Mark McCaughrean

Capitalism – the great con game wrought by those who rake in billions & billions by claiming they make people’s lives better while the only winners are them 🤑

Well worth reading this piece by @pluralistic on “enshittification” & in particular deep pile of ordure that Amazon has buried us all in 💩

Cory’s thesis is almost entirely vindicated by the pompous & deliberately obfuscational response by Amazon at the end 🙄

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/05/way-past-its-prime-how-did-amazon-get-so-rubbish

Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

Sick of scrolling through junk results, AI-generated ads and links to lookalike products? The author and activist behind the term ‘enshittification’ explains what’s gone wrong with the internet – and what we can do about it

The Guardian
Oct 5, 2025 at 7:59pmIceCubesApp
Show threadFelix 🇺🇦🚴‍♂️🇪🇺Oct 5, 2025

@markmccaughrean @pluralistic

You don't have to use Amazon. It's possible to live without it. I've been abstinent for a year now.

😉

Show threadMark McCaughreanOct 5, 2025
@leobm @pluralistic Sure, I agree, but Cory’s thesis is wider & applies to many aspects of the commodified internet. His article provides a very interesting insight into how Amazon created & abuses its quasi-monopoly, but as an example for many other firms. And his call to take back the internet from the big firms is certainly thought provoking.
Show threadCavyherdOct 6, 2025

@leobm @markmccaughrean @pluralistic

Came here to say this. (I gave it up back in the teens & no longer miss it at all.)

It's more work (sometimes a LOT more), but I have yet to run across anything that I absolutely could not find outside of Amazon.

I get it; we all have differences in where we can allocate bandwidth. Cory's point that no consumer can have meaningful, individual economic influence on a corp aside, at least my soul is clean?

Show threadCavyherdOct 6, 2025

@leobm @markmccaughrean @pluralistic

Aside from that, I'm amused that the Guardian actually got a response out of Amazon. "No, honest, we're good, actually."

Show threadAlan CampbellOct 5, 2025
@markmccaughrean @pluralistic I knew Amazon are unmitigated arseholes, I didn’t know they were this bad though.