I don’t get nostalgic for much, but I do miss the early public internet (1994-2000ish or so). It was superior in almost every way. Not yet completely dominated by commercial interests, with a sense of wild freedom and with no barriers, it was a haven rather than the prison of attention and surveillance it has become.

We’ve gone from the open internet to the oubliette.

No one group is responsible for this; “freedom-loving” liberals are just as culpable as the FCC and Amazon. In a way, Mozilla and its terrible decisions is just a symptom of this and the authoritarian turn in society in general.

Ah well, I remember how the internet was going to “change everything.”

It sure did.