By panic fetish tool I mean something of marginal utility — not no utility, mind — that panics the afflicted into a mailable state. So, for Citizen, that’s mean

By panic fetish tool I mean something of marginal utility — not no utility, mind — that panics the afflicted into a mailable state. So, for Citizen, that’s meant to make you pay them money. For, say, fascist politics that’s meant to make you rely on the comfort provided by Dear Leader. I don’t think it’s clear at all that HN follows the same model. For one the website is free and if they’re trying to make anything happen it’s promote their VC fund, which strikes me as benign. Oh, maybe lisp too in the old days. Additionally, being aware that the utopian vaguely libertarian mindset around tech — everything is better with computers, especially if you can make money at it — is false is not a bad thing. Personally I don’t feel at all powerless to counter that trend, that mindless Utopianism, or to play my part with my neighbors and community in countering it, I should say, since I’m just one person.