This sort of lost my attention at the notion that all police were defunded, guns were banned, and millions of people were brutally murdered. Those ideas were propoganda. Defunding the police was never a sincerely held belief save the ideas that institutional racism be addressed and militarization of police disrupted. The most ardent municipalities replaced leadership and adapted their policing models. Its hard to take a piece about dystopia seriously after that is the premise.
Aside from that, a commercial dystopia is so anglo-centric it hurts my teeth. In that scenario, the have-nots have more freedom? Consumption is slavery? The disconnected have more connection? Okay that last part rings true, the rest feels like a paradox of privilege. We are uniquely entitled to compute as we please using whatever devices and service we see fit, to block and disable telemetry at will, to sue and win when things get bad. I appreciate what the author is trying to highlight, but maybe they should go back to 1984 and see what they miss.
Aside from that, a commercial dystopia is so anglo-centric it hurts my teeth. In that scenario, the have-nots have more freedom? Consumption is slavery? The disconnected have more connection? Okay that last part rings true, the rest feels like a paradox of privilege. We are uniquely entitled to compute as we please using whatever devices and service we see fit, to block and disable telemetry at will, to sue and win when things get bad. I appreciate what the author is trying to highlight, but maybe they should go back to 1984 and see what they miss.