Profile picture
Matt Stoller @matthewstoller
, 12 tweets, 3 min read Read on Twitter
I both agree with @ddayen and am seeing a lot of reason for optimism long-term. This testimony was frustrating but it's because we are exercising muscles long-unused. Of course it's tentative and halting.
2. We have not truly thought about the relationship between corporate concentration and democracy since the early 1980s. We have been in thrall to economists and technocrats. This Facebook hearing, while frustrating, was different. Senators were trying to figure this stuff out.
3. Did Senators figure out what to do about Facebook? No. But did they talk about deregulation and the free market and expanding opportunity skill-building and other bullshit? No. They were like what the fuck is this Facebook problem and what do we do about it. That's good.
4. Facebook is something very new in our culture. It is a global information powerhouse which challenges most of our political assumptions and is rewiring how we interact with one another. I don't know why anyone assumes Senators or anyone else sees an obvious answer.
5. To really address Facebook, we have to undo 40 years of unwillingness to, as @ddayen notes, govern our markets, AND figure out how to do so in the midst of a global technological revolution. What's amazing is that this is actually happening. This is a transition.
6. In 2016, @SenWarren was the only politician talking about tech monopolies. Now Lindsay Graham is asking about competition and Facebook and tech journalists are like pffffah nothing will change these politicians are all losers. Guys stuff HAS changed. A lot.
7. In every board room in America people are learning and changing their views. Labor is reorienting around these new existential threats. Academics are studying. The language to describe what we have to do doesn't exist yet. Change is happening. It's tentative, weird, awkward.
8. I was talking about the political problem of monopolies in 2015 as a Senate staffer. People looked at me like I was crazy. It is amazing how different things are now. Just amazing.
9. We are in a revolutionary moment. Here's John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, decades later, on the American Revolution: "What do we mean by the Revolution? The War? That was no part of the Revolution. It was only an Effect and Consequence of it...."
10.... " The Revolution was in the Minds of the People, and this was effected, from 1760-1775, in the course of 15 years before a drop of blood was drawn at Lexington."
11. Every generation must win its freedom anew. And this is America, waking up, weirdly, awkwardly, but seeing, once again after decades, that liberty and self-government must first come within our own minds. We must learn to believe in our capacity to be a free people.
12. I think people are going to be surprised at how this breaks down. There wasn't a single Democrat today who asked about Facebook's monopoly power. Multiple Republicans did.
Missing some Tweet in this thread?
You can try to force a refresh.

Like this thread? Get email updates or save it to PDF!

Subscribe to Matt Stoller
Profile picture

Get real-time email alerts when new unrolls are available from this author!

This content may be removed anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just three indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member and get exclusive features!

Premium member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year)

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!