Monopolies and Conservatives

 I find most conservative thought today to be either mired in or awkwardly defending a half baked conspiracy theory and post Trump to be either pretending his influence is non-existent or also awkwardly defending his specific conspiracies.

I try to go to the American Conservative or the National Review for modern conservative writing although these two outlets can also be hit or miss.

In the case of monopolies I was not disgusted by two articles that called for conservatives to take a different approach to antitrust philosophy. 

The first came from Rachel Bovard, her piece in the American Conservative echoed the ideas she's put forth in other places. It is aligns with Lina Khan's in a way that never mentions her name but agrees on the the highest level: monopoly is more than just prices increasing.

There was a lot of references to free speech and how platforms like Twitter and Facebook have muted conservative voices. And "Lina Khan lite" calls for reimagining antitrust and looking at market power and other considerations.

Robert Bork Jr references Bovard in his response and plays with hyperbole. But instead of responding to Bovard's top down ideas he points out the issues with two antitrust bills (which don't seem like they have much chance) that are being sponsored on the left and the right.

Rachel Bovard calls out his strawman type arguments.

Robert Bork Jr rebuts my @amconmag essay by…fighting the straw man of Josh Hawley.

Hawley isn’t even mentioned once in my essay yet it’s where Bork spends most of his time, instead of on my substantive critique of how the right has abandoned antitrust. https://t.co/KYNIkcIM18

Even conservatives are disagreeing on antitrust philosophy beyond just the minutiae.

This is the conversation happening just in the conservative sphere. I'm still working through Lina Khan's writing and a few other high level ideas about antitrust from the center and the left. 

My thought is over the next few years antitrust for tech companies will be getting a lot news and the current status quo will be challenged. And as an observer I'll be there for the legal, economic and political banter.