Those were dictators too.

They fell in love with their own reflection. All they can hear is their own words ‘Freedom!’ echoing in their ears. It’s a modern day tale of Narcissus.

It’s not that arbitrary. Gen-X are the first generation of boomer children. Millennials are the second generation of boomer children who grew up with the internet. These are real events.

People find it easy to fit boomers into a tidy box. Ask the boomers born on the cusp of boomer and gen-x. It’s arbitrary bullshit too. It’s not like baby boomers all came from the boomer factory and then one day they decided, ‘that’s it the boomer factory’s closed’.

He has a few hundred thousand excess COVID deaths.

The first administration fucked over farmers with tariffs and then bailed them out. Trillions of dollars are being grifted to rich. They’ll chip in a few meager billions to farmers again.

Besides they hated when Obama tried to give kids healthy meals. I’m sure they be overjoyed that kids don’t have to eat the woke fresh foods.

Tech companies hire psychologists to behavior modify us to be engagement zombies. That alone must have done a number on intelligence.

Reddit is historically US tech workers. When the userbase was younger they were still some what anti-establishment. They have gotten more institutionalized as the years have gone by. They support big tech. They support the tech bro oligarchs. Their livelihood is tied to the fate of the US oligarchs. They are the sycophants. The yes-men.

Anyone who has been around before the tech oligarch era can attest to how different things are. What we have today isn’t anywhere close to the type of anarchist, anti-establishment type of nerds of the older internet eras. Today those types of people are all but extinct.

As you said, nobody actually talks critically about the tech industry. It’s certainly not in the way people used to. The term “walled garden” has long ago fallen out of the internet lexicon. The tech monopoly took root. The dominant narrative became of those in support of single closed ecosystems.

The tech nerd sycophants took over. There haven’t been competitors so long. There’s only one reddit. Only one twitter. Only one facebook. Only one youtube. And the prevailing mindset of tech is in support of this. Nobody speaks out against it. These companies have written the paychecks and funded the retirement of all those nerds.

These tech libertarians never stop trying to make their own company towns.

Here was a recent failed attempt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidewalk_Toronto

Also this piece never gets old. https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/l-p-d-libertarian-police-department

I’ll be the one to say it. We have been living in good times. The internet has the vocal crowd of naysayers. I believe they are signal boosted by “the algorithms” sowing the discontent bubble. That’s why there hasn’t been much counter-movement. Enough people are still too comfortable.

And you all can spare me the belligerent replies about how this or that sucks for whoever or whatever. That doesn’t strike the fact that things are good for enough people such that there isn’t mass breakdowns of social order.

It’s actually kind of crazy how the system keeps bending yet nothing has completely snapped. We’re not even at Occupy Wall Street level.

People are still thinking in 20th century. The 21st century tech oligarchs are more powerful than nations. They control digital infrastructure. The ones who own social platforms can incite civil unrest. They control the algorithmic knobs of the population.

It’s literally in your face how obvious it is. Musk has Trump cowering at the Resolute desk. The most powerful seat in the world.

I think people must be in denial. Trying to justify with some other reasonings other than what is. Musk isn’t an asset. It isn’t a side business. He’s taken over the world superpower. Nation states aren’t the highest theater anymore. It’s tech oligarchs.

There isn’t a 4-8 back and forth cycle anymore. This paradigm no longer exists because the GOP has abdicated. It took the two parties to agree on this unwritten understanding.

The Dems are continuing to muddle around under the guise that a bygone era of decorum still exists… That maybe the old Republican party will come back. After each Dem term, MAGA will continue to do whatever the fuck they’re doing with reckless abandon. They know the Dems are cucked. One or both disappears as a party. We’re past that point for the GOP as it’s clear MAGA isn’t an aberration of 2016. So it must be the Dems re-invent themselves as something that can actually challenge MAGA.

This isn’t just a setback for Democrats. This needs to be a realization that the Dems are no longer a viable party. Sure on paper and in a bottle they are indeed a political party. Not one that is going to rise to the challenges.

People have been wondering if the party will be listless if Trump dies. Maybe that’s when MAGA finally reverts to the old Republicans. It’s clear now it won’t. They’ll elect a puppet president. The real president will be Musk or who ever else manages to worm their way in.

Sundar PIchai was front and center at the inauguration. Right next to Musk himself.

In other news the first arrivals are at gitmo concentration camp.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/08/us/politics/guantanamo-bay-migrants.html

I’m still waiting to see if the second amendment is actually real.