This Machine Kills

The great Aaron Thorpe — co-host of Trillbillies, host of A Time of Monsters, the poster formerly known as posadist_trapgd — joins us for an extremely fun episode as we riff about why aliens would be communists, the paranoid imagination of imperialism, the wonders of luxury surveillance, the spectacle of convenience, and the ways tech companies really do be manufacturing consent. • Follow Aaron on twitter: twitter.com/thotteusstevens • Listen to Trillbillies: patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty • Listen to A Time of Monsters: patreon.com/atompod Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We go in on the dangerous obsession that billionaires like Bill Gates have with framing the most existential risks in society, from public health to climate catastrophe, as problems of market failure that can be solved through clever engineering, technological innovation, and property rights. All of which are best administered by who? You guessed it: “hundreds of Elon Musks.” They come preaching salvation, while in reality they are practicing necropolitics—or, the power to decide who may live, who must die, and in what ways for which reasons. Some stuff we reference: • How Does Bill Gates Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis? | by Bill McKibben https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/15/books/review/bill-gates-how-to-avoid-a-climate-disaster.html • The Dark Side of Bill Gates’s Climate Techno-Optimism | by Kate Aronoff https://newrepublic.com/article/161533/bill-gates-climate-vaccines TMK shirts are now available here: https://www.bonfire.com/mech-luddite/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! http://patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

It’s time for a TMK fact check: coronavirus vaccine edition. We give five out of five pinocchios to the claim that Big Pharma won’t profit hand over fist from the production of vaccines. Five pinocchios to the claim that countries in the Global South will receive fair and cheap access to vaccines and treatments. And an unprecedented six out of five pinocchios to the claim that inequities in healthcare are actually market failures solved by stronger intellectual property rights for pharmaceutical corporations. Some stuff we reference: • Fact-check: Will poor countries miss out on COVID-19 vaccinations? | Deutsches Welles https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-will-poor-countries-miss-out-on-covid-19-vaccinations/a-55886334 • Canada's COVAX program use draws criticism for unequal vaccine distribution | Yahoo Canada https://news.yahoo.com/canada-covax-unequal-vaccines-205249650.html • Big Pharma Prepare to Profit from the Coronavirus | The Intercept https://theintercept.com/2020/03/13/big-pharma-drug-pricing-coronavirus-profits/ • Big Pharma’s Covid-19 Profiteers | Rolling Stone https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/big-pharma-covid-19-profits-1041185/ • The Remaking of Big Pharma in a Post-Pandemic World | Foreign Policy https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/04/17/big-pharma-post-pandemic-world-coronavirus-vaccine-cure-intellectual-property/ TMK shirts are now available here: https://www.bonfire.com/mech-luddite/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! http://patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

Cold open: CNBC turns on Chamath and Clover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRWnxUsyVDg We pick back up on the story of Clover Health—which is sure to be a business school case study of investors beware—and talk through Hindenburg Research’s damning report that raises a number of very serious concerns about Clover Health’s business practices, undisclosed Department of Justice investigation, alleged conflicts of interests, and the CEO of Clover’s past experience busting out hospitals in New Jersey. The allegations against Clover are not just an exception, but rather a perfect encapsulation of the corporate chicanery that spreads, like a weed strangling the economy, when a thousand SPACs bloom. TMK shirts are now available here: https://www.bonfire.com/mech-luddite/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! http://patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

Cold open: Chamath, Clover, CNBC https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/video/chamath-palihapitiya-addresses-some-concerns-surrounding-clover-health-spac/vp-BB19KRae SPACs are blowing up. Everywhere you turn, it’s SPAC this, SPAC that. What the frack is a SPAC? After an explainer on this cool new financial innovation, we dive into a juicy story of a SPAC in action – SPACtion, if you will – Clover Health. This hot new insurtech company is being taken public by a SPAC sponsored by Chamath Palihapitiya, famed venture capitalist, wannabe California governor, so-called King of SPACs. But as a long, in-depth report by Hindenburg Research details, could Clover Health be riddled with the kind of corporate malfeasance, deception, and fraud that might lead shrewd entrepreneurs to avoid the disclosures and scrutiny that come with going public the old fashioned way? Are things like "public disclosure" and "business fundamentals" actually socialist plots to destroy capitalism? We detail the allegations against Clover Health made by Hindenburg Research’s investigation. Some stuff we reference: • What Are SPACs, the Trend Blowing Up the Finance World? | Ed Ongweso Jr. https://www.vice.com/en/article/4ade7b/what-are-spacs-the-trend-blowing-up-the-finance-world • Clover Health: How the “King of SPACs” Lured Retail Investors Into a Broken Business Facing an Active, Undisclosed DOJ Investigation | Hindenburg Research https://hindenburgresearch.com/clover/ TMK shirts are now available here: https://www.bonfire.com/mech-luddite/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! http://patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

Cory Doctorow joins us again for an excellent, wide-ranging discussion about his critique of surveillance capitalism, the mind control fallacy that captures critics, how monopoly jurisprudence is trapped in the 80s, sectarian schisms in science fiction, the difficulty of imagining revolutionary moments, and much more. Links to Cory’s work: • Twitter: https://twitter.com/doctorow • Books: https://craphound.com/ • Blog: https://pluralistic.net/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! http://patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

Cold open: excerpt from UBIK by Philip K. Dick Outro: amazing new track by Jereme, "End of Time" We’re joined by Cory Doctorow — prolific author, longtime activist, friend of the show — to learn about a critical issue that much of his advocacy work centers on: adversarial interoperability, a.k.a competitive compatibility. Cory explains why this approach to designing and governing technological systems is crucial for knocking down the walled gardens that keep us captive and for breaking up the highly concentrated corporate oligopoly. For ensuring the business of innovation serves people’s needs and for empowering us all with greater self-determination and agency over the things that mediate our lives. To put it simply: for being users, not just used. Cory also joined us for a blockbuster doubleheader — so stick around for the premium episode where we discuss surveillance capitalism, science fiction, and much more. Links to Cory’s work: • Twitter: https://twitter.com/doctorow • Books: https://craphound.com/ • Blog: https://pluralistic.net/ • Adversarial interoperability: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! http://patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

Picking back up on the fight between Big Media and Big Tech, we dig deeper into the type of power of platforms wield, how their political influence operates, the prioritization of consumership over citizenship, and their threats to return us to the state of nature — where life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short — if we don’t pledge allegiance to the platform. Some stuff we reference: • Are We All Amazon Primed? Consumers and the Politics of Platform Power by Pepper D. Culpepper and Kathleen Thelen | Comparative Political Studies: https://scihub.wikicn.top/10.1177/0010414019852687 • Joel Kaplan's Policy Team Sways Big Facebook Decisions Like Alex Jones Ban by Ryan Mac and Craig Silverman | Buzzfeed: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/mark-zuckerberg-joel-kaplan-facebook-alex-jones • There’s a Smarter Way to Make Tech Pay for News by Will Oremus | OneZero: https://onezero.medium.com/a-smarter-way-to-make-tech-pay-for-news-9255e3b8dccb Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! http://patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

After months of threats, Facebook finally hit the big red off button on the server labeled Australia and Google is making big backroom deals with media barons like Rupert Murdoch. To help us parse through the policy debates and online discourse about the Australian news media bargaining code, we’re joined by J.R. Hennessy (http://twitter.com/jrhennessy), editor of Business Insider Australia. Henno gives us a bigger picture of how the Internet has long left behind those heady days of a free and open utopia as we discuss the changing relationship between Big Tech and Big Media and the role of government regulation. Read Henno’s great piece on his substack: http://jrhennessy.substack.com/p/zucked Some other stuff we reference: • The trouble with the media bargaining code, by Lizzie O'Shea: http://overland.org.au/2020/12/the-trouble-with-the-media-bargaining-code/ • A pox on Facebook, but also on the media bargaining code, by Samantha Floreani: http://www.smh.com.au/national/a-pox-on-facebook-but-also-on-the-media-bargaining-code-20210218-p573qb.html • Big Tech versus journalism: publishers watch Australia fight with bated breath, by Richard Waters et al.: http://www.ft.com/content/2fed6b2a-01ba-4c7e-8e95-d50f74c316bf Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! http://patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

We riff on the archetype of the tech guy who can’t bear his California dream being soured by the existence of other people struggling to get by in a city his industry has immiserated. Then dive into the formation of Facebook’s Oversight Board—their very own so-called Supreme Court—and how their cosplaying as Founding Fathers reveals larger lessons for shifts underway in corporate vs. state sovereignty. Some stuff we reference: • California Exit Interview: Fleeing $17 Salads and 'General Lawlessness' by Joe Garofoli: https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/California-Exit-Interview-Fleeing-17-salads-and-15947926.php • Inside the Making of Facebook’s Supreme Court by Kate Klonick: https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/inside-the-making-of-facebooks-supreme-court • Liberalism is Dead by Vicky Osterweil: https://thenewinquiry.com/liberalism-is-dead/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).