Why everyone loves Amazon
Anti-tech populism isn't actually popular
The Argument is holding another live event, this time on June 17 in Washington, D.C.!
Jerusalem Demsas will be interviewing USC psychologist Darby Saxbe about her new book, Dad Brain: The New Science of Fatherhood and How It Shapes Men’s Lives.
Drawing on two decades of research, Darby explains how becoming a father changes men, from their hormones and brain architecture to their sense of purpose. (Yes, men experience postpartum depression, and “dad bod” is real.)
They’ll get into hot-button topics like:
Are great dads born or made?
How do men’s brains and hormones change when they become fathers?
Why does motherhood get all the attention while fatherhood goes overlooked?
Does the way dads play with their kids matter?
The conversation kicks off at 7 p.m. at Politics and Prose (5015 Connecticut Ave. NW).
Welcome back to The Argument’s poll series, where we survey Americans on the issues everyone’s fighting about. Our last surveys have asked about artificial intelligence, crime, the economy, gender issues, immigration, education and parenting, the lingering politics of COVID-19, immigration, AI, and free speech. The Argument’s full methodology can be read here.
Contemporary American progressives tend to be highly critical of Big Tech. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has argued that the “biggest threats to journalism” are “tech monopolies”; has supported breaking up Meta; and believes that Amazon’s position as both merchant and marketplace creates antitrust issues.
Bernie Sanders says that AI is being pushed by tech billionaires like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and the Ellisons at the expense of the working class.
Sanders is also vocally opposed to using automation to replace human workers,1 and he recently penned an op-ed in The New York Times advocating for the creation of a sovereign wealth fund using a one-time 50% tax on the stocks of AI companies.2
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has a long history of criticizing Amazon and has publicly gone after the company for unpaid fines.
Graham Platner’s entire campaign is centered around fighting the “oligarchy” (and also addressing his latest scandal).
You might think that this rhetoric is a response to popular backlash against technology companies. And yet, Big Tech firms are popular. In The Argument’s most recent national survey, fielded from May 29 to June 3, most Americans had a favorable opinion of four large tech companies: Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple.
Far fewer Americans had opinions about the leading AI labs. About 87% of respondents had some opinion about OpenAI, but around 4 in 10 had never heard of Anthropic or Elon Musk’s xAI.
Progressives (and some conservatives) are increasingly critical of Big Tech companies and, by extension, artificial intelligence.3 Indeed, Big Tech companies often engage in anticompetitive behavior that harms consumers. But anti-tech populism is poorly suited to serve as the foundation for mass politics.
Americans love Amazon
What is the most popular institution in America? It’s not a government agency — it’s Amazon, followed closely by the military, Google, and the police.
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