There is a unholy marriage between business and state in the west; you could almost call them the same entity at this point.

Economic Fascism and the Power Elite | Mises Institute

Take note socialists and peace lovers: CORPORATIONS ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS! D'Amato notes:

---

These firms, in their partnership with the state, are “granted a deliberate, representational monopoly”2 as payment for a level of control exercised by government. The iron triangles that form the fascist tripartism detailed by Higgs recall the thesis of C. Wright Mills’s groundbreaking sociological study, The Power Elite. In his masterwork, published first in 1956, Mills gives an account of an intermeshed elite made up of a “political directorate,” the “warlords” of the military establishment, and “corporate chieftains” at the helm of Big Business bureaucracies.3 Hardly resulting from the legitimate free market defended by libertarians, the social and economic problems and crises we see all around us are in fact the moldering fruits of elite statism. And war, as both the engine of an entire economic paradigm and its attendant psychological and sociological substructure, has been the American state’s most preferred expedient, burdening peaceful, productive society with class rule. The permanent war economy, the unremitting exercise in plunder that now makes up a terrifyingly large portion of the economy at large, must necessarily poise itself upon antisocial state-worship. As Vicesimus Knox wrote, “Fear is the principle of all despotic government, and therefore despots make war their first study and delight.”4 The existence of a corporate command-and-control economy, whose configuration grows out of layered state interventions, depends crucially on popular attitudes regarding the state. Only a public trusting of elite judgment and expertise would abide a system built on just the kinds of subjugation that the American ruling elite hypocritically claimed to defy in two world wars.

---

These media companies are using a loophole in the law that classifies them as tech platforms and not publishers liable for their content. Unless you want to do away with libel laws, slander laws and regulations for the publishing industry you should support regulating these tech monopolies.

So reclassify them as publishers, starting with Facebook and Twitter. They exercise editorial control, so make them live up to the standards of publishers.

Then there's the issue of how import are the service they provide. The west has become so reliant on the internet and digital communication that IMO it's getting close to becoming a utility like water, roads and phone services.

But why? There are decentralized means of communication available. No one is forced to use Twitter, Facebook, et al. I don't, and if anyone asks my opinion I'd advise them not to.

Imagine if social movements like the civil rights movement or the temperance movement could have been disrupted by the corporate/gov oligarchs just shutting off water, electricity and phones to political dissidents.

It's not obvious to me that the outcomes of those movements have been on balance good for humanity. That's really at least two different discussions though.

That's how these giants are operating. Hell they are even getting into denial of banking services.

I'm aware that banks are now being weaponized by radical extremists to punish wrongspeech. Our banking system has been fucked for generations. Free market solutions are not allowed to spring up because the banks are fully integrated fascist institutions.

I'm not totally anti libertarian ideas. I enjoy a lot of what Hoppe says but we have to deal with the current legal and political situation we are living in now.

Empowering the elites by creating more government enforced monopolies isn't a solution to the problem of monopolies.

In many cases the oligarchs manipulate libertarian minded voters to oppress people even further. I.e. they might 'deregulate' a certain sector of the economy but only to give it to their cronies in a secret sale and then those cronies never really break up or sell the industries to allow competitors.

I mean ... yes of course. "We're encroaching on your liberty for your own benefit" is nothing new. Societies which refuse to adopt personal accountability as a cultural norm must always depend on the "kindness" of their rulers.

Capitalism is totally being stifled by this alliance but small libertarian changes actually make matters worse not better. That's why there are oligarchs that back both progressive AND libertarian factions. They use both to get their way.

As we've seen, capitalism works pretty well in fascist systems. I think it works even better in systems based on individual liberty. Let me know when you've suffered enough. Then maybe we can talk about the best steps to end fascism in America.