The Rise of Pharma Fascism and the Ruination of the Commons

The Rise of Pharma Fascism and the Ruination of the Commons
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Toby Rogers
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Commentary

I. When the commons was Eden

“The commons” is a foundational idea in left political philosophy. The commons refers to shared spaces—oceans, lakes, rivers, forests, the air—that are not owned by anyone. It can also refer to cultural spaces—the town square for example. I could make a case that the internet is a commons—even though there are millions of individual owners of particular spaces no one owns the whole thing.

The left loves the idea of the commons because it harkens back to the era of hunter gatherers who were free to hunt, fish, and live off of the abundance of the earth. The commons is also essential to the left imagination because they don’t believe in private property, so on some level they think that the entire world is or could be the commons. And because they see themselves as more empathetic, educated, and wise than everyone else, they believe that they are the best stewards to manage the commons.

Toby Rogers
Toby Rogers
Author
Dr. Toby Rogers has a Ph.D. in political economy from the University of Sydney in Australia and a Master in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley. His research focus is on regulatory capture and corruption in the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Rogers does grassroots political organizing with medical freedom groups across the country working to stop the epidemic of chronic illness in children. His doctoral thesis, “The Political Economy of Autism,” explored the regulatory history of five classes of toxicants that increase autism risk. He writes about the political economy of public health on his Substack, "uTobian."
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