alt Hacker NewsOppressors are not a monoculture. Sometimes they are extremely entrenched, sometimes they are fragile like a teacup. Sometimes they seek decelerationist and traditionalist narratives, while others seek accelerationist and neoliberal ideals. Outlining "oppression" as a dialectical certainty is why revolutionary politics die in the cradle while capitalism has Billions Served written under the sign. Reality is convoluted, and politics are not a computer that transist from "populist" to "authoritarian" depending on the program you run. Plenty of revolutionary history has taught us that.
Framing Apple, Google or Microsoft in this manner is counterproductive and does not produce any serious roadmap to undermine their behavior. The will to change has to come from the top, or else it will never be conclusively realized or codified. Change has to be genuine and desirable, or else someone else will come along to copy FAANG and take their place. This is why regulation provoked such a strong anti-intervention sentiment from businesses; it works. A USB-C iPhone was inevitable, but only once you changed incentive to punish lock-in.
On oppression's flip side, one could argue that the continued success of businesses like IBM provides precedent for private capital to aid and abet mass atrocities without ever facing real punishment. Internal revolution has never produced results in these circumstances, and I don't think it ever will. You can't rely on mushy-gushy feelings to make people do what's right, you have to lay down the law in black-and-white.
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> Mushy gushy feelings
Capitalist realism is the most mushy gushy, vibes-based ideological cowardice at large, today.
Sure, oppressive power structures are not a static monolith, and they constantly morph and reinvent themselves to survive. However, the conclusion that change must therefore come strictly from the "top" via "black-and-white" regulation (or that that bottom-up revolution relies on "mushy-gushy feelings"!!) misses how both state regulation and nonviolent resistance actually function in reality.
While top-down regulation (like the EU mandating USB-C) can force specific consumer changes, relying on the "top" to conclusively lay down the law ignores the reality of regulatory capture. The state is not a neutral, objective arbiter; it is heavily influenced by the very private capital you wish to regulate.
Or is regulatory capture just a mushy gushy delusion?
If you rely exclusively on top-down regulations to protect humanity's best interests, you are relying on a legal apparatus that is constantly being bought, rewritten, and defanged by the very entities it is supposed to regulate.
Again, you correctly point out that if FAANG falls, someone else will just copy them and take their place. Sociologist Beverly Silver describes this exact dynamic as the core survival mechanism of capitalism. When corporations face intense pressure, regulation, or labor unrest, they do not simply accept defeat; they implement fixes. They relocate to regions with cheaper labor and fewer regulations (as previously discussed in this thread), and they automate or restructure the workplace to disempower workers.
Furthermore, they abandon heavily regulated or highly competitive industries altogether and move their capital into entirely new, unregulated product lines (like moving from manufacturing to tech and finance). This endless shell game guarantees that playing "whack-a-mole" with individual companies via regulation will never conclusively end exploitative behavior. Capital will simply shift to a new product cycle or a new geography to escape the new laws.
On the other hand, nonviolent struggle relies on coercion. It does not rely on converting the opponent or appealing to their morality—in fact, conversion is the rarest mechanism of success as you may already surmise.
Political power requires constant, active cooperation: it needs human resources, skills, knowledge, and administrative compliance to function. By systematically withdrawing labor, obedience, and technical skills, the working class does not appeal to a CEO's conscience; it cuts off the very sources of the ruler's power, paralyzing the system. To nonviolently coerce an opponent means to create a situation where, despite their resolution not to give in, they are physically and economically unable to defend their policies because the system can no longer operate.
The law is captured and always so by the most powerful
So your solution is to trust the powerful to do the right thing?