There’s a war brewing, one that is sure to heat up if Republicans make the gains predicted in the 2022 midterm elections. But this war is not across the aisle, it’s a bit more internecine on the political right, between the libertarians and the traditional conservatives specifically, and it will revolve around regulation of private companies. Biden is monitoring this conflict and will likely be igniting it (because right-wing fighting is good for demoralized, weak left).
Among the terms that will define this war — and you should’ve heard them by now — are: “Antitrust,” “Big Tech,” “Censorship,” “Public Square,” “Market Power,” etc.
And now, thanks to the Biden administration’s said stoking, another term will enter the pantheon used to frame the narrative: “Meat Conglomerate”
(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden will announce plans Monday to combat the market power of the giant conglomerates that dominate meat and poultry processing, ratcheting up a months-long campaign that has blamed anti-competitive practices for contributing to surging inflation.
— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) January 3, 2022
The Big Meat and Big Tech: What is the connection? The topic of the market power of tech companies has been heatedly discussed by the right, as Facebook and Twitter de-platform unorthodox views, and Amazon crowds out retailers who have had to deal with the pandemic. The right has been arguing over this issue. The Libertarians think that reforming or even eliminating Section 230, which allows tech platforms to curate their content without consequences is the best way to address the problem. Traditional conservatives view the town square of discourse as being controlled and manipulated by corporations too large to benefit the Republic.
Sociocorporate Tyranny is gaining momentum, adhering unanimously to a subjugationist ruling classes impulse, and using communications networks as weapons of mass destruction. This is why libertarian views like these are no longer relevant. https://t.co/XpjmXV5rhy
— Josh Hammer (@josh_hammer) January 3, 2022
Hammer wrote about it. American CompassIn January 2021, it will be back:
The problem of Big Tech represents the tip of the broader “woke capital” iceberg—an accelerating and harrowing phenomenon that, taken to its logical conclusion, could unravel America at the seams by effectively segregating the citizenry’s enjoyment of its most quotidian activities (where to shop, where to dine, where to bank, where to seek medical advice, and so forth) by political ideology or partisan affiliation. We are rapidly approaching the point where simply being a registered Republican might be deemed a “cancelable” offense in large swaths of Polite Society™.
How to forestall such a societal unraveling is of course an immensely complex question—though at a bare minimum, ceasing from actively stoking the flames where such flame-stoking can reasonably be avoided is prudent and necessary. Sometimes, it seems like praying for another Great Awakening is our best hope (and perhaps it is). But a more tangible place to begin would be a concerted effort, on behalf of “We the People,” to reclaim from the machines, the digital medium, and the Silicon Valley oligarchs the republican self-governance—rightfully ours—of which the Constitution’s Preamble so famously speaks.
And Biden, aware that wrapped in these coming discussions will be talk of market power, barriers to entry, and antitrust behavior, has decided to shift the focus away from the solidly left-leaning tech industry (remember: Zuckerberg was a BIG help to Biden in 2020) and place the blame on “Big Meat,” despite the fact that heretofore no one even suspected there was such a thing as “Big Meat” (probably because if there was, it wasn’t much of a threat to our way of life).
Biden: “Four big corporations control more than half the markets in beef, pork & poultry. These middlemen, that they buy from, farmers & ranchers, & sell the processors. Excuse me sell the process — excuse me sell the processed product, to grocery stores. That’s the way it works” pic.twitter.com/wUpKb5b9oj
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 3, 2022
My colleague Bonchie wrote earlier today about how this new “Big Meat” overhaul is a way for Biden to blame the inflation we’re all suffering on something other than his own disastrous decisions. But it’s something else, too: it’s a way to fan the flames of contention between well-meaning factions on the right — to keep the issue of unchecked corporate power on their lips and in their quivers — while surreptitiously moving the discussion away from the Dem-friendly industry flagrantly and actually abusing their power: Big Tech.
Biden’s been an abject failure as President but Americans should never forget he is as savvy an unethical a politician as the country has ever seen.
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