Podcast Summary

Podcast: The Majority Report with Sam Seder
Episode: 3591 - Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse w/ Cory Doctorow
Date: September 29, 2025
Guest: Cory Doctorow, author of “(Inshittification) Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It”

Episode Overview

This episode features a wide-ranging interview with writer and activist Cory Doctorow, discussing his new book on the phenomenon he calls "inshittification" — a term describing how digital platforms and economic systems decay, rigging themselves increasingly against consumers and workers to maximize corporate profit. Sam Seder and the crew dive deep into why modern life, especially online, seems to be getting worse, exploring the structural, political, and regulatory roots of this decline. Doctorow argues that monopoly power, deregulation, and failed antitrust enforcement have created "shitagenic" conditions enabling platform decay, and offers insights into how meaningful change remains possible.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. What is “Inshittification”?

• Definition: A theory of how platforms and products, especially in big tech, decay over time—starting out good for users, then prioritizing business customers, and finally ending up exploitative to maximize profit.
• Doctorow: “You have platforms that are good to their end users, find a way to lock those users in, then make things better for their business customers, find a way to lock the business customers in, make things worse for them and then turn into a pile of shit. That's the inshittification thesis.” (23:52)

2. The Role of Policy & Regulation

• Platforms aren’t decaying by accident or “genius,” but because past safeguards (antitrust laws, regulations) have been deliberately gutted:
  • US antitrust enforcement essentially ceased in the late 20th century, allowing companies like Google to dominate by buying up all promising competitors.
  • “Congress created the shitagenic environment and then we got inshittification.” — Doctorow (29:53)
  • The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act forbade consumers from modifying products/software, stifling competition and user control.

3. Exploding Myths About Tech

• It's not simply about “move fast and break things” or VC greed; even wildly profitable companies like Google made things worse for users simply because they could, and there was no regulatory restraint.
• “Google was the most profitable company in the history of the world and then they made things worse. And so it wasn't because of … overinvestment … It's because policymakers … took decisions” — Doctorow (26:32)

4. How Big Tech Captured the System

• Judges, regulators, and even workers lost power:
  • Antitrust education for judges was subverted by corporate-funded “Mann Seminars,” resulting in pro-monopoly precedent (31:53).
  • Labor lost leverage due to layoffs and a growing tech workforce, making it easier for management to push through anti-user changes.

5. The Global Fightback

• A “quietly miraculous” antitrust revival is happening, especially in Europe (Digital Markets Act), Canada, the UK, Australia, and China (40:17, 41:25).
  • Apple threatened, but couldn’t afford, to leave European markets over new regulation—showing real leverage.

6. The Coalition for Change

• The popular realization that “concentrated wealth is the source of so many of our problems” is giving rise to new political coalitions—spanning both the left and some segments of the populist right (43:31).
• “There is this ... inchoate understanding that anti monopoly is anti wealth concentration. ... Maybe like generations and playing a terrible board game in our living rooms have taught us what a monopoly is. At least.” — Doctorow (43:31)

7. Individual vs. Collective Action

• Changing personal habits—boycotting platforms, sorting recycling—won’t solve systemic monopoly power (46:53).
  • “I don't think you're going to shop hard enough to make monopolies go away ... It's not change. Change comes from ... political movements.” — Doctorow (46:53)
• Real progress depends on organization: Doctorow promotes the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Electronic Frontier Alliance as a vehicle for local action and coalition building (47:53).

8. International Potential & Hope

• The global nature of tech means successful regulation or law in one country can be exported, making collective action more feasible than in the age of industrial monopolists like Rockefeller (48:44).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Doctorow on Tech Decay:
  “We let the Internet turn into five giant websites filled with screenshots of text from the other four.” (28:00)

• On How Corporate Power Undermined Law:
  “Judges have to go for continuing education ... they funded this thing called the Mann Seminars ... 40% of the federal judiciary graduated from it. And it was just a session where you would learn about how antitrust was bad and monopolies were efficient.” (31:53)

• Doctorow’s Hopeful Note:
  “Something I think that's like quietly miraculous has happened since the late 2010s ... all over the world we’ve seen this surge of antitrust action, right?” (40:17)

• On Coalitions:
  “Political change is downstream of coalition formation ... there is this sense that concentrated wealth is the source of so many of our problems.” (43:31)

• On Action:
  “Change comes from ... political movements. It's a systemic problem. ... real progress depends on organization.” (46:53)

Important Timestamps

• What is Inshittification? (23:11–25:49)
• Policy & Antitrust Failure (25:49–31:53)
• Judicial Capture: Mann Seminars (31:53–36:19)
• Obstacles to Reform (36:19–40:17)
• Global Antitrust Pushback (40:17–42:35)
• Coalition Building & Populism (43:31–46:11)
• Limits of Individual Action; Need for Movements (46:53–49:39)
• Where to Find the Book & EFA (49:39–51:04)

Resources Mentioned

• Cory Doctorow’s new book: Inshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It
• Electronic Frontier Foundation / Electronic Frontier Alliance: EFF.org
• Doctorow’s E-book and Audiobook store: craphound.com/shop
• Bookshop.org (for physical book purchases without supporting Amazon)

Tone and Atmosphere

• Candid, analytical, and irreverent: The conversation is brisk but peppered with Doctorow’s wry humor (“They get up every morning and they go grab the giant lever yanked inshittification in the C suite.” – 31:53) and the hosts’ banter about current events and the absurdity of contemporary tech, politics, and policy.
• Hopeful despite challenges: Despite painting a bleak history of regulatory retreat, Doctorow emphasizes the possibility of mass movements and effective regulation, drawing optimism from developments abroad and burgeoning coalitions domestically.

Takeaways for Listeners

• Our worsening digital and economic environment is not accidental or “inevitable.” It’s the product of deliberate policy, regulatory capture, and the unchecked growth of monopoly power.
• The solution lies not in tweaking individual behavior, but in collective action and political resurgence—locally and globally.
• There is proof that concerted public pressure, especially at the regulatory level, can force even the largest companies to capitulate—and the time is ripe for coalition-building and activism.