Once again, Varoufakis elides the main distinctive feature of capitalism: Being a mode production aimed at capital accumulation through the exploitation of human labor...

"From this perspective, just as the Soviet Union was a feudal-like industrial society pretending to be a workers’ state, the United States today is performing a splendid impersonation of a technofeudal state, with repercussions that extend to every realm of state activity, including health services, education, the tax office, our borders and faraway battlefields.

In Ukraine and Gaza, and along our militarised borders, cloud capital is trained to extend its reach. Amazon’s AI tool Rekognition is used by law enforcement, including ICE, while Palantir’s vast surveillance software runs on Amazon’s cloud. Through Project Nimbus, Amazon and Google provide the Israeli military with advanced cloud and AI capabilities, reportedly enabling rapid, AI-driven targeting in Gaza with minimal human oversight.

Let us briefly return to the comparison with the early 20th century’s original monopolist capitalists. Whether we admire or abhor the Magnificent Seven’s stock market valuations, it is helpful to keep this in mind: the old capitalist giants, the “robber barons”, actually produced things. The new technofeudal lords produce a new social order. They have replaced the invisible hand of the market with the visible, algorithmic fist of the cloudalist.

Free-market enthusiasts have nothing to celebrate and much to regret. But it will take a brave soul amongst them to stare reality in the face. Just like pro-Soviet Marxists remained in denial that the Soviet experiment had failed for many years after 1991, so free-market ideologues refuse to see that capitalism begat a form of capital — cloud capital — that replaced markets with something out of the Soviet past. In the process, it has killed capitalism."

https://unherd.com/2025/12/big-tech-are-the-new-soviets/

#BigTech #Capitalism #Feudalism #Technofeudalism #SovietUnion #USSR

I woke up today to the reminder that there's already a word that describes the world of #technology today: #technofeudalism

The only way ‘the moderate left’ aka ‘the labour parties of old’ have any chance of revival is by adopting everything #YanisVaroufakis had to say about combating #technofeudalism.

Regular people are terrified of the left taxing SMBs and civilian property if they’ll ever get power again.

Instead they should massively tax and regulate #bigtech and other #megacorpos (like 30% of their profit). This is the only way to redistribute wealth and power.

Do that (quickly!), and you’ll have my vote!

Christian Stöcker (⁠@chrisstoecker⁠) wie so oft auf den Punkt, diesmal beim Thema: wie Fake-Accounts und Bot-Farmen die Demokratie attackieren.

»Die Regierung Trump versucht gerade mit extremem Druck , Europa dazu zu bringen, die eigenen Regeln für digitale Plattformen zu lockern. […] Die EU sollte sich hier keinesfalls erpressen lassen. […] Was in den sozialen Medien derzeit passiert, ist weder harmlos noch irrelevant. Unsere Gesellschaften werden angegriffen […]«

https://www.spiegel.de/a-33964199-ac0f-4206-bf30-c134cb45e200

#SocialMedia #FakeNews #Propaganda #Demokratie #TechnoFeudalism #Faschisierung

"Für Arendt ist er interessant, weil sich dieser Expansionsdrang des Politikers mit dem des Geschäftsmanns vermischte" sagt Philosophin Redecker in "Wo Hannah Arendt in die Gegenwart zielt" | Aus der Dlf App https://share.deutschlandradio.de/dlf-audiothek-audio-teilen.html #hannaharendt #diefamilienunternehmer #technofeudalism #bigtech
#Demokratie

"Amazon is a technofeudal rentier owning the digital infrastructure on which privateers, states and societies depend. Thankfully, there are signs of a pushback. The campaign that brings workers and citizens together every Black Friday – Make Amazon Pay – recognises this transformation. What began as a fight for workers’ rights has grown into a coalition of unions, climate campaigners, tax justice groups, digital rights advocates and migrant and Palestine solidarity networks. They understand that Amazon’s reach extends across logistics, finance, governance, ecological destruction, surveillance and war.

Its demands – decent wages, safe workplaces, collective bargaining, climate action, tax justice, curbs on Amazon’s vast water consumption, an end to its entanglement with surveillance agencies and military operations – are integrated. Together, they map the much needed unified resistance to technofeudal domination.

In the early decades of industrial capitalism, cross-border worker solidarity was hard. Today, the resistance to cloud capital can use its own tools to coordinate at planetary scale. Campaigns such as Make Amazon Pay offer a glimpse of the alliances required to confront our new cloudalist overlords. It may be only a beginning – but it is a hopeful one."

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/27/amazon-capitalist-era-free-markets-age-technofeudalism

#Amazon #Monopolies #TechnoFeudalism #Oligopolies #Competition #Capitalism

@jiri@pixelfed.de i did indeed buy "Technofeudalism" by Y.Varoufakis. gotta read "to kill a mockingbird" first tho.

#technofeudalism #enshittification

Destroying Autocracy – November 27, 2025

Welcome to this week’s “Destroying Autocracy”.

It’s your source for curated news affecting democracy in the cyber arena with a focus on protecting it. That necessitates an opinionated Butlerian jihad against big tech as well as evangelizing for open-source and the Fediverse. Since big media’s journalism wing is flailing and failing in its core duty to democracy, this is also a collection of alternative reporting on the eternal battle between autocracy and democracy. We also cover the cybersecurity world. You can’t be free without safety and privacy.

FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ’em.

The Programmer’s Fulcrum is the future (and smaller) home for a fusion of Symfony Station and Battalion. Its tagline is Devs Defending Democracy, Developing the OMN.

You can sign up now and for 2025 get an email with links to each week’s Symfony Station Communiqué and Battalion “Destroying Autocracy” post along with their featured articles. And you’ll be set with TPF after the fusing in January.

We are posting on the Fediverse now at @thefulcrum @thefulcrum.dev and original website content will start in 2026.

Featured Item(s)

The Atlantic writes:

Over the weekend, Elon Musk’s X rolled out a feature that had the immediate result of sowing maximum chaos. The update, called “About This Account,” allows people to click on the profile of an X user and see such information as: which country the account was created in, where its user is currently based, and how many times the username has been changed.

Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, said the feature was “an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square.” Roughly four hours later, with the update in the wild, Bier sent another post: “I need a drink.”

Almost immediately, “About This Account” stated that many prominent and prolific pro-MAGA accounts, which signaled that they were run by “patriotic” Americans, were based in countries such as Nigeria, Russia, India, and Thailand.

@MAGANationX, an account with almost 400,000 followers and whose bio says it is a “Patriot Voice for We The People,” is based in “Eastern Europe (Non-EU),” according to the feature, and has changed its username five times since the account was made, last year.

On X and Bluesky, users dredged up countless examples of fake or misleading rage-baiting accounts posting aggressive culture-war takes to large audiences. An account called “Maga Nadine” claims to be living in and posting from the United States but is, according to X, based in Morocco. An “America First” account with 67,000 followers is apparently based in Bangladesh. Poetically, the X handle @American is based in Pakistan, according to the feature.

Elon Musk’s Worthless, Poisoned Hall of Mirrors

Just FYI, December 25th will be the day I stop exploring the stupidity of our current timeline and the last Destroying Autocracy post. Again, see the notes above about The Fulcrum.

We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.

The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery

EuroNews reports:

Life after chatbots: Meet the ‘AI vegans’ refusing to accept a virtual reality

Kagi is:

Introducing SlopStop: Community-driven AI slop detection in Kagi Search

Orion 1.0 ✴︎ Browse Beyond

Fucking awesome if you use Macs.

TechPolicy Press reports:

Why Civil Society Is Sounding the Alarm on the EU’s Omnibus Rollback

The Guardian reports:

European parliament calls for social media ban on under-16s

The Free Software Foundation Europe shares:

Germany Stack: Only Free Software Enables Digital Sovereignty

Wikimedia announces:

Unifying our mobile and desktop domains

Decidim reviews:

Decidim Fest 2025: Collective energy, digital sovereignty and a common roadmap

The Conversation reports:

Tim Berners-Lee wants everyone to own their own data – his plan needs state and consumer support to work

Mullvad reports:

An important victory – but we still need to stop Chat Control.

Ploum says:

Don’t Do Snake Oil Writing

Fiona Fokus says:

I don’t care how well your “AI” works

Abso-fucking-lutely.

It’s Foss has:

Self-Hosting is Rising and Linux Users are Leading This Revolution

CNBC reports;

Americans are holding onto devices longer than ever and it’s costing the economy

Neutral

The Guardian asks:

Has Britain become an economic colony?

England always makes sure to ape the shitty parts of America.

W3C shares:

Preventing Abuse of Digital Credentials

Ben Werdmuller covers:

The EFF we need now

The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back

Heise reports:

Analysis of the Digital Sovereignty Summit: Open Source Gets Scolded

We Are Solomon reports:

Hungry for data: Inside Europol’s secretive AI program

The Intercept reports:

The FBI wants to use Surveillance Drones with Facial Recognition Technology

How Corporate Partnerships Powered University Surveillance of Palestine Protests

The Counter Offensive reports:

Witkoff was secretly giving Russians advice

Pariah States

The Register reports:

CISA warns spyware crews are breaking into Signal and WhatsApp accounts

DarkReading reports:

DPRK’s FlexibleFerret Tightens macOS Grip

Big Media

The Columbia Journalism Review reports:

Could Public Skepticism of the Press Actually Be Good for Democracy?

It could since most Big Media is owned by right-wing c^nts.

ProPublica shares:

ProPublica’s May-August 2025 Impact Report: Independent Investigations That Spur Change

Big Tech

Sage Journals

Algorithms at your service: Understanding how X’s systems of recommendation likely fueled the far-right riots in the United Kingdom by amplifying visual representations of racist conspiracy theories

Renée DiResta reports:

On the internet, nobody knows you’re a MAGA influencer… in Lagos

The Daily Beast reports:

Top MAGA Influencers Accidentally Unmasked as Foreign Trolls

404 Media reports:

America’s Polarization Has Become the World’s Side Hustle

The Register reports:

Meta knows how bad its sites are for kids, say lawyers

MM+M reports:

What healthcare marketers need to know about Meta’s censoring of abortion ads

The Markup reports:

How American Big Tech guards the profits it extracts around the world

Tuta reports:

Google wants to kill Android freedom: Say Goodbye to installing independent apps

Cybersecurity/Privacy

BleepingComputer reports:

Cox Enterprises discloses Oracle E-Business Suite data breach

Hmm, cable companies are literally shit at everything.

Code beautifiers expose credentials from banks, govt, tech orgs

Malicious LLMs empower inexperienced hackers with advanced tools

DarkReading reports:

Infamous Shai-hulud Worm Resurfaces From the Depths

The Register reports:

FCC guts post-Salt Typhoon telco rules despite ongoing espionage risk

GrapheneOS bails on OVHcloud over France’s privacy stance

Fediverse

Connected Places shares:

Fediverse Report – 144

Mastodon announces:

Mastodon Joins Forces with WE AID

Bonfire has:

What is Bonfire? Plural by design.

Buttondown has:

Making social networking more like email

Terence Eden has:

Now witness the power of this fully operational Fediverse!

Ghost has:

Explore the independent web

RadWeb Hosting shares:

How to Host Your Own Mastodon Server on a VPS (5 Minute Quick-Start Guide)

How to Install Pleroma on Ubuntu VPS (5 Minute Quick-Start Guide)

NodeBB announces:

NodeBB v4.7.0 — category boost fixes, remote media/emoji in chats, and more!

Slightly Decentralized Social Media

Connected Places has:

ATmosphere Report – 144

Internet Exchange reports:

‘Composable Moderation’ May Protect Bluesky from Political Pressure

CTAs (aka show us some free love)

• That’s it for this week. Please share this edition of Destroying Autocracy.
• Follow me on the Fediverse. Or this site via the button in the footer. Or via RSS. Or even our future home in 2026, if you want a head start.

Keep fighting!

Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse

#activitypub #ai #atproto #autocracy #bigJournalism #bigTech #bonfire #buttondown #democracy #fascism #fediverse #ghost #mastodon #nodebb #pleroma #stopChina #stopIsrael #stopRedAmerica #stopRussia #supportUkraine #technoanarchism #technofeudalism

https://battalion.mobileatom.net/?p=3992

First consumer coop
https://youtu.be/asYtw8_CfBw?si=0mwWDMm3lc_ZqIY_
#cooperative #cooperativism #technofeudalism

What is technofeudalism? #technofeudalism

https://youtu.be/DPpsr7ZJbWc?si=bmPWPcH32sxuJ9Dr

Check out the programme for our Joint International Workshop with the University of Bologna: this year, the subject is "Infrastructures of Rent Extraction".

It will take place in Bologna on 27 November.

ℹ️ https://ihc.fcsh.unl.pt/en/events/global-infrastructures-2025/

#Histodons #Capitalism #TechnoCapitalism #Technology #GlobalInfraestructures #Infraestructures #Extractivism #GlobalEconomy #TransnationalCorporations #BigTech #LabourHistory #RentierCapitalism #TechnoFeudalism #RentExtraction #Bologna

I realised a long time ago we were heading to a new kind of feudalism.

Glad to see more learned people than me touching on this subject.

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=41diQcq3Lq8

#fuckcapitalism #feudalism #technofeudalism

Doctorow has identified a specific, recurring cycle of decay that plagues digital platforms and has situated it with uncanny clarity within the context of the evolution of capitalism.
#technofeudalism #rentiercapitalism
#enclosurecapitalism

https://www.levyinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/wp_1100.pdf

Why it's not right right to call em 'fascist': " Trump, Musk, or the MAGA movement are .. not trying to strengthen the government—they’re trying to hollow it out. They’re not seeking a strong, centralized state to impose their will—they want a weak government that can’t regulate their power. "
https://fosterthinking.substack.com/p/freedom-isnt-feudal
#fascism #Trump #MAGA #feudalism #technofeudalism

https://nebula.tv/videos/tomnicholas-capitalism-is-dead-this-is-what-comes-next

https://theconversation.com/is-capitalism-dead-yanis-varoufakis-thinks-it-is-and-he-knows-who-killed-it-213992

«Kapitalism is ded; it's been kild by its oan biggest fans. That's the thesis of ekonomist and auther #YanisVaroufakis. In his book #TechnoFeudalism, he argews that markets and profits hav been replaist by digital feefdoms and ekonomik rents.»
#politics #economics #capitalism #communism #socialism #socialmedia #media #climatechange #climate #trump #bigtech #trumpism #usa #authoritarianism

However shitty you think products get when the CEO is Elon Musk, trust me, they're far worse. This is why it matters what kind of people run the companies we buy our things from.

@markhurst explains 👉 https://buttondown.com/creativegood/archive/more-reasons-to-avoid-tesla-and-musk/

#capitalism #oligarchy #technofeudalism #resist

Welcome to this week’s “Destroying Autocracy”.
It’s your source for curated news affecting democracy in the cyber arena with a focus on protecting it. #technoAnarchism #technoFeudalism #democracy #autocracy
https://battalion.mobileatom.net/destroying-autocracy-november-20-2025/

Destroying Autocracy – November 20, 2025

Welcome to this week’s “Destroying Autocracy”.

It’s your source for curated news affecting democracy in the cyber arena with a focus on protecting it. That necessitates an opinionated Butlerian jihad against big tech as well as evangelizing for open-source and the Fediverse. Since big media’s journalism wing is flailing and failing in its core duty to democracy, this is also a collection of alternative reporting on the eternal battle between autocracy and democracy. We also cover the cybersecurity world. You can’t be free without safety and privacy.

FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ’em.

The Programmer’s Fulcrum is the future (and smaller) home for a fusion of Symfony Station and Battalion. Its tagline is Devs Defending Democracy, Developing the OMN.

You can sign up now and for 2025 get an email with links to each week’s Symfony Station Communiqué and Battalion “Destroying Autocracy” post along with their featured articles. And you’ll be set with TPF after the fusing in January.

We are posting on the Fediverse now at @thefulcrum @thefulcrum.dev and original website content will start in 2026.

Featured Item(s)

Muni Town writes:

I’ve been trying to write this piece for years, really ever since I finished the first version of Open Source Explained (a v2 will drop early next year). Every time I get started I’m just overwhelmed with paralyzing visions of the commentariat accusing me of WrongThink.

So I drop it, because I’m tired to the bone of debating the minutae of open source definitions when the conversation we ought to be having is about power: who has it? (oligarchs), how did they get it? (monopolies & corruption), why is that a problem? (platform autocracy), and how do we the people take that power back? (protocols and open software).

Understanding ownership is power

It’s important to understand the codes in your life, because your life is made up of them. Once you understand which codes you already have access to and even the right to inspect, you can see more clearly which other codes you ought to have insight into.

Nothing makes me more anxious than writing about open source licensing because nothing brings out more opinion-havers, the vast majority of whom are speaking from a point of privilege-blindess in the western world. The widespread ignorance of the deeper power struggle at play (which we’re losing) has brought the free world to the very brink, so I’m pushing past the discomfort to honor the urgency of our moment.

Open Source Power

We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.

The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery

404 Media reports:

Ukraine Is Jamming Russia’s ‘Superweapon’ With a Song

Radio Free Europe reports:

How Britain’s Disposable Vape Ban Has Boosted Ukraine’s War Effort

TechCrunch reports:

Five people plead guilty to helping North Koreans infiltrate US companies as ‘remote IT workers’

Surveillance Tech Provide Proteir Was Hacked

a16z-backed super PAC is targeting Alex Bores, sponsor of New York’s AI safety bill — he says bring it on

Software Maxims has:

How FOSS Won and Why It Matters

Open Future announces:

Open Future Joins the European Network for Technological Resilience and Sovereignty

404 Media reports:

Airlines Will Shut Down Program That Sold Your Flights Records to Government

Elon Musk Could ‘Drink Piss Better Than Any Human in History,’ Grok Says

Literally, pathetic.

Framasoft has:

Renforcez l’internet du partage en contribuant à la robustesse de Framasoft

Support our 2026 campaign!

The Register reports:

Latest Servo release hints at a real Rust alternative to Chromium

Brussels eyes AWS, Azure for gatekeeper tag in cloud clampdown

Game over: Europol storms gaming platforms in extremist content sweep

The Guardian reports:

French authorities investigate alleged Holocaust denial posts on Elon Musk’s Grok AI

TechPolicy Press reports:

Brazil Supreme Court Ruling Redefines Framework for Platform Liability

The Center for Democracy and Technology has:

What Kids and Parents Want: Policy Insights for Social Media Safety Features

The Center for Democracy and Technology has:

What Kids and Parents Want: Policy Insights for Social Media Safety Features

Neutral

TechCrunch reports:

Databricks co-founder argues US must go open source to beat China in AI

The Guardian reports:

AI firms must be clear on risks or repeat tobacco’s mistakes, says Anthropic chief

The Center for Democracy and Technology reports:

Architects of Online Influence: How Creators, Platforms, and Policymakers Shape Political Speech

TechPolicy Press says:

If Europe Wants Digital Sovereignty, It Must Reinvent Who Owns Tech

MIT Technology Review reports:

Quantum physicists have shrunk and “de-censored” DeepSeek R1

The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back

Corporate Europe reports:

Preparing a roll-back of digital rights: Commission’s secretive meetings with industry

The Brussels Times reports:

Secret EU plans to allow Big Tech to train AI with our personal data

The Guardian reports:

Dark forces are preventing us fighting the climate crisis – by taking knowledge hostage

404 Media reports:

This App Lets ICE Track Vehicles and Owners Across the Country

IRS Accessed Massive Database of Americans Flights Without a Warrant

Cops Used Flock to Monitor No Kings Protests Around the Country

The Register reports:

Palantir plots NHS skills drive for its controversial data platform

Trump, Republicans try again to stop states from regulating AI

Pariah States

TechCrunch reports:

US, UK, and Australia sanction Russian ‘bulletproof’ web host used in ransomware attacks

Forbes reports:

Has Samsung Installed ‘Unremovable Israeli Spyware’ On Your Phone?

The Register reports:

Tens of thousands more ASUS routers pwned by suspected, evolving China operation

DarkReading reports:

Chinese APT Infects Routers to Hijack Software Updates

Big Media

TBD

Big Tech

The Guardian reports:

White nationalist talking points and racial pseudoscience: welcome to Elon Musk’s Grokipedia

MalwareBytes reorts:

Gmail can read your emails and attachments to train its AI, unless you opt out

The Register reports:

Researchers find hole in AI guardrails by using strings like =coffee

404 Media reports:

A Researcher Made an AI That Completely Breaks the Online Surveys Scientists Rely On

The ACLU reports:

Your Smartphone, Their Rules: How App Stores Enable Corporate-Government Censorship

Yep.

TechPolicy Press reports:

How Tech Oligarchs Profit from the Logic of ‘Finitude Capitalism’ and What to Do About It

Cybersecurity/Privacy

Privacy Guides has:

Email Security: Where We Are and What the Future Holds

DarkReading asks:

Can a Global, Decentralized System Save CVE Data?

Heise reports:

3.5 Billion Accounts: Complete WhatsApp Directory Retrieved and Evaluated

Signal or Delta Chat peeps.

Fediverse

Ben Werdmuller reports on:

The State of the Open Social Web

Great Stuff as usual from Ben.

ForBetter explores:

The future of hope on the Social Web

Connected Places has:

Fediverse Report – 142

Fediverse Report – 143

Laura Hargreaves has:

Ghost v6 Upgrade + Docker Migration: What I Learned (So You Don’t Have To)

Big news with Mastodon this week:

My next chapter with Mastodon

The Future is Ours to Build – Together

Hopefully the new regime (foundation vs. benevolent dictator) will focus on trust & safety and not trying to be Twitter 2.

Chris Sturmsucht shares:

Fediverse: a new open and social web

Slightly Decentralized Social Media

Connected Places has:

ATmosphere Report 143 – Eurosky Live

TechCrunch reports:

Bluesky announces moderation changes focused on better tracking, improved transparency

CTAs (aka show us some free love)

• That’s it for this week. Please share this edition of Destroying Autocracy.
• Follow me on the Fediverse. Or this site via the button in the footer. Or via RSS. Or even our future home in 2026, if you want a head start.

Keep fighting!

Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse

#activitypub #ai #autocracy #bigJournalism #bigTech #democracy #fascism #fediverse #ghost #mastodon #stopChina #stopIsrael #stopRedAmerica #stopRussia #supportUkraine #technoanarchism #technofeudalism

https://battalion.mobileatom.net/?p=3954

#Technofeudalism is the second stupidest newspeak word (after my favorite, "expat"). "Manifesto…", chapter 1 - there is nothing new.