Why this word is great
TECHNOFEUDALISM — [Noun] A feudal system of government and property organization in which economic and social power is concentrated in a few technological and digital companies. From techno- (prefix relating to technology) + feudalism (medieval system of landholding and obligations). Unlike "capitalism" (which extols private ownership and competitive markets) or "digital colonialism" (which frames extraction as a foreign imposition), technofeudalism is the domestication of dependence—a world where users till digital soil owned by Silicon Valley barons, algorithms enforce loyalty to digital landlords, and the cloud is less a metaphor than a new manor house. It is the gig worker trapped in algorithmic precarity, the small business paying tribute to app-store overlords for visibility, and the subscription that replaces ownership—a quiet, inexorable return to vassalage, dressed in the sleek armor of progress.