[pessimizer]

What's important is that we break these companies up so they aren't used as tools by the powerful. Neither Zuckerberg's or Musk's income streams should be allowed to have such an important effect on everyone's lives, but as long as these communication companies are allowed to exchange their obedience for a regime's lack of antitrust enforcement, our 1st Amendment rights are meaningless.

> This is why it's important not just that people do the right thing but also why they do it.

I care about what Zuckerberg, Loraine Powell Jobs or Musk feel the right thing is about as much as I care about what my bus driver thinks the right thing is. What we need is a functioning government.

[antonvs]

A functioning government is not possible as long as money is speech, corporations are people, etc. That directly translates to government by the wealthiest people.

[forgetfreeman]

I've noticed a distinct trend in the last month where even the most casual mention of the oligarchy attracts a bunch of downvotes. I'm trying to decide if this is an indication that some cohort of users here are deeply and passionately delusional about the political state of play, or merely uncomfortable about having it pointed out.

[onemoresoop]

It could be bots as well

[DiggyJohnson]

That’s a dangerous assumption to habitualize in its own right…

[forgetfreeman]

And yet it can't be dismissed out of hand either. AI's contributions to society are truly multi-faceted.

[XorNot]

It hardly need be AI: just a couple lines of Python.

[antonvs]

I mean, we're on a site that revolves largely around the Silicon Valley VC world. There've always been ultracapitalist types here who treat oligarchy as aspirational.

If anything, I'd say that's become less prominent in recent years as the consequences of that mindset have been playing out around us.