How to Fight the Plutocracy
First step in defeating a plutocratic coup? Stop feeding the plutocrats.
TLDR — quick action list:
Stop using Meta, X. Replace with Bluesky.
Bluesky is structured as a Public Benefit Corporation which means they have their stakeholders and user’s best interest as their focus as opposed to maximizing shareholder profits.
Stop using Chrome and Microsoft Edge. Replace with Brave or Firefox
Brave is a browser and search engine that prioritizes user privacy. Firefox is another privacy-first free and open source web browser.
Stop using Google services. Replace with Proton.
Proton is a suite of products that includes encrypted email, cloud storage, calendar, VPN, password keeper, wallet. They are a non-profit foundation based in Switzerland founded to offer a privacy-centered alternative.
Stop using What’sApp, IMs, and social media DM services. Replace with Signal.
Signal is also a non-profit communication app with end to end encryption. Musk doesn’t like it. That should be all you need to know.
Stop using Amazon. Replace with Bookshop.org and buying other products directly from the manufacturer when possible.
Amazon’s dominance over eBooks and the eCommerce marketplace is undeniable. But if you find something on Amazon.com you want to order, it’s worth a quick internet search to see if you can’t order directly instead.
Why it Matters
We’ve known about the inherent dangers of modern monopolies for quite some time. None of the above suggestions are new. (Check my backlist of articles…)
Privacy and personal control over data has always been a top concern regarding these technology driven mega-corps. But as the owners of the world’s two largest social media platforms bend a knee to tyranny expect that data to be wielded against you.
It already has been in a commercial sense with invasive practices to establish control over users or create new revenue streams.
However, as this new administration begins a deep search for enemies and replaces law enforcement officers with ideologically-driven inquisitors, expect the Zucks and the Musks of the world to freely share every bit of user data they have.
These predatory practices extend to the market too. Through lack of oversight, these monopolies regularly stifle competition. Often buying any even remotely promising startups before they launch to ensure complete domination.
As such, those markets are increasingly distorted.
Used to be companies with strong profits and solid plans for growth ruled the indices. Today, you’d be hard pressed to find a top company with a valuation fitting of it’s actual ability to be a profitable business.
(DJT Media anyone? A company valued in the billions with no revenue at all.)
Why? Stock prices no longer reflect business reality. One major contributing factor is corporate buybacks.
Companies now often divert the bulk of their profits toward buying their own stock. Forget expanding operations or doing the boring work of interfacing with users to improve services. In some cases, even routine maintenance is cast aside.
They do this to arbitrarily inflate the share price. This in turn enriches the executives whose fortunes rely on those stock prices and little else.
It’s a purely extractive process.
Many of these companies started out with a useful innovation. But as they grew and were allowed to absorb and not compete, at some point they stagnated.
They simply became machines with the primary goal of extracting all capital from a sector or customer base and diverting that value toward an external, imaginary number that supposedly told the world how successful they were.
Competition was just bought. Killed off in the nascent stages. And with few alternatives allowed to surface, consumers became trapped.
Once trapped, there’s no longer a need to provide value to users.
Soon you have a company providing little to anybody but the people at the top. And now those people have decided to take direct control of the government.
Why so brazenly?
They had a good thing going. Lobbyists pushing politicians around behind the scenes and the Supreme Court greenlighting dark money through corporate “rights” was a sweetheart deal.
But the truth is, they’re desperate. The past has come back to bite them in the ass.
Their cycle of feeding profits into stock prices as opposed to, you know, their core businesses, has pushed their companies to a tipping point. (Likely, they entire bubble will burst soon.)
Frankly, they’ve lost the ability to grow or compete.
So when China stopped playing middle man with cheap labor and manufacturing, they were caught completely off guard.
When those Chinese manufacturers became their own multinational corporations and showed up with half-price EVs, a social media app people loved, and their own cheap fast-fashion brands shipped direct to consumers, the plutocrats knew they had no response.
Now they want to start pushing a narrative about China’s unfair business practices. And it’s absolutely true.
But it’s a truth they conveniently ignored for decades when they were the ones reaping the profits.
They also want to pretend they’re concerned about national security.
Another valid point.
But U.S. corporations have been stealing and mismanaging consumer data for years with no real punishment other than fines which they’ve priced in as a cost of business.
So let’s be clear about why the plutocracy is in full freak out mode — they’re reeling from being forced to face the fact they’ve got nowhere to go but down. This brazen attempt to seize power is desperation.
All we need to do is give them a shove in the proper direction.
How?
Stop feeding them.
Stop buying their goods. Stop sending them your precious data. Cut them off from their customer base.
If you haven’t already closed your Twitter/X account, you’re way behind the curve. The site has become little more than a propaganda engine for Musk’s whims.
Meta isn’t far behind. Close and delete that account too. Now.
Both “social” media services have been and will be put to nefarious use as this coup deepens. Your data will be weaponized.
Same goes for Google who just recently lifted a self-imposed ban on using AI for weapons and surveillance.
Amazon’s stranglehold on the market is perhaps the most pervasive. In many ways, they innovated the demise of the current robber baron’s fortunes by creating a “drop shipping for all” service.
Even that has become less and less viable as they claw back any shared profits through outrageous costs of advertising. Then there’s the price fixing meant to keep purchases happening only on their site.
Disentangling yourself from these behemoths can be difficult. In many cases, it will be a long process. Not something you can do overnight.
But it must be done.
Get to it. Fight back.
