@fulelo

they were giving Europe a bad name..

@adacosta @rbreich

I think tech bros actually believe their own bullshit, most days, for the most part. The days of innovation are long gone. But that ethos of "Don't sell sugar water for the rest of your life" is purely apocryphal. The tech biz has become (and became a long time ago..) it's own "sugar water" industry. It's just ad clicks & data mining now. As a tech bro it's a lot less depressing to talk & hype a bunch of blue sky than it is to look soberly at the depressing reality of things

@adacosta @rbreich

And time to be honest and sober about what 1990's "innovation" and concepts did and didn't deliver, 30 years on.

@adacosta @rbreich Ultimately tech companies have shown themselves to be stolidly & stodgily conventional businesses, run along utterly conventional lines & with completely conventional results on average. It's time for the charade to end, the circus to be over. Tax and regulate these companies just like everybody else. In 30 years they have demonstrated they are stolidly conventional wall street tools, not genius wonder boys. The masquerading-as-innovators ball is over. Time for masks off.

@adacosta @rbreich Reining the whole circus in is long overdue, by about 15 years. Make a sober assessment of the future promises that have been delivered, as well as those that have not. Their delivery success rate isn't that great and not much better than any conventional old industry, despite our society's collective hopes. Ultimately it all devolved into a cynical cash grab, and that's when the leash needs to be jerked- and jerked hard.

@adacosta @rbreich

I think we all got more than a little lost in the 90's over the internet and all the (positive?) changes that computers were expected to wreak on society. Early tech bros were given a long leash, both for shareholder value and for maximum creativity, disruption and change. They certainly delivered on that first part. The latter things, much less so. But this too, took time to become apparent and come into focus.

@adacosta @rbreich

Touche`..

A bit like that 1964 Norman Rockwell painting titled "The Problem We All Live With"..

Political & protest arguments aimed at riling up the masses are often oversimplified & ignore broad social dimensions of injustice/inequality/sin. On the other hand, you've got to start somewhere & simple jingoism has a pretty good record of success in getting people moving. The devil is always in the details, but we can save that for later on. Begin with simple ideas first.