it's really weird how facebook and twitter and paypal etc. have like... become de facto public utilities, way faster than regulations could keep up, but are still privately owned and managed
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there's this sort of econ 101 puzzle i occasionally come back to that is like "how can you hurt someone by only freely offering them useful stuff?" and stuff like getting kicked off paypal or fb is a good example: do it long enough and they start depending on it
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There's often an implied leverage-and-taxation/aggression squeeze underlying such dynamics. Centralized services are subsidized, and people need to use the subsidized service to keep up with others, or they lose what little they had before.
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Often this involves outright application of force, legally via foreclosures as rents rise, or through sheer thuggery like the US did to the indigenous peoples.
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This is why I keep linking this in so many contexts: it underlies a lot of the dynamics behind our society, and it's easy to lose track of the threat of violence backing a lot of our supposedly voluntary institutions.
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ooh yeah the beginning of this links up with some other vague thoughts i’ve been having, thanks. there is something very tragic about not being able to have simple closed loops where i just do things to directly improve my life and others’ lives