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People who are not anti-capitalist sometimes wonder: "Why is there a monopoly on X life-critical thing?" (E.g., epipens, insulin, web search).
This one is really simple actually: because monopolies are more profitable than competition, and the foundation of capitalism is that capital = power.
Various societies have recognized the necropolitical outcomes of monopolies and have tried to erect barriers to monopoly; we all know that monopolies are bad, death-and-suffering-causing things. But since these societies mostly remain capitalist, they allow these barriers to be eroded by the power of capital (to do otherwise would be to repudiate capitalism because it puts a limit on the power of money). The barriers are ineffective, and the capital = power equation holds, and monopolies result and get to do their killing & maiming thing (remember: even things like social media monopolies that you wouldn't expect to pay for political assassinations like a mining company still profit from inciting genocides). *Sometimes* there are oligopolies instead of monopolies, but instances of really competitive markets are pretty rare for things that are widely sought-after.
The "government will manage the markets to prevent bad outcomes like monopolies" strategy has failed repeatedly, spectacularly, and almost universally. To actually prevent monopolies you need a population that no longer believes that money should equal power, it's that simple. Sadly, it's actually not that simple, since all of the alternatives which equate something else to power, like "the king" or "party loyalty as judged by the supreme leader" have the same problems or worse. The attitude you need to cultivate is "nobody should have power," which is hard because *all* of the power-systems we have constantly propagandize against this attitude in myriad ways. Still, in the future once we've broken free of this age where hierarchy is accepted, people will look back and wonder whether the historical records are even credible given how much needless death and suffering were endured with little resistance.
#anarchy #capitalism
Endra, whose AI tools automate mechanical, electrical, and plumbing design for commercial buildings, raised a $20M seed led by Notion (Jeremy Kahn/Fortune)
https://fortune.com/2025/12/18/endra-ai-startup-automating-mep-design…
Pardoned Capitol rioter tried to bribe child sex victim with promise of Jan. 6 payout, officials say (NBC News)
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pardoned-capitol-rioter-tried-bribe-child-sex-victim-promise-jan-6-pay-rcna244627
http://www.memeorandum.com/251118/p155#a251118p155
Good Morning #Canada
In 1905, when Alberta joined Canada, a temporary provincial legislature resided in Edmonton and they were given the task of choosing the capital. Edmonton, by a vote of 16 to 8, was selected over their southern rival Calgary. This choice was despite Calgary's larger size and incorporation as a city a full decade before Edmonton. But the new capital had used their history as an important trading post established on the fur trade route and federal relationships to secure their status as the capital. In 1941, Edmonton was still a relatively small city, ranking 9th in population in Canada. Oil would transform the entire province, and Edmonton would rapidly grow as the gateway to the resource rich Alberta north.
#CanadaIsAwesome #CanadianCapitals
https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/edmonton
We desperately need to figure out how to flip this: how to lift up the creators of wonderful things, instead of rewarding whoever can acquire power over their creations.
I don’t think we know how to do this. There’s a vast spectrum of schemes for fixing this, ranging from capitalist versions of “intellectual property” to Marxist “just end capitalism” notions to various versions of “easy, society should just be different.” I find them all lacking, both in theory and in practice. This is a problem that’s existed for millennia, not decades, and I’m not convinced we have a clear solution.
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Bilan de la présence du stand #osm au capitole du libre 2025 https://forum.openstreetmap.fr/t/presence-au-capitole-du-libre-2025/34061/19?u=lhirlimann
#Pedophile Pardoned By Drumpf
#Jan6th Capitol Rioter Who Was Given Reprieve For That Act By Presidential Pardon; Also Has Other #HushMoney Issue For Playing His Child Sex Victim With Cash Offers
Adaptive Security, which uses AI to simulate social engineering attacks and help companies prevent them, raised an $81M Series B led by Bain Capital Ventures (Chris Metinko/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/pro/enterprise-software-d…
Paris-based Upciti, which offers city operations software and hardware to over 150 municipalities in 17 countries, raised a $20M Series A led by Notion Capital (Tamara Djurickovic/Tech.eu)
https://tech.eu/2025/10/16/upciti-closes-20m-to-dr…
Sources: Tempo, a stablecoin-focused blockchain developed by Stripe and Paradigm, raised a $500M Series A led by Greenoaks and Thrive Capital at a $5B valuation (Fortune)
https://fortune.com/crypto/2025/10/17/stripe-para…