Capitalism Is Over: What's Next Is Worse

capitalism is over so what comes next

techn

feudalism now if that sounds Sinister

well yeah it should techn feudalism

describes an economy that is slowly

regressing to Medieval Times where we're

becoming surfs tilling the digital land

owned by our Silicon Valley feudal Lords

and the end game of this project is

replacing democratic governments with

privatized and non-democratic digital

spaces One tech billionaire is already

ahead of the curve in making this Vision

a reality this this is what victory

feels like I mean come on you had to see

that one coming who was surprised with

that it's always him it's always you

Alan the world's richest man has been

hard at work manifesting this dark new

post capitalist order he announced his

support for a German far-right party in

an upcoming election and agreed with

their leader that Pro Palestinian

activists are basically Nazis he accused

the leader of the British labor party of

covering up large- scale sex crimes and

then argue that the US should Liberate

the UK uh British friends shout it out

in the comments if you want me to come

liberate you I'll be on my way and he's

been acting like Trump's assistant

regional manager living in a $2,000 a

night maralago Bungalow and running a

madeup government agency oh and he's

also using the social media platform

that he owns to do hate speech now it's

easy to attribute this bizarre behavior

to General billionaire Megamania but

that risk missing the point all of his

actions connect to the larger project of

using digital space to subvert

governments and command increasing

control over our lives okay so what is

techn feudalism and how are folks like

musk using their influence to push not

just the United States but the entire

world in this direction now to

understand uh I first need to talk about

feudalism which is a pre-industrial

system in which you were either born

landed gentry you know meaning that you

owned land or a surf meaning that you

worked the land and because land was

something you inherited there was no way

to CL clb the ladder from surom into

Gentry you know no no no bootstraps in

that world there was no market price on

the land but the economic changes in the

19th century land became a more valuable

commodity on the emerging market so

landlords kicked the Surfs out and

invited them to come back and exchange

their labor for money creating whatever

goods were desirable on the beautiful

market now this marked the creation of

enclosures in which peasants were kicked

off the land their family had worked for

Generations fenced out of their previous

homes you know they now worked for wages

and had to pay rent in other words it

was capitalism time now while we're not

moving back on to Parcels of land owned

by feudal Lords much of our Lives is

spent on apps and in other digital

spaces that we do not own if you do own

a digital space however just consider

signing up for our patreon there's a

link in the description we would love to

take your money now this often involves

digital forms of enclosures and we're

creating value for the owners of these

enclosures every time we read the news

catch up with friends or ordered dinner

techn feudalism describes this

cloud-based way of life where we've

become surfs who live on the terrain of

Silicon Valley billionaires and much

like the Surfs before us we don't really

have a choice as so much of modern

existence requires use of these digital

spaces like really think about it if you

were going to throw your phone away get

off the internet not use apps like what

would you do a lot of stuff would be

really hard if you've done that don't

let us know because you're not here cuz

you wouldn't be watching us according to

McMahan stratch and Inferno techn

feudalism suggest our preferences are no

longer our own they're manufactured by

Machine networks it's underpinned by the

theory that the cloud has created a

feedback loop that removes our agency we

train the algorithm to find what we like

and then the algorithm trains us to like

what it offers I don't know what this

says but I'm getting this Instagram ad

recently that's like how to be a good

dad even if you have ADHD and it's like

Jesus Christ you're targeting me with a

thing that's like your specific neurode

divergency is making you a bad dad but

you need to do this to be a good dad

it's crazy so not only are we dependent

on cloud-based networks but the more we

engage with them the more we need them

and the more they sort of own us now you

might think that President musk's recent

political activity indicates a desire to

use traditional systems of government to

gain power but it's actually the

opposite he's using the government to

undermine the very power of government

you know Trump's even promised him his

own government agency Doge or Department

of government efficiency with the prec

prce goal of eliminating wasteful

government spending and this plays into

the recent Trend in which governments

are giving up more and more of their

power to private Tech contractors this

increasingly looks like previously

Public Services everything from

Transportation uh the post office

libraries education becoming enclosed by

private corporations and this isn't an

exclusively right-wing move as the guy

who really married big Tech to

government was none other than Barack

Obama because he he hoped that we could

change America to be a Silicon Valley

hellhole Lucy Green writes that there

was a revolving door between the Obama

Administration and Tech Giants a host of

EX Obama staffers went on to work for

Lyft and other Silicon Valley Giants

with some helping craft legislation that

basically favors digital landlords while

taking rights from the new surfs in

other words it it gives like companies a

lot of power and makes it where if

you're a lift driver you don't have real

labor rights it's established an

incestuous relationship between

government power and Tech influence

green writes that Silicon Valley is now

better positioned than most IND indries

to wield political influence and in ways

we have not seen before it is at once

government vendor collaborator sponsor

adviser Communicator rival and enemy on

any given day more and more government

contracts are going to Silicon Valley

especially in Military and

Communications technology consider how

NASA rather than investing in its own

R&D now buys musk rockets and satellites

you know this turns the agency from

something that is at least in theory

about the public good into a mechanism

for enriching musk according to Green

Tech companies are exacerbating all the

pressures on the government which is

both eroding revenues and undermining

their strength and Yannis ver Focus

notes that as with the original

enclosures some form of fence would be

necessary to keep the masses out of such

an important resource in the 18th

century it was land that many were

denied access to in the 21st century it

is access to our own identity this is

because just to participate in this new

cloud-based Kingdom we're constantly

trading our identity and personal data

for admission you know this data is

collected whether you're driving your

Tesla or you're posting on the app

formerly known as Twitter and then your

fed ads that imply that if you have ADHD

you can't be a good dad this means that

musk is completing a project that was

initiated and endorsed by Obama and a

whole bunch of liberal politicians so

don't say woke crack or anything guys

I'm saying bad stuff about Obama and

those guys but then you'll be mad at

that you guys are hard to please but

musk is going Beyond simply trying to

make America's Silicon Valley again he's

trying to take this project Global you

know it's not dissimilar from the

pre-industrial land grabs and expansions

that would expand the territories of

feudal Lords to give them more power and

control France's president recently said

this about musk 10 years ago who would

have imagined that the owner of one of

the world's largest social networks

would be supporting a new international

reactionary movement and intervening

directly in elections including in

Germany he was joined by Norway's prime

minister who said I find it worrying

that a man with enormous access to

social media and huge economic resources

involves himself so directly in the

internal affairs of other countries sort

of like the unmarried friend who who

gives you like marriage advice or the

person who had a kid that tells you had

a parent it's like just chill just just

chill it's not your role musk has been a

major power player in the Russian

Ukraine war via his starlink satellites

which Ukraine relies on and which

literally give him the power to

undermine their War efforts in recent

months the most alarming part of musk's

European tour of Terror has been a

support for the far-right alternative

for Germany party he recently warned the

German people only afd can save Germany

end of story and people really need to

get behind the afd and otherwise things

are going to get very very much worse in

Germany okay let's take a quick look at

this article it's titled musk says only

afd can save Germany and talk with

German populist leader and if you just

read this headline alone and knew

nothing else you might be like oh the

afd that's probably a political party

populism not just someone who who claims

to appeal to Ordinary People surely

nothing crazy is going on here but if

you were looking at a headline from a

different Source covering the same story

you could read something like Elon

musto's ex event promoting Neo-Nazi afd

party ahead of German elections and

think oh that's that's a bad one and how

is it possible that the same story is

completely different depending on which

source you're getting your news from you

know many media organizations well they

prioritize clicks over clear accurate

information they're reducing complex

issues to simple sound bites that

article that I just shared well I found

that on ground news which is where I

read my news every day they're the

sponsor of today's video their app and

website pulls stories from across the

globe into one place and it gives you

the full picture on every story this

story has been reported by over 300

sources and we can check out where each

one leans politically using their biased

distribution chart you can also check

the factuality rating which scores the

reliability of reporting and even let

you see who owns each Source these

factors shape how stories are framed

letting you compare how bias impacts

coverage like we saw in the Articles

mentioned earlier now one of the things

I love about ground news is their blind

spot feed which highlights stories that

are disproportionately reported by

either side of the political Spectrum I

don't know about you all I can get a

little trapped in my bubble following

certain people on social media talking

to friends who have similar views as I

do and this feature really helps me step

outside that bubble and both discover

stories I wouldn't see otherwise and

also see how stories I know about are

covered differently now if you want to

check it out for yourself you can head

over to ground. newws wisecrack and give

it a try if you use this link you're

going to get 40% off the Vantage plan

and get unlimited access to all the

features they're going to help you get

all the information you need to navigate

the news and this increasingly

newsworthy time now I think ground news

is doing important work I do hope that

you'll check him out but for now let's

get back to the show the party's leader

Alice widle used their conversation to

equate Hitler and the Nazis with

contemporary communist and socialist uh

even though Hitler actually put

communist into camps so he was nothing

else than anti-semitic uh socialist list

and we are exactly the opposite we are a

Libertarian conservative party we are

wrongly framed the entire time this

isn't just more of Elon being oddly Nazi

adjacent it's an active continuation of

the techn feudalist project and this was

noted by the Green Party candidate from

Germany who said with his billions upon

billions of dollars and unbridled Media

power Elon must support for the afd is

not some ignorant whim he's emboldening

those who want to weaken Europe and its

rule of law the very regulations that

limit unchecked power now some of you

musk Fanboys might argue that all he's

doing is encouraging a more libertarian

spirit and a sense of free speech

absolutism but according to political

philosopher Gillum David blunt musk and

Co aren't libertarian they're

authoritarian they're primarily

interested in shielding themselves from

regulation they're overlords wanting to

be free of constraint like feudal

overlords of the past as divine right of

kings they view themselves arbitrarily

as Geniuses and we are buying into it

one click at a time of confirming their

power and it makes sense that musk would

work to destabilize Europe with its

historical social safety nets and more

aggressive regulation of tech companies

including the recent digital markets act

which bars companies from monetizing

data collected on mobile apps to help

advertisers better Target individuals

but you might still be wondering how

does any of this end capitalism well

let's think back to the transition from

feudalism to industrialism when the

enclosure of land turned everything into

Market relations the early open access

and publicly funded inter internet was

over the course of the 9s sold off for

commercial interest and eventually

enclosed by tech companies that

consolidated services to extract maximum

data and profit from users but now the

shift to techn feudalism has more to do

with power and control than it does

Market viability now according to varu

Fus techn feudalism is qualitatively

distinct from capitalism and thus as a

word it illuminates crucial aspects of

the real world in ways that rener

capitalism or platform capitalism or

hyper capitalism cannot in other words

techn feudalism breaks from the pure

Market logic that has driven most tech

development until recently and just like

how some of musk's seemingly erratic

political Behavior makes more sense in

light of the techn feudalist project so

does his own use of and general

encouragement of hate speech now vxus

writes because techn feudalism's

algorithms are known to reinforce

patriarchy stereotypes and pre-existing

oppressions those who are most

vulnerable girls the mentally ill the

marginalized and yes the poor suffer the

outcome most another of recklessly using

RW and nword and fword on social media

reinforces the strength of these

platforms and hey why not encourage it

and in case in case you're going to be

like he doesn't he did he did the R1 I'm

not going to say it not going to say it

but he did it we recently saw this with

Mark Zuckerberg pulling diversity

programs out of meta along with their

content moderation program which now

allows for a hate speech and Zuckerberg

has explicitly connected these moves

with a renewed call for masculinity and

aggression in corporate culture it's one

thing to say we want to be kind of like

welcoming and make a good environment

for everyone and I think it's another to

basically say that masculinity is bad

and it shouldn't shock us that folks

like Zuckerberg Bezos musk Mark and

dreon are all getting in line to serve

in Trump's anti-woke Army now VAR Fus

writes that bigotry is techn feudalism's

emotional compensation for the

frustrations and anxieties we experience

in relation to Identity and focus he

notes that even the most diligent

content moderation can't stem all this

hate because algori Ms optimize for

cloud rents which flow more copiously

from hatred and discontent it's good for

business to do hateful stuff so so

they're going to keep making it possible

to do hateful stuff now verx has also

points out that another effect of the

techn feudalist revolution is that we no

longer own our own minds during our

working hours we become Cloud PLS

putting ourselves into various digital

systems my main one is YouTube what

digital system do you put yourself into

uh then when we get home we become Cloud

surfs fueling our own distraction and

exploitation when I'm at home I still

largely fuel YouTube sometimes other

streaming apps Reddit Twitter Instagram

why don't I read books I don't know now

he writes that while privatization and

private Equity asset strip all physical

wealth around us Cloud Capital goes

about the business of asset stripping

our brains take that one in guys Cloud

Capital goes about the business of ask

asset stripping our brains where we once

both lived and worked on the feudal

Lord's physical land the new serfdom

takes place in the cloud controlled by

the tech overlords where our minds and

very identities are extracted for value

now it might feel like we're totally

screwed that's at this point that's how

I feel but according to vacus the poison

might also contain the Cure he writes

that Collective action is made harder

when people have fewer opportunities to

come together but here in lies the great

power to Cloud Capital present to its

potential Rebels a capacity to build

coalitions organize and take action via

the cloud I guess that's what the

comments are for get after it so the

very space that we're forced to work as

both unpaid laborers and reproducers of

the system is also a space where we can

band together to Rage Against the

Machine as Bernie Sanders pointed out in

a recent interview with Assan [ __ ] the

techn feudal takeover of politics

disempowers working people as a whole

and Hollows out what remains of

democracy you got control of the media

by the few control of the political

system by the few control of the economy

by the few and if that's not oligarchy I

don't know what oligarchy is so As Trump

takes office flanked on all sides by

those with a clear techn feudal agenda

the challenge is creatively using those

feudal spaces to organize resistance

against our new Lords okay please let me

know what you think below if you haven't

checked it out yet there is a link to

our patreon community in the description

it's a great way to support the channel

get early videos with no ads extra perks

access to our Discord server things of

that nature if you don't have that and

you consider subscribing liking leaving

a comment it all really helps us in the

meantime I don't know try to be a little

less surfy this week and I'll do the

same I'll see you next time

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

no

[Music]