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Crowstep  8mo ago (theintrinsicperspective.com)   2638 thread views

What the heck happened in 2012?

theintrinsicperspective.com

Submission statement:

Erik Hoel argues that 2012 was a cultural inflection point. Just as 1968 signalled the peak of the 1960s cultural revolution that would set the stage for the next few decades of social change, 2012 represents the beginning of the (spoiler) smartphone era and a new round of social change.

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IIRC: 2012/13 was also around the time of the SOPA/PIPA fight (early and somewhat successful internet activism) and the Snowden leaks.

2013 was probably the last or one of the last years where saying "I'm against censorship on the internet" won't get the comment "oh, you're one of those nazis who just wants to call people racial slurs and spread conspiracy theories!". Paradoxically, after uniting under "stop censorship" slogans and learning how much the US government in clandestinely meddling with internet, a lot of people and organizations just switched to "well, maybe a little censorship for a good cause is not that bad - actually, even necessary - and we can surely trust the government to do the right thing here". Maybe it just coincided with some kind of generational shift or something, or maybe it's The System's reaction to being defeated, but living through it was - and still is - pretty bizarre.

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