We were naive idealists, but not for the reason the comic says. We thought a lot of societal problems had their roots in centralized control of information by g

We were naive idealists, but not for the reason the comic says. We thought a lot of societal problems had their roots in centralized control of information by government and big media companies. Democratizing communications would lead to good outcomes for the oppressed. "Sunlight is the best disinfectant" and all that. In some ways, that was true. Police treatment of black people in some parts of the US, for example, is incontrovertible now whereas in the 90s most people simply wouldn't believe it. We weren't wrong about the sunlight, but we were wrong about what it would do - what the human reaction would be to the lights being turned on. Rousseau has been in the ring with Hobbes, and Rousseau lost.