I think the problem is we. Was there a we before? Maybe but there is no we anymore for sure.
The Net used to be kind of a different world that escaped how the offline world worked. But the old powers have crawled back into.
But the group of people that made up the "old we" (to the extent that such a thing ever existed) still exists. That's the "we" I'm referring to now. So the question, to my mind, is whether or not there is still a distinct "we" who had grand visions of what the Internet and technology could do for society (in a good way) and whether there are still actions we could take to encourage development in a positive direction.
I think the answer is "yes", but that may just be wishful thinking. But I try to be an optimist.
I'm afraid that even if that's true, the us vs. them mindset is polluting the air.
I mean, yeah, OK, obviously things have gone off the rails in a lot of ways. And a lot of our expectations didn't work out the way we expected.
The question is, is this situation recoverable? Maybe the sentence above should end with the word "yet" as in
"And a lot of our expectations didn't work out the way we expected, yet".
We don't have to lean into defeatism and give up. Maybe it's just time to step back, think really hard and long, do some strategizing, and figure out a way to get the train back on the rails?