Derek Thompson

It's a really good question.

Why am I more excited to make the point that I seem more excited to make?

Um...

You know that feeling when you're in a room and everyone around you is freaking out about something?

And in a weird way, that calms you down because you're like, oh, everyone's freaked out about this thing, so I don't need to add my anxiety to the median level of anxiety in this room.

That's kind of how I feel about certain aspects of fearing the influence of corporate power in monopolies and energy and entertainment.

I see it's being covered.

I see people writing about it.

I see people getting agitated about it.

I think it's good that the government is winning lawsuits against entertainment companies that are abusing their own power to raise ticket prices.

I think it's good.

But that's not where the debate is.

I'm excited about adding an impression that I think we introduced you and I to the conversation, which is that we are so used to seeing this

version of power exist at the level of corporations.

And we're so used to seeing the way that that can have pernicious impacts on consumers that we miss other instantiations of power.

And a neighborhood can in a strange way be an instantiation of power.

It doesn't seem like some nefarious thing

When a nice-looking woman stands up at a city council meeting and says, I would prefer to not build an apartment building behind my farm because I'm afraid of my horses being freaked out by the construction noise, but I want us to see that that is power if it stops an apartment building from being built.

So it's always difficult, but important maybe, to respond to a question about like affect.

Maybe the first thing I should have said was I encourage people to read the transcript where my affect is invisible rather than watch this on YouTube where my affect is visible.