They seem to be very nervous about giving up control over their message in this way.

For sure!

But as far as whether "bigness" has intrinsic characteristics, I think it's worth considering the argument that America's concentration of wealth has inherently negative effects on, say, democracy.

I wish I could find a good articulation of this and I can't rn. But think Elon Musk in 2025...

1) large companies impact the world negatively in various ways, and 2) it's within our power to build a society that retains most of the good that comes from those large companies (eg. technological innovation) while also eliminating most of the harms

Seems like this is verging on a question like "are big companies like Google and Uber a net good or bad for society?"

I'm not sure where I'd begin with that one. What's much clearer to me is:

Also, the article says the biggest increase is mental health accommodations—over a period when we have lots of data suggesting youth mental health is worsening

That’s why I said “perceived similarity”

I guess I'd emphasize the "corporate" part of the original post over "tech." I suspect a fair amount of Waymo scepticism comes from its apparent similarity to companies like Uber and the rest of Silicon Valley--companies that have had some socially corrosive impacts.

Well, you did see the original tweet was ultimately critiquing tech scepticism, right?

Doesn't make it wrong!

Everything you hear about climate change making things uninsurable is not some inevitable force but actually about this: the politics of housing , tax bases and the FIRE (finance insurance real estate) sector. bsky.app/profile/volt...

Sometimes you gotta do it again to catch the triple spaces