Many new things come along with a narrative that they are going to "democratize" some industry and "stick it to the man". It's a compelling story. It never ends

Many new things come along with a narrative that they are going to "democratize" some industry and "stick it to the man". It's a compelling story. It never ends up that way. Linux: democratizing Unix, sticking to Sun/IBM/Microsoft... now totally captured by big tech. The web (1.0, blogging): democratizing publishing + the media, everyone can self publish, sticking it to the news media, book publishers, peer reviewed journals with "gatekeepers"... now totally dominated by a handful of mega sites, with much more and worse gatekeeping than print ever had. bitcoin: sticking it to banks and wall street... totally captured by a handful of entities with massive conflicts of interest. airbnb: sticking it to hotels and city planners, can stay in trendy neighborhoods instead of homogenous hotel rooms and help real people pay their rent... totally dominated by professional hosts who have exploited and destroyed the neighborhoods around them. spotify: cool indie bands sticking it to those record labels... youtube: ... etsy: .... There are inevitable market forces, economies of scale and consolidation at work, so spare me the "democratizing" narrative of these "movements", it always ends up as a winner takes all, or an oligopoly at best.