It's gotten really hard for me to write tech criticism anymore because I feel like people have gotten so weird about it

Like, yes we can talk about manipulation and incentives and the anti-social nature of our social media &c. &c.

But in the past year I've noticed far more people talking about it like they have no agency. Your brain is literally being rotted by tiktok. You're addicted to twitter and bsky like it's heroin (no, really, had someone argue to my face the point that it's the same as heroin). You are being mind-controlled and becoming illiterate and to suggest you have any volition is naivete at best.

And it's this nihilism, the bad kind where you decide there's no point in doing anything rather than the good kind where you feel free, that is making it hard for me to engage.

I'm seeing more anti-science sentiment, more pessimism, more voluntary relinquishment of agency and meaning, and it's honestly scaring me.