![]() The laissez-faire economic policies that attract wealthy donors and brand the right as “pro-business” are incompatible with the insistence on governing the political positions of those donors and their companies. ![]() One cannot be in favor of unfettered capitalism and simultaneously hold that the government should restrict the speech and activities of those corporations when that speech is out of step with the right-wing positioning in the culture wars. The only value of Hawley’s book is as an illustration of the ideological tension in the American right. Hawley is so absurdly partisan that one wonders if he is intentionally aping Donald Trump in an Andy Kaufman-esque parody act that the death of satire can no longer accommodate. The problem is that Hawley approaches this problem in a way that is profoundly incompetent in even the most rudimentary technical details. The Federal Trade Commission is already mounting a lawsuit against Facebook that looks to take this action. ![]() Hawley raises the prospect of a serious antitrust action taken by the government against these companies, an action that might break-up these companies and enforce serious regulations. The book has a narrow policy focus, oriented towards a potential antitrust action against five particular companies (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Twitter) any potential interest to the book is clouded by Hawley’s insistence on partisan invective and a play at heroism that frequently collapses into a silly, anti-charismatic mess. On the other hand, he’s sometimes praised as a relatively intellectually respectable member of the GOP congressional delegation. On the one hand, Hawley is a notoriously partisan figure with a clear political agenda and the aim of eventually becoming President. Senator Josh Hawley’s Tyranny of Big Tech sets out competing expectations.
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