Thread by @matthewstoller

1. Ok, so let's talk about the underpinning of our politics, what causes the pervasive anxiety most of us feel. Fear. And in particular, the source of the fear driving our politics and culture. Because I suspect it's coming from an unexpected place. mattstoller.substack.com/welcome

2. Who is afraid? In a word, everyone. Even the rich. Yesterday, Congressman @davidcicilline, the chair of the Antitrust Subcommittee, discussed his investigation into big tech. What is he finding? Non-monopoly tech companies are afraid to speak. reuters.com/article/us-usa…

3. “If you look at the size of some of the large platforms, their ability to exclude people from the platform can result in closing the business,” Cicilline told reporters.

Imagine. Everything you own, your reputation, gone w/a snap of Google's fingers. mattstoller.substack.com/welcome

4. When I was a Congressional staffer, I was lobbied on once or twice a year by small companies concerned that a merger might destroy them. The 25 year old buyer for Staples for their category, if they also took over Office Depot, could wipe them out. news.staples.com/press-release/…

5. Immigrants, minorities, workers, women - anyone without power - everyone knows this fear. But this fear is so pervasive that it affects people up the food chain. It is normalized that threats and coercion is how we do EVERYTHING. The gangsterfication of business.

6. Monopolies say 'don't worry.'

To which Rep. Emanuel Celler once responded, "Your neighbor must not point a gun at you, even though he has never shot anyone. Similarly, our antitrust laws were intended to protect businessmen not only from violence but from fear of violence."

7. This fear was worsened by Obama. Christine Varney, his first antitrust chief, encouraged farmers in 2009 to talk about powerful meatpackers.

“I fully expect you will not experience retaliation by virtue of your presence here," she said. "But if you do, you call me."

Cheers.

8. And then... nothing. Followed by retaliation towards farmers. And fear. More fear. washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/novde…

9. Those who can speak out against Google, like Brian Kelly of AppNexus, or against powerful airlines, like Adam Goldstein of Hipmunk, can do so because they sold their companies and left. mattstoller.substack.com/welcome

10. It gets worse as you go down the chain. Volkswagen told workers at their Tennessee factory that it would close the company if they voted for a union. The unionization vote narrowly lost. Devastating. Fear. Always, everywhere, fear. cnn.com/2019/06/15/bus…

11. We have arrogated power over our very selves to economists, fake scientists who tell us that our fear-filled lives are efficient, that globalization, technology inevitably create such fear. Or get an education. But the most powerful feel this fear too. mattstoller.substack.com/welcome

12. This fear is not inevitable. It is not democracy. It is not business. It is what we must fight, as workers, as businesspeople, citizens, investors, community members, family members, immigrants, blacks, whites, whatever. We should not live in fear.