Ibn Khaldun documented this cycle in the 14th century. Acemoglu and Robinson formalized it as "extractive institutions" (and won a Nobel prize for it). It's not new.
And then I started thinking about Cory Doctorow (npub1fdr…lvhs)'s enshittification framework: attract users, lock them in, extract value. That's not a description of platform capitalism. That's a description of Ur. Of Athens. Of Rome. Of the East India Company. Same pattern, different API.
This isn't a "capitalism is bad" argument. 5/8
Curtis "Ovid" Poe (he/him)
npub1n2…he42n
2026-04-02 11:26:35 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…0885
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npub1n2snycspn4y5l5lmps55qcl09m0uue3grvn64l7q8xf5xqc8d4fs7he42nSeen on
wss://relay.momostr.pinkPublished at
2026-04-02 11:26:35 UTCEvent JSON
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"content": "Ibn Khaldun documented this cycle in the 14th century. Acemoglu and Robinson formalized it as \"extractive institutions\" (and won a Nobel prize for it). It's not new.\n\nAnd then I started thinking about nostr:npub1fdrpydz4n2dpgpy5xhsa6rjg8ytggn82mt0addw6sf93272nhhnqsjlvhs's enshittification framework: attract users, lock them in, extract value. That's not a description of platform capitalism. That's a description of Ur. Of Athens. Of Rome. Of the East India Company. Same pattern, different API.\n\nThis isn't a \"capitalism is bad\" argument. 5/8",
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