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But there are technical ways this can be solved. Don't use their services is one. I've got a lot of problems but you know what problems I don't have? Being cen

But there are technical ways this can be solved. Don't use their services is one. I've got a lot of problems but you know what problems I don't have? Being censored and tracked by facebook and google. It really is very much an individual problem with individual solutions, though some may not like that fact because individual solutions don't accomplish their goals, it is still a fact.

brightstep 5y ago
Please explain to me the path from individuals hosting their own Small Web apps to the mitigation of Amazon's power and prevalence in our lives. It's nice that you are off fb, I am too. But some number of individuals deciding not to use the platform does nothing when it is the way most people access the internet. People don't like this example because of its stereotypical user base, but remember what happened to parlor? That's what FAANG does, and will do, to individual small competitors unless their power is challenged in the political and economic arena.
- betwixthewires 5y ago
  If I don't use amazon, they have no power over me. They're background noise, like sally beauty salon. And consequently, the less people that use them the less power they have. It's easy to forget that their power isn't immutable, we give it to them.
  - brightstep 5y ago
    That's idealistic thinking. Amazon does have power over people that don't use it. It influences national, state and local governments. Where it decides to open a distribution center has a huge impact on communities. It controls AWS, which is essentially the interstate highway system of the internet. You might not perceive the effects, but that doesn't mean it has no power over you. With Amazon the logistics and e-commerce juggernaut it is, there's really no meaningful alternative, and saying "just don't use it" is not very helpful.
samwighttt 5y ago
Please read through my comment again. The “don’t use their services” line is another individualistic framing that exists solely to deflect blame from these large corporations. Shell launched a PR campaign in the 90’s to popularize the term ‘carbon footprint’. This shifted the climate change conversation from large, multinational corporations needing to solve it to individuals, who have little-to-no power, needing to solve it. 71% of global CO2 emissions are emitted by just 100 companies. Even if every individual on Earth lowered their output by as much as possible, we’d all still be fucked because of the emissions by these corporations. We must talk about corporate power in terms of policy, government, and collective responsibility. Individuals have no power in comparison to these large corporations. This is something we’ve observed in nearly every market these corporations compete in: if I had a dime for every company that tried to compete with Google Search and died over the years, I’d be really fucking rich. While their might be technical alternatives to these services, that doesn’t solve the problem of these corporations having unrestricted power to do whatever they want. That’s what we need to solve.

brightstep 5y ago

Please explain to me the path from individuals hosting their own Small Web apps to the mitigation of Amazon's power and prevalence in our lives. It's nice that you are off fb, I am too. But some number of individuals deciding not to use the platform does nothing when it is the way most people access the internet. People don't like this example because of its stereotypical user base, but remember what happened to parlor? That's what FAANG does, and will do, to individual small competitors unless their power is challenged in the political and economic arena.

betwixthewires 5y ago
If I don't use amazon, they have no power over me. They're background noise, like sally beauty salon. And consequently, the less people that use them the less power they have. It's easy to forget that their power isn't immutable, we give it to them.
- brightstep 5y ago
  That's idealistic thinking. Amazon does have power over people that don't use it. It influences national, state and local governments. Where it decides to open a distribution center has a huge impact on communities. It controls AWS, which is essentially the interstate highway system of the internet. You might not perceive the effects, but that doesn't mean it has no power over you. With Amazon the logistics and e-commerce juggernaut it is, there's really no meaningful alternative, and saying "just don't use it" is not very helpful.

samwighttt 5y ago

Please read through my comment again. The “don’t use their services” line is another individualistic framing that exists solely to deflect blame from these large corporations. Shell launched a PR campaign in the 90’s to popularize the term ‘carbon footprint’. This shifted the climate change conversation from large, multinational corporations needing to solve it to individuals, who have little-to-no power, needing to solve it. 71% of global CO2 emissions are emitted by just 100 companies. Even if every individual on Earth lowered their output by as much as possible, we’d all still be fucked because of the emissions by these corporations. We must talk about corporate power in terms of policy, government, and collective responsibility. Individuals have no power in comparison to these large corporations. This is something we’ve observed in nearly every market these corporations compete in: if I had a dime for every company that tried to compete with Google Search and died over the years, I’d be really fucking rich. While their might be technical alternatives to these services, that doesn’t solve the problem of these corporations having unrestricted power to do whatever they want. That’s what we need to solve.