I found this
essay relevant to this thread, and quite amusing-
Steve Kangas used to spread lies and disinformation on Usenet until he traveled to Pittsburgh one day and shot himself in a restroom outside the office of Richard Mellon Scaife.
As for monopolies, one of the poster children for evil monopolies was John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, whose great crime against humanity was slashing the price of refined petrol due to technological innovation. Standard Oil never had monopoly pricing power.