I sense an underlying theme that the author considers these protestations of ethics to be shallow or naive. "tech" has considered itself immune from criticism

I sense an underlying theme that the author considers these protestations of ethics to be shallow or naive. "tech" has considered itself immune from criticism by framing all arguments against it as against progress itself - and who would be against progress? That kind of short-circuit evaluation led to people not really questioning things - might as well keep programming, after all, it is progress right? Now the environment is much more complicated, and we're collectively discovering shades in what was originally a solid color. Interesting times.