When enshittifier-Capitalists disintermediate and tax basic human connection --
When they have, by public relations fiat, claimed control of sex itself --
(Like a mining company showing up on tribal lands with bulldozers to claim it. Like a hedge built through the middle of India to divide it and tax the trade of salt.)
-- then to communicate directly becomes a revolutionary act.
We know DeBeers manufactured the diamond tradition. Surely these new companies are likewise influencing the ideas that are conditioned into peoples' heads.
Whatever ideas cause people not to communicate directly here -- to turn towards disintermediation -- are necessarily in the service of these empires. Astroturf taboos may have to be flouted to make human progress here.
Ahh capitalism. They saw a premium service at a premium price, decided people will pay the price even without the service and shut down the original. Match.coms monopoly power over our love lives is very very bad for everyone. At this point I feel like arranged marriage is better because at least it's arranged by people who care about you and have aligned incentives. But my main point is this is terrible news.