As of when I'm writing this, three stories on the front page of HN (17, 18, 19) are about two bigtech companies dissing (for the lack of another polite word) their customers and third party vendors. I don't know how long it will take for the world to realize that these companies have nothing but at most contempt for you, except for your money which they want all for themselves. I'm not going to hold back on the fact that these multi-billion and trillion dollar MNCs lack any sort of scruples or integrity and their relationship with you is purely parasitic in nature.

I know that jailbreak is an option. But that's a rapidly closing avenue. Devices are getting harder by the day to jailbreak. The only correct solution is to vote with your wallet in favor of your own self-respect and independence. To not be their economic slaves. Consistently choose products that value your freedom, even if it's inconvenient and costly. Choose local stores, even if that requires you to walk to the nearby shop. You stand to gain a lot for those sacrifices. In fact, those gains may be things you can't afford to lose in the first place - like the democracy. (It's not a big secret that many of them have fascist ambitions.)

But whenever I raise this point here, somebody or the other rebukes that with some nonsensical argument about 'market demand' or something similar. First of all, market demand is decided by the consumer, unless we concede that right to the market manipulators. Secondly, this isn't something novel. Boycotts and preferential consumerism have been practiced successfully for ages and is in full effect as we speak. Can't you see how the citizens of entire nations are resisting fascism and hegemony through their shopping preferences? Due to this, I have serious reservations about people who make such counter arguments.

The technically proficient people like the HN crowd are the ones who should raise the alarm about technological exploitation and techno-fascism among the larger population and suggest the solutions. Instead, these people are out to defeat all such efforts and expose the population to the greedy cabal. I don't know if it's nihilism or outright betrayal. But don't be like that, please! Your knowledge and voice are valuable and they command respect. Use them to free your society and yourself from this economic exploitation and hegemony. Please start preaching publicly for the sake of all of our future.

> But that's a rapidly closing avenue. Devices are getting harder by the day to jailbreak. The only correct solution is to vote with your wallet in favor of your own self-respect and independence.

Sorry, "vote with your wallet" doesn't work on technical topics that average consumers don't experience viscerally on a regular basis. The only correct solution is political action that results in legislation and regulation.

The market is not a mechanism for maximizing consumer benefit, it's a mechanism for minimally meeting it. That's why enshitification happens: it's MNCs figuring out how much they can get away with, or part of a pot-boiling exercise to allow them to get away with more.