Enshittification: Why Everything Sucks

In this episode, we unpack enshittification, a term coined by Cory Doctorow to describe how everything is getting worse, while the consumer gets sucked dry. We explore how Big Tech locked us into walled gardens where quality declines, prices go up, and every basic product becomes another monthly subscription bill.

Enshittification is a multiheaded beast, reaching into our phones, TVs, cars, printers, games, books, homes, streaming services, as well as Google Search, Amazon, and AI.

We examine the corporate barriers that keep us trapped: digital rights management, planned obsolescence, hidden fees, and the inability to repair your own electronics. We look at “smart” devices that are truly dumb, intended only to collect our data and feed our private lives to the profit machine.

We unpack how monopoly capitalism has allowed a tiny handful of corporations to control how we chat, shop, work, and play. The most powerful companies dominate their markets, erase competition, and create the illusion of choice while leaving us with none. Breaking apart the enshittification machine means challenging the capitalists as a class, expropriating what they own, and building a world organized around free access and real innovation.