The Road to a Dim Dystopia

What has happened with tech companies over the last several years have really challenged certain perceptions I have held on government, private businesses, and markets. It really hit a head with the election censoring of the NY Post and now with the coordinated attacks on Trump and Parler. These companies aren’t selecting out the ultra fringe to censor and limit … they are choosing major portions of the population, and a president who won the second most votes in history. They are coordinating to alienate and limit major portions of their customer base in order to limit their information and isolate them from other people.

I never thought I would see major private companies create an information cartel in order to control information within a population … or if they did, it would’ve had to be due to government coercion. They do so while being transparently hypocritical in allowing major state actors say and do horrible things, and various leftists being horribly unabated. They are doing so at the risk of destroying their own product and harming their market share. However, they believe they can get away with it because they coordinate with others and they have incredible market share.

I obviously don’t specifically care about Trump. I am worried about the mechanism that has been created that molds obedience. I am worried about the tinder box that’s created when we put so many people outside of acceptability. I am worried about how far this obedience mechanism will go. I am worried how faceless corporations will now be picking which politicians, philosophers, pundits, and individuals you are allowed to listen to.

I feel like I am living through a major step on a road to a dim dystopia. I don’t think I have an answer to this. There is no government policy that wouldn’t be throwing gas onto this garbage fire. Maybe the free market will prevail and consumers will be the drivers of alternatives, but the direction of things really looks ugly. I know that the only reason my ideas are considered tolerable is because I have no influence.

Let’s hope that the market will kill these major companies and we will go back to our old internet, but I don’t know how likely that is anytime soon. I have been swayed that politics is downstream from culture. I am not comforted by the reality that the cultural trends that have lead to this moment are unlikely to be improved upon any time soon. I am not sure how we get out of this mess.

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Aaron White, married to a swell girl, is a business owner and unschooling father of two, going on three. His hobbies are music and poker. He resides in Southern California.