means of production take 2

Posted by gepr on Nov 19, 2019; 4:24pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/means-of-production-take-2-tp7593858.html

To contribute to my spam score, I'll try again to suss out what is meant by owning the means of production. Here it is again:

The collapse of the information ecosystem poses profound risks for humanity
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/19/the-collapse-of-the-information-ecosystem-poses-profound-risks-for-humanity

> William Randolph Hearst owned the means of production and was free to publish made up stories to sell papers and stoke the Spanish-American war. Today, everyone is free to be their own propagandist.

Is this a proper use of the concept of "ownership of the means of production"? I know I'm simple-minded. But while it's clear to me what it means to own, say, a screwdriver, it's not at all clear to me what it means to *own* the process/tools by which one produces propaganda. It reminds me of being "owned" (or "pwned") in some trashtalk context like before a boxing match or an argument on 4chan. It's a stretched, poetically licensed, sense of ownership and actually means domination or humiliation, not at all like owning a hammer or printing press.

But this concept of pwning does seem closer to the sense I was getting from both Marcus' and Steve's explanations, that seemed to target exploitation, asymmetric power, or some sort of inappropriate hoarding or market monopoly. If so, I would maintain my skepticism that using the words "ownership" and "production" is *conflating* things that could be better analyzed in another way. I just don't know what way that is.

But thanks to y'all for changing my mind. The phrase no longer irritates me now that I have a sense that those using it are simply trying to describe something they are ill-equipped to describe.


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