January 28, 2026
Catan, capitalism, and chaos
How the new era of CEO supervillains are trapped in their own ideology
Morals vs Markets vs Marx: commenters roast Big Tech ‘dinosaurs’ and ‘supervillains’
TLDR: A buzzy essay says Big Tech bosses became power-drunk “supervillains,” shifting from competition to changing the rules. Commenters split: moral collapse vs basic capitalist incentives vs “try communism,” with jokes about Zuckerberg’s Catan game and a “poker with a revolver” economy fueling the spectacle.
The internet is eating up a fiery essay arguing today’s mega-CEOs are “supervillains” trapped by their own myth of disruption—terrified they’ve become the dinosaurs they once promised to slay. The piece name-drops a Facebook insider memoir with wild moments: execs pressuring a pregnant lawyer to fly, and a legendary scene of Mark Zuckerberg playing Settlers of Catan while everyone allegedly lets him win. Cue the comments section: absolute chaos.
The loudest camp calls this a moral collapse. One user thundered that “western materialistic atheistic capitalist culture has lost its moral compass,” painting Big Tech as the disease spreaders of corruption. Another threw a Molotov of ideology: “Communism is the alternative,” igniting a flame war fast enough to melt server racks. Meanwhile, the pragmatists rolled in with receipts, insisting this isn’t about feelings—it’s capitalism 101. As one put it, the essay nails the behavior but whiffs on the cause: dominant companies stop competing and start rewriting the rules.
Memes? Oh, they’re glorious. People joked about a new “Meta-Monopoly” board game, and turned the essay’s poker-with-a-revolver analogy into a catchphrase: “Never bring product to a gunfight.” The Catan anecdote spawned instant lore: “Zuck wins because everyone trades him sheep.” Drama, ideology, and board-game banter—Reddit’s dream buffet.
Key Points
- •The article argues tech founders’ innovation ideology fosters insecurity as firms become dominant, influencing harmful actions to avoid decline.
- •It draws on Sarah Wynn-Williams’s memoir about her time as a Facebook executive to illustrate internal culture and ethical pressures.
- •Reported episodes include pressure on Wynn-Williams to travel during advanced pregnancy and an anecdote involving Mark Zuckerberg.
- •The piece claims Facebook shifted from standard competition and lobbying to wielding power to partner with governments and rewrite market rules.
- •It describes executives weighing lawbreaking by cost–benefit (benefits in billions vs. fines in millions), seeing such power as corrupting and damaging.