I think it’s completely insane to say that any of that is worse now than it ever was. Luckily you only meet pessimism like this in sheltered online echo chambers, so busy whining about Elon Musk or “Google bad” or other irrelevant bullshit, that they can’t see beyond their own bubble of ignorance.
The fact that Twitter is dying or websites are collecting more cookies is not a world crisis. The rest of these issues are just caused by USA’s capitalist greed, and no amount of activism is changing that, evidently.
I didn’t say it is worse than it ever was. Just saying it is not the best it ever was either.
My perspective comes from the fact that I am an aid worker and human rights activist. This has nothing to do with online discourse. My perspective is also not only found in online echo chambers. It is common among my colleagues. I am not referring to Twitter dying. I don’t care about that. And yes, activism is at least in my field of activism pretty damn ineffective. That doesn’t mean we should stop trying.