The Flatterers by Pieter Bruegel is maybe my favorite painting right now, merely because it does such a good job of visually describing the internet in our current period.

The painting is less about flattery for me, though, and more about the social assemblage of the internet; we’re constantly putting in effort, time, our very lives and bodies (how many of us have carpal tunnel?).

The recent net neutrality decisions make is clear: we’re all putting in the labor, and something much bigger than us holds the giant Mario coins.