Why has no one ever managed to make a chat program as good as ICQ?

— Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 (@Noahpinion) November 5, 2022

The same reason Firefox sucks, and that all software is trash now: the impetus the past decade or so has been to get the information genie back in the bottle under the guise of increasing security. ICQ gave the user loads of control and lots of capabilities. It was difficult to surveil and allowed anyone to talk to anyone, unfiltered, unmoderated, and with tons of customizability.

That cannot and will not be allowed now. The project of the current era is making sure all is capable of being surveilled, controlled and squelched if needed. This is why you cannot customize software. This is why everything seems to have only two useless features — and also why Google search no longer functions and Twitter is being incinerated.

That so many people buy the tall tale that it’s all for “security” boggles my fucking mind.