Preaching liberation while sequestering into gated communities is endemic to tech. The “personal” computer was going to free us from the grip of IBM’s dominance in mainframes, but it fell under the even greater control of Microsoft. Apple claimed to be a revolutionary fighting Big Brother, but it erected the greatest tollbooth for creativity in history (the App Store). “Information wants to be free” was the rallying cry of earlier web company managements trying to convince fawning, idiotic content companies to exchange their content for pennies on the dollar.
The wheel turns once again, and the loudest barker at the carnival is venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz, which has raised a $2.2 billion crypto fund and is deploying its general partners across the internet as missionaries. One partner preaches decentralization to his nearly 800,000 Twitter followers, and Marc Andreesen (the founder) blocks people who speak ill of web3 (including Jack) — he makes cool memes about it. BTW, I don’t think there’s anything wrong w/blocking people … it’s your feed.
As @Jack would say: “Words.” Andreesen Horowitz is putting its actual dollars into companies that build centralized, toll-taking platforms (OpenSea and Coinbase are both Andreesen Horowitz portfolio companies) with the middlemen needed to fix all the user-experience issues and trust issues that come with a decentralized system. Meet the new boss … he’s your old boss.
What we’re are seeing in Ottawa, and also in hiccups around the world, is the unraveling of the postwar oligarchy, which dressed up as a liberal-democracy. Indeed, we are observing how the accumulated costs incurred by the professional class, from fleecing and lying to its citizens, results in those same citizens arriving at the government’s doorstep, blowing their horns, and demanding justice.It's looking increasingly likely the level of frustration is approaching the point .gov.ca will pull triggers.
As the elites panic, they escalate their efforts and resort to desperate tricks, including calling the demonstrators nazis, booking every hotel room in Ottawa, interfering with donations, disrupting internet service, having officers posture for five minutes in front of the press media, threatening arrests, and even threatening military involvement because of the specter of “foreign interference.” It seems like Canada is going to war.
But the injunctions, and the municipal and provincial states of emergency have only been powerful in name, not in practice. So far, their illusions have been all hat and no rabbit. Every obstacle in the truckers’ path is circumvented, and every day that the convoy remains, the government’s incompetence is revealed, and it is humiliated on the world stage.
