Capitalism isn't what's crashing out the United States, it's these fucking monopolies and mergers. The government used to block these things with vigor. When I was a GenX kid, we were taught over and over again that monopolies are bad, with plenty of historical examples. Hell, I remember AT&T getting splatted then coming back together later.

Our news and social media, banking, entertainment, our farms, our very food stuffs are owned by a handful of megacorps like Nestle. Want to withhold your money? Good luck finding the competition capitalism used to offer, because now we're an oligarchy. And no matter what personal stand you take, your friends and neighbors don't know all this and don't care.

Lina Kahn was breaking this shit up under Biden. Knowing Trump would fire her immediately was the first thought I had on waking and learning he had won again. Fuck. She was our last, great hope.

In the past few decades we let the rich buy our morals. Then they got richer. Rinse and repeat.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 31 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The corporations decided that anti trust laws were bad so they each did their part to erode support and enforcement of them. Then bit by bit they eventually became only laws on the books not in enforcement

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 15 points 3 weeks ago

That's a fucking bingo. Sometimes I imagine telling my grandfather who raised me and died in the 80s what America is like today.

"So why isn't the government doing anything about all this? That's their job."

"Well..."

[–] Hegar@fedia.io 13 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Capitalism isn't what's crashing out the United States, it's these fucking monopolies and mergers.

I've got bad news for you about which form of social organization promotes the growth of monopolies.

There have been a handful of examples of breaking up monopolies but even then the general trend was still increasing consolidation of money and power in fewer and fewer hands.

AT&T was a great example of a step back from the capitalist hellscape we're being pushed into, but there were two steps forward before it and another two after it.

[–] jacksilver@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

What form of social organization doesn't when not corrected over time?

[–] Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 3 weeks ago

Capitalism is directly responsible for monopolies and meegers. It's the inevitable course. Anyone who disagrees is definitely did not take any classes on business. A goal of many MBA's is to be merged into a larger company for a massive payout. That is capitalism.

Capital is like gravity, it pulls more capital towards it into its a singularity of one massive lump of capital. We have to create laws to reign in capitalism.

The issue with capitalism is as we're experiencing now, there are no natural laws to keep capitalism is check.

In an ideal world, the only way a company would merge is after bankruptcy. There is literally no social benefit to justify it. The MBAs are more than willing to blow smoke up our collective asses about it.

[–] brunchyvirus@fedia.io 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Ahh yeah the breakup of at&t

https://y.yarn.co/6c7a5d7d-f208-4e16-acca-03cc8d749d9e_text.gif

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

The Death Star!

[–] benignintervention@lemmy.world 70 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I remember when Hulu was free

[–] ech@lemmy.ca 15 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I never trusted it. It was the first big move by tv/movie studios to stream their own IP instead of Netflix, and the beginning of the fractious mess of media services we now have. It was also very evident that it being "free" (with ads, of course) was just a way to pull in users to squeeze later with steadily increasing subscriptions. An example of actual "enshitiffication", a dumb word which nobody uses correctly.

[–] binarytobis@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

The day they announced their “pay with ads” subscription was the day they were dead to me. I think they walked it back but never cared enough to check.

[–] pennomi@lemmy.world 25 points 3 weeks ago

Ordinarily I’d be happy to see two major streaming services combine, (fragmentation is the main problem with streaming today) but Disney is just the worst.

[–] f1error@lemmy.world 22 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Everything the mouse touches is tainted.

I have not spent any money on Star Wars since the mouse bought it. Fuck it, it's now evil. I have not bought anything Marvel since it became a princess. They have become comic book diarrhea. Those new Doctor Who shows? I haven't seen a single one; to me, they are not canon. As a fan since the 70s, Doctor Who is dead to me because of the fucking mouse. Disney is a borg, all borg need to die.

Disney and the mouse need to die and lose all IP. My reasons for hating the mouse are private, but valid. If you knew an artist that worked for the mouse, I'm sure you'd agree with my private reasons.

[–] Infernal_pizza@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 weeks ago

I thought Doctor Who was still owned by the BBC?

[–] Flames5123@sh.itjust.works 18 points 3 weeks ago

Can’t wait to see what Futurama says about this in the first episode in their next season…

[–] salacious_coaster 15 points 3 weeks ago

In the U.S., Hulu content will gradually merge into Disney+ as part of a unified app experience.

I guess that's a move in the right direction. Still not going back though 🏴‍☠️

[–] undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Never got into Hulu. Didn’t it always have ads even if you were paying?

[–] criticon@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You can pay to remove the ads, same as Disney. I think I pay $20 to have both without ads and get $12 cashback with my CC

[–] ramble81@lemmy.zip 4 points 3 weeks ago

Disney/Hulu was one of the few streaming services I didnt mind paying for with their content/price/no ads. Then they had to fuck up with Kimmel and raise prices.

[–] ABetterTomorrow@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 weeks ago

I remember when it was free…. Back in my day.

[–] Yawweee877h444@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

TIL Hulu is still around.

[–] eltrain123@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

… was…

[–] Zoomboingding@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

Only Murders In The Building is pretty good and the new season is ongoing. I don't have much to say about it beyond that though.