I think it’s better to see it as not a shift in culture but understand that the internet represents all culture now. There are still under 30s that believe in real freedom but everyone is on the internet now, rather than a set of people that were more biased towards freedom (as that was partly what the internet represented).

Agreed. I've had to start being more selective and going to places like Agora Road and the like just to find that subculture flavor once again.

It turns out even the 2000s web 2.0 itself can have an Eternal September, who'd of thought?

I'm with you. They just don't know any better. Discord is a prime example of how complete garbage software can become dominant because modern day users set the bar really low.

This has been a struggle for me as I've gotten older - and I'm not even that old (36) but I've noticed such a big culture shift with the younger generations.

I've been accused of holding "far right" views, or at best an overly paranoid nut, for some of my opinions on software and internet freedom, for promoting E2E encryption, and lamenting the loss of public forums to private, hidden from search, discord/Facebook groups, etc.

To be honest, it's difficult to sit by and watch the enshittification of everything tech while seeing the younger crowd be totally OK with it, and in a lot of cases even defend it.