But the design discipline has little bearing on the impact those companies are having - designers are not responsible for setting business direction, and there

But the design discipline has little bearing on the impact those companies are having - designers are not responsible for setting business direction, and there is no hint of how exactly anthropocentrism in design assists exploitation. You could make the case that it helps achieve scale, and hence enhance the effects - but 1) the impact would be there even with shitty UI, 2) this would apply to almost every other discipline, and I feel that's not where his argument was headed.