The Greatest Misdirection of Our Time
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The Blacksmith Who Never Joined Big Tech’s Army
Clay Montgomery owns a blacksmith shop in Texas. He works with his hands, shaping metal into useful objects the old-fashioned way. Technology, as he puts it, “is not exactly my forte.”
So Montgomery was understandably confused when he discovered his business was listed as a member of the “Connected Commerce Council” – a lobbying group advocating for Big Tech’s interests in Washington, D.C.
Montgomery had never heard of the organization. He certainly hadn’t signed up to support Amazon and Google’s political agenda. Yet there his blacksmith shop was, listed alongside thousands of other small businesses supposedly demanding that Congress go easy on technology regulation.
“I don’t know anything about this,” Montgomery told investigators who contacted him. His confusion was shared by business owners across the country – a hair salon in Minnesota, a barbershop in Texas, an auto towing company in South Carolina – all supposedly members of an organization they’d never joined, advocating for policies they didn’t understand.
This isn’t a glitch in the system. This is the system working exactly as designed.
While You Watched the Robots, Humans Took Over
Montgomery’s story illustrates the greatest misdirection of our time. While the world obsesses over whether artificial intelligence will destroy humanity, a very human takeover has been happening right under our noses.
We’re debating robot overlords while human overlords quietly consolidate control over the digital infrastructure that runs our world. They’re doing it through methods far more sophisticated than science fiction scenarios – and far more effective than dramatic coups or overt authoritarianism.
The scale is staggering:
- Meta alone employs one lobbyist for every eight members of Congress
- Six major tech companies spent $61.5 million on lobbying in 2024 – a 13% increase from 2023
- 84% of computer science professors receive industry funding from the companies they study
- Mark Zuckerberg has donated money to over 100 university campuses
These aren’t just big numbers. They represent the construction of a shadow governance system that operates parallel to our democratic institutions.
The Pattern History Keeps Teaching Us
This has happened before. Throughout history, every time power concentrates around new technology, we make the same mistake: we fear the technology instead of the humans controlling it.
The printing press didn’t corrupt information – those who controlled the presses did.
The telegraph didn’t manipulate markets – the Western Union monopoly did.
Nuclear technology didn’t threaten civilization – the humans who weaponized it did.
In each case, the technology remained neutral while human ambition, greed, and desire for control transformed potentially beneficial innovations into instruments of power concentration.
Today’s AI revolution follows this exact pattern, but with unprecedented scale and sophistication. The difference isn’t the technology’s inherent danger – it’s the refined methods by which its human controllers exercise influence.
The Numbers That Should Terrify You
While we debate hypothetical AI scenarios, here’s what’s actually happening:
Political Influence:
- Technology companies spent a record $61.5 million lobbying Congress in 2024
- Amazon, Meta, Google, and Microsoft each donated $1 million to President Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee
- Elon Musk alone contributed over $250 million to pro-Trump groups during the 2024 election
Academic Capture:
- 84% of computer science professors receive industry funding
- Tech companies are the primary funders of computer science conferences
- University research increasingly reflects the priorities of corporate donors
Information Control:
- A handful of companies control the algorithms that determine what news you see
- Social media platforms shape political discourse for billions of users
- Search engines influence what information people find about political candidates and issues
Regulatory Capture:
- Former tech executives regularly become government regulators
- Government officials routinely leave to work for the companies they once regulated
- Industry insiders write the rules for the industries they came from
Why This Matters More Than AI Fears
While we’re busy worrying about robots becoming conscious, human-controlled systems are already:
Manipulating your information diet: The news you see, the posts that reach you, and the search results you get are all curated by algorithms designed to maximize corporate profits, not inform citizens.
Harvesting your data for political manipulation: Your personal information builds profiles used to target you with political messages designed to influence your voting behavior.
Undermining democratic discourse: Fake grassroots organizations (like the one that claimed Montgomery’s blacksmith shop) create the illusion of public support for corporate policies.
Capturing the regulatory process: The people writing tech regulations often come from or return to the companies they’re supposed to oversee.
Concentrating economic power: Small businesses increasingly depend on platforms controlled by their competitors, while innovation is stifled by companies that can acquire or copy any threatening startup.
The Misdirection Serves a Purpose
The narrative of AI as humanity’s greatest threat serves a convenient purpose for those who would prefer attention focused anywhere but on their own accumulation of power.
While we debate the theoretical dangers of artificial general intelligence, the actual concentration of data control among a small group of human actors proceeds largely unexamined. This misdirection represents perhaps the most successful influence operation of the digital age: convincing the world to fear the technology while ignoring those who control it.
Think about it: If artificial intelligence is the primary threat, what’s the logical response? Give more power to the humans who claim to understand and control AI systems. This strengthens the very people whose influence should concern us most.
If human agency is recognized as the primary variable in determining whether technology serves public or private interests, the logical response is strengthening democratic institutions and accountability mechanisms that constrain human behavior.
The Stakes of Our Choice
The choice between focusing on AI risks versus human power concentration isn’t academic. It has profound implications for how society responds to the challenges of the digital age.
The evidence is mounting: While we debate hypothetical AI takeovers, a very real human takeover of critical information systems is already well advanced.
Clay Montgomery’s blacksmith shop may seem like a small example, but it represents something much larger: a systematic effort to manufacture the appearance of democratic consent while actually serving concentrated corporate interests.
The window for effective democratic response may be narrowing. The longer we focus on science fiction scenarios, the more time real-world power concentration has to entrench itself beyond the reach of democratic accountability.
History shows us that humans, not their tools, remain the primary variable in the corruption of power. The greatest threat to human autonomy in the digital age remains what it has always been throughout history: the human capacity for corruption when adequate accountability mechanisms are absent.
What’s Coming Next
This is the first piece in a five-part series examining how a small group of technology executives has built what amounts to a shadow governance system. Over the next four pieces, we’ll explore:
- Part 2: The four pillars of their influence machine – revolving doors, academic capture, astroturf organizations, and strategic political investment
- Part 3: Historical parallels that show this pattern repeating throughout history
- Part 4: Practical steps you can take to fight back and protect democratic institutions
- Part 5: The choice we face and why the window for action is closing
The bottom line: While we’ve been looking up at the sky for robot threats, the real threat has been organizing at ground level. It’s time to shift our focus from artificial intelligence to human intelligence – and the very human problem of power without accountability.
Clay Montgomery just wanted to shape metal in his Texas workshop. He never signed up to be a foot soldier in Big Tech’s political army. His story is a warning about what happens when we focus on the wrong threats while the real ones organize in plain sight.
Coming Tomorrow: Part 2 – “The Four Pillars: How the Influence Machine Actually Works”
Sources: This analysis is based on documented evidence from government lobbying disclosures (Issue One), academic studies (Princeton University), investigative journalism (CNBC), and regulatory capture research from multiple institutions.
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