I&#x27;ve actually met him and talked about his beliefs as well as read a lot of what he&#x27;s written.  I quite like him, but I think he frequently gets the broad strokes correct but misses on the details, and I don&#x27;t think this is the first instance where he&#x27;s done so.<p>&gt; It&#x27;s true that Rushkoff is making - and has always made - the dissenting point that perhaps the Internet should be more than a machine for extracting cash and attention from the people who use it.<p>And I&#x27;m disagreeing with the premise that it is just a cash extracting machine, because it is so only in the most simplistic and overly cynical of analyses.  I get that it hasn&#x27;t solved world hunger, and I get that there are many problems, but I think if Rushkoff understood how the web functioned at a deeper technical level he&#x27;d feel a lot less strongly about his beliefs.  Similar to the Marxists that form the foundation of his beliefs, if he actually had to implement his ideas in real life he&#x27;d understand why they aren&#x27;t a panacea.