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I spent more time on this piece than almost anything else I've written in the last year. Building a better, more decentralized internet is an inherent necessity if you want a functioning democracy. I hope people find it a useful encapsulation of where we're at. www.liberalism.org/p/enshittifi...

The key argument is that centralized systems aren't *just* leading to enshittification (a la @doctorow.pluralistic.net), but also to "despotification." The centralized systems create chokepoints that become targets not just of profit rent seekers, but political ones as well.

Control over centralized chokepoints becomes a team effort between those seeking to extract both economic & political power.

But a key point in all of this: if everyone just passively accepts what's given to us, we don't reach that better, more decentralized, more democratic world (hey look where things stand today). It requires making some key choices.

Anyway, I put a lot of effort into this piece and am really proud of it. Thanks to @liberalism.org for publishing it and @jkuznicki.bsky.social for doing a great job editing the piece. www.liberalism.org/p/enshittifi...