Biden administration mishandle its relationship by starting to impose some regulation on the industry?
I don’t think so. The actual regulations imposed during the Biden years wouldn’t have significantly reduced industry profits and were weaker than those in Europe. But the industry was right to see them as a harbinger of more regulation to come, because the public, which used to have a highly favorable view of tech and its leaders, had lost faith.
The thing is, the tech bros haven’t just turned right. Many of them are filled with rage — that special kind of rage exhibited by men who enjoy vast privilege and can’t abide any suggestion that their privilege is unjustified.
My posts on this sordid topic.
Reboot' Revealed: Elon Musk's CEO-Dictator Playbook
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220003654
Silicon Valley Whistleblowers Warn Elon Musk 'Hijacking' Republicans to Control Entire US Government
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220008207 These posts contain, or link to, important understanding of the twisted mentality of Elon and company.
Also good reads!
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