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Ron Knox

@ronmknox.bsky.social
992 followers 246 following 103 posts

Researcher and policy advocate at ILSR. Antimonopoly is the party. rknox@ilsr.org

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Reposted by Ron Knox
Strategic Organizing Center @stratorgcenter.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Three years ago the FTC and 19 state AGs sued Amazon for monopoly abuse. Since then it's only gotten worse. With nearly 50 percent of every sale going back to Amazon in fees, sellers must raise prices to make a profit. Read @ronmknox.bsky.social on how Amazon squeezing sellers costs you more.
prospect.org
Amazon’s Monopoly Problem Is Growing - The American Prospect
Three years after Amazon caught a federal monopoly lawsuit, sellers say the company’s fees and policies are even worse.
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Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
1. Cities and states should outlaw Amazon’s latest assault on small businesses — an AI tool that scrapes their websites and creates listings of their products within the Amazon app without their consent. It’s causing huge, costly problems. This can and should be banned.
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Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
This is your periodic reminder that fighting against corporate control of our economy and politics is also fighting fascism. A new post on our moment and how we got here. open.substack.com/pub/whoshall...
open.substack.com
Fighting Monopoly Is Fighting Fascism
A reflection on our moment, and the political economy that led us here
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Reposted by Ron Knox
Alan Zilberman @alanzilberman.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
Not surprisingly, my buddy Ron synthesizes a lot of different stories and critiques into one cogent, forceful call to action. The frustration he articulates here can be found daily among all Americans, in indignities big and small, and any party with aspirations for control must fight them.
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Matt Cohen @mattdcohen.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
read my dude @ronmknox.bsky.social in @thenation.com !
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Brad Lipton @bradlipton.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
This piece by @ronmknox.bsky.social is terrific. I would add that where we are today on these issues is 100% a result of policy choices.
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Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
The Democratic party today remains trapped in its neoliberal past. But working Americans everywhere are raging against corporate power - a rising political antimonopoly movement. The Dem party will either embrace it, or lose. New from me in @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/acti...
thenation.com
Anger at Corporate Power Is Everywhere
It should guide the Democrats.
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Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
The Democratic party today remains trapped in its neoliberal past. But working Americans everywhere are raging against corporate power - a rising political antimonopoly movement. The Dem party will either embrace it, or lose. New from me in @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/acti...
thenation.com
Anger at Corporate Power Is Everywhere
It should guide the Democrats.
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Reposted by Ron Knox
Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
Here's a great, quick explainer on how Pepsi schemed with Walmart to raise grocery prices, from @ronmknox.bsky.social and @dannycaine.com www.tiktok.com/@ilsr_org/vi...
tiktok.com
The newly unredacted details of the FTC’s complaint against PepsiCo show how the company systematically violated the law, giving Walmart preferential treatment at the expense of independent grocers an...
TikTok video by Building Local Power
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Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
A proposed ordinance backed by music fans and venue owners would effecctivly kill a plan to bring a new Live Nation venue to Portland, Maine. Who will city leaders listen to? Fans and artists? Or one of the most despised companies on earth? New from me:
open.substack.com
Live Nation's Invasion of Portland May End Before It Begins
An new proposal in Portland, Maine may stop the live music monopolist from opening a new venue in the city.
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Sean’s Pen {technically speaking} @seangon.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
My ILSR colleagues @ronmknox.bsky.social and BLP host Danny Caine welcomed Cory Doctorow as a podcast guest on Ron’s Who Shall Rule Substack for a wide-ranging talk about Doctorow’s new book on Enshittification Dope convo about the problems of the platform economy & some possible solutions
whoshallrule.com
Enshittification and How To Fight It: A Conversation with Cory Doctorow
We have a new cool podcast, hooray!
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Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
More power for workers. Protections for small businesses. Freedom from slumlords. With Lina Khan by his side, Zohran Mamdani is the vanguard of the modern antimonopoly movement.
whoshallrule.com
Mamdani and the Antimonopoly Movement
In policies and promise, Zohran Mamdani has become antimonopoly's flag bearer
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Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Amazon's planned mass culling of its workforce, and the vast damage it will cause, speaks to its unchecked power over so much of the economy. I wrote about what antimonopoly action - both antitrust AND union organizing - can and should do about its power. open.substack.com/pub/whoshall...
open.substack.com
On Amazon, Automation and Antimonopoly
Amazon's threatened mass layoffs speak to its power - and the need to end it.
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Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Amazon's planned mass culling of its workforce, and the vast damage it will cause, speaks to its unchecked power over so much of the economy. I wrote about what antimonopoly action - both antitrust AND union organizing - can and should do about its power. open.substack.com/pub/whoshall...
open.substack.com
On Amazon, Automation and Antimonopoly
Amazon's threatened mass layoffs speak to its power - and the need to end it.
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Reposted by Ron Knox
Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
A new Times story this morning detailed the rising resistance to predatory data centers around the world. The fight for environmental justice is ultimately part of our struggle against monopoly control of our communities and resources. New from me: www.whoshallrule.com/p/nyt-data-c...
whoshallrule.com
NYT: Data Center Fights Go Global
Data centers unleash hell on communities around the world. But people are fighting back.
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Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
A new Times story this morning detailed the rising resistance to predatory data centers around the world. The fight for environmental justice is ultimately part of our struggle against monopoly control of our communities and resources. New from me: www.whoshallrule.com/p/nyt-data-c...
whoshallrule.com
NYT: Data Center Fights Go Global
Data centers unleash hell on communities around the world. But people are fighting back.
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Reposted by Ron Knox
Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Sure, the FTC got some of what it wanted when it settled the Amazon Prime “dark patterns” lawsuit. But by not finishing what it started and seeing the case through trial, it potentially lost so much more. New from me: inequality.org/article/the-...
inequality.org
The Good and Bad of Amazon’s 'Dark Patterns' Settlement
The government's deal with Amazon skips over what could have been a valuable case for regulators and the public.
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Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Sure, the FTC got some of what it wanted when it settled the Amazon Prime “dark patterns” lawsuit. But by not finishing what it started and seeing the case through trial, it potentially lost so much more. New from me: inequality.org/article/the-...
inequality.org
The Good and Bad of Amazon’s 'Dark Patterns' Settlement
The government's deal with Amazon skips over what could have been a valuable case for regulators and the public.
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Reposted by Ron Knox
Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Prescription drug middleman monopolies drive up drug costs and kill small town drugstores, and pretty much everyone not on their payroll hates them. Now, indie pharmacies in Kansas and beyond are getting closer to ending their abuse. New from me! www.whoshallrule.com/p/can-kansas...
whoshallrule.com
Can Kansas indie pharmacies finally beat monopoly middlemen?
In Kansas and around the country, local drug store owners are fighting prescription drug middlemen - and the wins feel imminent.
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Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Prescription drug middleman monopolies drive up drug costs and kill small town drugstores, and pretty much everyone not on their payroll hates them. Now, indie pharmacies in Kansas and beyond are getting closer to ending their abuse. New from me! www.whoshallrule.com/p/can-kansas...
whoshallrule.com
Can Kansas indie pharmacies finally beat monopoly middlemen?
In Kansas and around the country, local drug store owners are fighting prescription drug middlemen - and the wins feel imminent.
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J.D. Scholten @jdscholten.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
“Northern Minnesota is now faced with the prospect of paying higher utility bills so that a company can use AI to raise your rent, airfare or food costs.” From this week’s You’re Probably Getting Screwed open.substack.com/pub/screwed/...
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Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
Data center stans and big tech monopolies will talk forever about the jobs those data centers will create. But those jobs don’t exist. It’s just extraction all the way down. www.whoshallrule.com/p/remember-d...
whoshallrule.com
Remember: Data centers don't create jobs
And yet the narrative around data center economic development persists
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Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
Data center stans and big tech monopolies will talk forever about the jobs those data centers will create. But those jobs don’t exist. It’s just extraction all the way down. www.whoshallrule.com/p/remember-d...
whoshallrule.com
Remember: Data centers don't create jobs
And yet the narrative around data center economic development persists
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Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
Hello. Today, I'm launching Who Shall Rule, where I'll tell stories and share thoughts about frontline fights against corporate control - fights that reflect an emerging political movement to break free from the abuse of corporate oligarchy. Welcome! Subscribe! www.whoshallrule.com/p/who-shall-...
whoshallrule.com
Who Shall Rule: A welcome note
People everywhere are standing up to corporate domination.
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Reposted by Ron Knox
Susan Holmberg @susanrholmberg.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
Ron is an exceptional storyteller of resistance and analyst of corporate abuses. This substack is going to be good.
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Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
Hello. Today, I'm launching Who Shall Rule, where I'll tell stories and share thoughts about frontline fights against corporate control - fights that reflect an emerging political movement to break free from the abuse of corporate oligarchy. Welcome! Subscribe! www.whoshallrule.com/p/who-shall-...
whoshallrule.com
Who Shall Rule: A welcome note
People everywhere are standing up to corporate domination.
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Reposted by Ron Knox
Future of Music Coalition @futureofmusic.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Whatever happens at the federal level, the fight against monopolies will continue at state and municipal levels, and musicians will be at the center of it! Thanks to @ronmknox.bsky.social for connecting the dots.
prospect.org
The Shifting Anti-Monopoly Landscape
Fights over data centers and music venues show that resisting corporate power will have to go local in the age of Trump.
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Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
Trump's "MAGA antitrust" enforcers seem more interested in unserious culture war grievances than enforcing the law. But don't worry: The states - our original trustbusters - are fighting for workers, shoppers and small businesses. New from me in @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/soci...
thenation.com
As Federal Chaos Ensues, Trustbusters Rise in the States
With Trump’s antitrust appointees more concerned with scoring points in MAGA culture wars than restraining corporate abuses, officials in the states are keeping up the fight.
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Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
Trump's "MAGA antitrust" enforcers seem more interested in unserious culture war grievances than enforcing the law. But don't worry: The states - our original trustbusters - are fighting for workers, shoppers and small businesses. New from me in @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/soci...
thenation.com
As Federal Chaos Ensues, Trustbusters Rise in the States
With Trump’s antitrust appointees more concerned with scoring points in MAGA culture wars than restraining corporate abuses, officials in the states are keeping up the fight.
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Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
Local grocers have to pay much higher prices for their products than Dollar General & Walmart. Last month the FTC quietly killed a case to level the playing field. It's huge blow to small businesses & will further devastate rural America. @ronmknox.bsky.social has a terrific explainer:
washingtonmonthly.com
Has Trump’s FTC Abandoned Fair Markets? | Washington Monthly
Trump's FTC just killed a landmark antitrust case that could have leveled the playing field for small grocers.
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Reposted by Ron Knox
Washington Monthly @washingtonmonthly.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
The decision to drop a price discrimination lawsuit against Pepsi may signal Trump’s embrace of corporate bullies. From @ronmknox.bsky.social‬: washingtonmonthly.com/2025/06/25/h...
washingtonmonthly.com
Has Trump’s FTC abandoned fair markets? | Washington Monthly
Trump's FTC just killed a landmark antitrust case that could have leveled the playing field for small grocers.
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Athena Coalition @athenaforall.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
ILSR's @ronmknox.bsky.social is an expert on taking down monopolies -- he even wrote a zine about it! We'll be joining him at Bluestockings Cooperative in NYC tonight to talk about fighting modern-day robber barons.
ilsr.org
New Zine from ILSR: Ron Knox's Resist Monopolies! - Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Ron Knox's new zine Resist Monopolies! documents the battles and triumphs of the growing antimonopoly movement, and shows how you can fight against corporate control.
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Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
If you’re looking for quality independent reporting on what’s happening in Los Angeles, I’ve put together a starter pack for it. If you’d like to be added or know an indie who should be added, hmu
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Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
DOGE's war on regulations are just forced wealth transfers from working americans to wall street banks and energy monopolies, actually www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/u...
nytimes.com
How Trump’s Regulatory Rollbacks Are Increasing Costs on Americans
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sanjukta paul @sanjukta.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
This is such a careful, thoughtful essay by Sandeep (who literally wrote the book of the moment on the new deal electrification project). I hope its arguments get the serious consideration they deserve from those who are interested in these issues. www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
bostonreview.net
The Real Path to Abundance - Boston Review
To deliver plentiful housing and clean energy, we have to get the story right about what’s standing in the way.
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Kim Kelly @kimkelly.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
Also just LOOK how cute their merch is, buy some swag to support the freshly-minted Sesame Workers Union! shop.worxprinting.coop/collections/...
shop.worxprinting.coop
Sesame Workers Union
Sesame Workers Union is a group of Sesame Workshop (of Sesame Street) workers organizing with OPEIU Local 153 to improve working conditions across the industry. Proceeds go to workers experiencing har...
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Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
omg thank you Claire! If, ahem, you'd like to pick one up, you can do that here! microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/zine...
microcosmpublishing.com
Resist Monopolies!: How to Fight Corporate Control and Support an Economy That Matters
What can we do to resist monopolies in a world that tells us they’re too big to fail and too strong to fight? We take them on anyway! From vacant downtowns to...
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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
From me: The ruling that ended Apple's monopoly tax on the App Store was amazing. But more amazing was how quickly it changed the market, as new tools for app developers rushed in. "Cutting red tape" isn't the only thing that can supercharge markets; preventing monopoly domination works too.
prospect.org
Apple’s Monopoly Is Finally Held Accountable
And within hours of a Wednesday court ruling, innovation on smartphones is exploding, showing private regulation can be more burdensome to markets than democratic rules CEOs like to condemn.
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Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ilsr.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
@ronmknox.bsky.social’s new zine, out now from @microcosm.bsky.social, examines the growing movement to reject monopoly control and serves as a practical guide to help you — and your friends, neighbors, and coworkers — join the fight for a more democratic future. 1/2
Zine titled “Resist Monopolies!: How to Fight Corporate Control and Support an Economy That Matters” on an orange background. Cartoon illustration on the zine’s cover depicts a group of community members standing up to rich businessmen who are attempting to dismantle Main Street. Text reads “New! Order online from Microcosm Publishing or request at your local independent bookstore!”
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Athena Coalition @athenaforall.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
Yes, there *are* people successfully beating back oligarchs across America, and this zine highlights what we can learn from them.
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Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
1. If you’re feeling despondent about the state of the world, you’re not alone. But there are folks out there taking the fight to corporate oligarchs and monopolies, and winning - thousands of Davids beating back our economic Goliaths. I wrote a little book about it. Let me show you!
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Alan Zilberman @alanzilberman.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
My buddy Ron made a rad zine about how monopolies are the worst. I bought a copy, and you should, too.
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Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
1. If you’re feeling despondent about the state of the world, you’re not alone. But there are folks out there taking the fight to corporate oligarchs and monopolies, and winning - thousands of Davids beating back our economic Goliaths. I wrote a little book about it. Let me show you!
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AZ Attorney General Kris Mayes @azagmayes.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
I take seriously my duty to protect hardworking Arizonans against abuses of corporate power. Thanks for the shout out, @ronmknox.bsky.social and @ilsr.bsky.social. Listen to the full episode here: ilsr.org/articles/blp... youtube.com/shorts/qF84I...
youtube.com
ILSR Building Local Power Podcast | Attorney General Kris Mayes
YouTube video by Arizona Attorney General's Office
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Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
I put my yapping skills to good use last week, talking to @dannycaine.com about my origin story, fighting corporate power in the states, and what antimonopoly even means. ilsr.org/articles/blp...
ilsr.org
Where Things Are Happening: Ron Knox on the State(s) of Antitrust - Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Ron Knox joins the Building Local Power podcast to share his reflections on the antimonopoly movement and the importance of states in the antitrust fight
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Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
This is a great listen! And energizing in these times.
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Ron Knox @ronmknox.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
I put my yapping skills to good use last week, talking to @dannycaine.com about my origin story, fighting corporate power in the states, and what antimonopoly even means. ilsr.org/articles/blp...
ilsr.org
Where Things Are Happening: Ron Knox on the State(s) of Antitrust - Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Ron Knox joins the Building Local Power podcast to share his reflections on the antimonopoly movement and the importance of states in the antitrust fight
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Daniel Hanley @danielahanley.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
Excited to share that Duquesne Law Review has published an article by @basel.bsky.social and me, offering a clear and comprehensive interpretive framework for Section 7 of the Clayton Act. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 17/04/2025
SARA EISEN: What evidence is there of corruption? WARREN: He announces tariff policy, says there's no exceptions, but "I talked to Tim Cook." Really? E: Shouldn't he? W: "Great deal available for Tim Cook" E: It's great for Americans who have to buy iPhones W: No. It's great for one company
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