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Comment by M95D | Hacker News Reader

> A rich billionaire can still be affected by shareholders.

A rich billioneaire is a shareholder.

> If they stop providing shareholder value [...] they have to change.

But we (the small people) don't care about the shareholder value. Shareholder value is often contrary to what we (the small people) value, so expect change for the worse.

> due to mass boycotts or public scandals

Sorry, what?

> has spent a quarter century digging his claws into every facet of the country

Well, capitalists (as a group) spent 100+ years doing the same, so ...

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It's baffling for me living in Russia that modern western societies see everything wrong with dictatorship from a goverment but nothing or almost nothing wrong with dictatorship from big capital. E.g. you can't change your break pads unless you go to authorized repair (literal control over your private property and how you use it) and big platforms banning you from multiple public forums because you said a big no-no word (deplatforming and cross-platform restrictions are a thing)

You don’t have to look very hard to see an enormous number of people expressing discontent at the latter.

To speak to your examples, the right to repair, farmers vs John Deere, the exodus from X to Bluesky, the rise of alternative messaging platforms, the outright murder of CEOs on the street and the beatification of the primary suspect on social media…just to scratch the surface

These are all headlines straight from HN and the fact that you even know about them is the difference.

The fundamental difference is while we both lack any real power to change this, under an actual dictatorship people get jailed or worse for that expression.

Let’s touch base on this again when Dictatorship from big capital means Disney puts me in prison for dissent against the mouse and then offers me clemency if I go to the front lines in their next special military operation.

oh boy. you served GP a portion so generous they'll have plenty left over to take home and chew on for a while.

that last sentence rung like a bell & will reverberate until Larry Ellison's police drones follow you home because you blocked the drive-in of a Larry-owned fastfood franchise by way of a peaceful sit-in, protesting the mistreatment of human workers by robot overseers at Larry's Lasagna, nation-wide.

orwell it not come to that?

"big capital" does not have the monopoly on violence (except in a dictatorship, through connections to the "big man").

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