Welcome to You’re Probably Getting Screwed, a weekly newsletter and video series from J.D. Scholten and Justin Stofferahn about the Second Gilded Age and the ways economic concentration is putting politics and profits over working people.

Later in the week JD and I will report back on our experience at the annual Antimonopoly Summit hosted by the American Economic Liberties Project, but I wanted to share some brief thoughts on the events of last week.

In 2021, CNN media analyst Brian Stetler wrote that the January 6th insurrection was an “Extremely Online Riot.” For his piece Stetler interviewed CNN reporter Elle Reeve who said, “I don’t think, as a culture, we’ve grappled with the way social media is a brainwashing machine.” Reeve’s quote immediately came to mind last week as news broke that conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at an event on the campus of the University of Utah. This just months after Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman, a Democrat, and her husband were killed at their home.

These political assassinations are wedged in between the gun violence turning our schools into war zones. Just shortly after the news about Kirk began to spread, word of a shooting at a high school in Denver started to circulate. Together these shootings were the 46th and 47th school shootings in America this year. What does this violence have to do with an article written nearly four years ago? January 6th hammered home something that had not yet always been obvious to me before, although it should have been. Big Tech wasn’t just a threat because of its dominance over tech, but also because the surveillance economy business model underpinning it has turned Americans on each other and driven extremism. That sentiment was echoed by Utah Governor Spencer Cox who said “social media is a cancer on our society right now” during a press conference announcing the apprehension of Kirk’s suspected killer.

Subscribed

Unfortunately it was the second half of Cox’s comments that underscore the ways in which we treat our algorithmically-driven hatred as anything but a policy problem. “Log off, turn off, touch grass, hug a family member” was the urging Cox had for listeners. This is not bad advice by any means - we could all serve to limit our doom-scrolling - but the brainwashing machine CNN’s Reeve spoke of is not a bug. A central feature of Big Tech’s business model is operation of a vast surveillance infrastructure that demands constant engagement in order to farm every ounce of data it can. One of the best ways Silicon Valley has found to keep us glued to our devices and their platforms is by raising our blood pressure.

One of the more visceral examples of this that I have come across involves Alex Jones the right-wing conspiracy theorist who immediately blamed Kirk’s death on “leftists and globalists” and said the shooting means war with those groups. Tristan Harris (co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology) shared in Congressional testimony that YouTube had recommended Alex Jones videos more than 15 billion times. This was more than the combined traffic of the BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, and Fox News. Social media platforms are not passive, they are actively curating content for us that is amplifying the most divisive and extreme voices. With few limits on the surveillance economy, tech firms are able to pick the lowest hanging fruit to feed their conspiracy machines which means instead of fighting corporate power we are fighting with our grandparents over the meme they posted.

Policymakers looking to address this violent moment must confront the tech giants that have helped fuel it. While we talk a lot about breaking up Big Tech firms (myself included), ending the surveillance advertising business model is critical to upending the extremism for profit nature of social media platforms. In 2023 members of Congress introduced legislation to ban surveillance advertising and more recently states have taken a variety of steps to specifically protect youth from social media predation.

Share

This summer has been more than enough to make even the most optimistic person cynical (I’m certainly feeling that), but when those thoughts cross my mind I think about the ways in which Americans in recent years have begun to clearly communicate their disdain with the ways in which corporate power is screwing us.

Now is the time to channel that frustration into addressing the tech giants tearing our country apart before we descend further into chaos.

YOU’RE PROBABLY (ALSO) GETTING SCREWED BY:

Economic Signals

Startup companies are key to driving job growth and innovation. Unfortunately the Census Bureau finds that the number of new businesses planning to pay wages has dropped in all corners of the country, particularly the Midwest. That same report found that small business loan demand has also softened.

Private Equity

Several months ago we interviewed antitrust attorney Basel Musharbash about a series he had written in Matt Stoller’s BIG about consolidation of fire truck manufacturing. The basic story is that private equity has rolled up the industry, destroying smaller manufacturers and leading to skyrocketing costs that are eating up local government budgets. Last week the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Disaster Management held a hearing on this issue which included testimony from Basel. You can find Basel’s written testimony (along with that of the other witnesses) and the full hearing video at this link. Below are comments and questions from Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren during that hearing.

Adam Silver

The commissioner of the National Basketball Association had an inspiring message when asked about the rising costs for fans looking to follow their favorite team. Just watch highlights! It is another example of how major pro sports leagues are no longer concerned about growing their fan base and instead will simply continue extracting more and more money from a smaller sliver of affluent fans.

Bitcoin

Washington DC Attorney General Brian Schwab has sued Athena, a company that operates bitcoin ATM machines (BTMs) for helping scammers swindle seniors and raking in fees while doing so. Schwab’s office found that in Athena’s first six months of operating in DC, an astounding 93% of all BTM deposits were scams. The median age of victims was 71 and the median amount of money lost was $8,000.

SOME GOOD NEWS:

Antimonopoly Summit

As I mentioned above JD and I are in DC this week for the annual Antimonopoly Summit hosted by the American Economic Liberties Project. Later this week we will report back on our experiences from the conference, but even if you are not in DC you can watch the event online. You can also catch up on day one of the event below.

BEFORE YOU GO

Before you go, I need two things from you: 1) if you like something, please share it on social media or the next time you have coffee with a friend. 2) Ideas, if you have any ideas for future newsletter content please comment below. Thank you.

Break Em Up,

Justin Stofferahn

Thanks for reading You're Probably Getting Screwed! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribed