I‘ve never liked the analogy to feudalism, because it leaves out the elephant in the room that people can open accounts on alternative platforms very easily and comfortably in about 2 minutes. It seems more productive to discuss why they don’t do it. Acting like the possibility doesn’t even exist is a part of the problem and reinforces it.
this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2026
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That doesn’t invalidate the use of the term feudalism. Under OG feudalism there were plenty exceptions to the rule. But that doesn’t discount the fact that most people had no real choice, or chose to remain where they were for usually social reasons. Even if they could have technically and physically made the jump.
Just like today. Technically it’s easy to dump Facebook, instagram, WhatsApp and whatever. In practice, it means saying goodbye to a social network (in the real sense) and not everybody can or wants to go there.
Feudalism involved swearing loyalty to a lord, usually for life. And it seems that you could not have multiple lords. Our situation is one of complete freedom, where you can leave the platforms anytime, as well as use multiple in parallel and distribute your time using them however you want. So if e.g you feel bound to the popular platforms because of followers, you can use the smaller platforms in parallel, allowing them to grow, so nothing changes other than involving a little more effort. As more people do this, the network effect equalizes. So it’s easy to do, and it solves the problem, yet it doesn’t even cross the minds of most, including of these „thinkers“. Why is that? It seems that everyone operates on the assumption that the masses don’t have free will, or are very stupid, at least.
That doesn’t invalidate the use of the term feudalism. Under OG feudalism there were plenty exceptions to the rule. But that doesn’t discount the fact that most people had no real choice, or chose to remain where they were for usually social reasons. Even if they could have technically and physically made the jump.
Just like today. Technically it’s easy to dump Facebook, instagram, WhatsApp and whatever. In practice, it means saying goodbye to a social network (in the real sense) and not everybody can or wants to go there.
That doesn’t invalidate the use of the term feudalism. Under OG feudalism there were plenty exceptions to the rule. But that doesn’t discount the fact that most people had no real choice, or chose to remain where they were for usually social reasons. Even if they could have technically and physically made the jump.
Just like today. Technically it’s easy to dump Facebook, instagram, WhatsApp and whatever. In practice, it means saying goodbye to a social network (in the real sense) and not everybody can or wants to go there.
Why people dont do it ? why people dont use opensource and decentralize alternatives? I think people are weak , and money can easily money people. We are too weak to resist against oligarchs. you and me may be strong but majority are not. People cant resist not use instagram,whatshapp
What kind of weakness prevents you from clicking through a register flow in 2 minutes and swiping between apps? The problem is apathy. Which is fixable, but articles like these that act like people are just stuck there and there’s nothing that can be possibly done, effectively prevent anything in that direction from happening.