Cory Doctorow

So there's a kind of simplistic answer to this, which is like, well, you, the almighty consumer, failed to shop with sufficient care.

And so because you weren't willing to pay for the product, you became the product, and it's all your fault.

I think that's nonsense.

That's like, you didn't recycle hard enough, and that's why there's a wildfire.

Right?

Your consumption choices aren't what dictate this stuff.

There's also a temptation to say, oh, well, it's these, like, ketamine-addled Zucker Muskian failures that are running the world.

And clearly, they're terrible people.

But they're just filling a void that was created by policy.

You know, Elon Musk pops his clogs tonight from too much ketamine.

There will be an overnight succession battle.

And 12 horrible big balls will battle to the death.

And whoever emerges victorious will be indistinguishable from him.

The real culprits are the policymakers who created the enshitogenic policy environment that guarantees that people who do the worst things in the worst way will make the most money.

In living memory, named individuals took policy decisions that they were warned about at the time that this would be the end result.

They did it anyway.

And they walk around polishing their fake Nobel Prizes in economics, doing six-figure consulting jobs for blue chip companies, and never worrying that someone's sizing them up for a pitchfork.

And this is one of the things I...

I aim to change with this book.

Sure.