Well described! This happens it seems to a great many who were all about #open then got InterNET Worth. And probably jail time. This is not my utopia ;-)

In some ways that "we" ended up making it in many ways more closed, all through very human mechanisms. Egos and incomes. If someone's told me it'd end up with dominating platforms and millions of mediocre single serve apps... Actually I'd probably have believed it

I'd have fought that thought but I have always known the Web would challenge the world view. I was face blind to puppet masters. Little more woke now. Also, this has always gone on, just not so LOUDLY. Cruelty to divide and conquer. I don't play bipartisan it's a zero-sum game.

It's probably of very little comfort but the rest of the world is not as screwed up though the US cultural influence is tainting some of it

Does our buffoon create an environment of divisiveness and hate? Absolutely. He's an extremist with no ideology other than himself. I pity empty souls. No cure for that. We cannot treat he who declares himself smartest, best and sane (a sure sign of not sane haha).

I'm ever surprised how many decent people fall for it. I married an Iowan so get to see it in his distant relatives and classmates. Easy to believe any narrative about people and problems you have never seen.

It's so complicated within the various cultures too. There are Latinos who are pro Trump because they got in the very hard way. We've become immune to insult and . injury at large. Part of my own challenges - I am a futurist whose having a hard time seeing a future! :)

The challenge to a path to a better future is how to rally people around positive goals. Anything that triggers anger and fear - even totally valid - can easily work into the hands of the "anti future" movement, it's quite a trap. The children's strike avoided that trap so far.

Some people see #AI and #IoT as tools for tracking their run. Others see global surgery. Most people are in the middle and want to live life, not be in debt, have some creature comforts. We need to shift out own ideas about "stuff" and things too, and see closer what we waste.

At a personal level we have to realise that we're so many our comforts have consequences. And then we have to "unpickle", out of all the things we think we need and want for success and happiness, which really matter and which we just want because we were taught we ought to.