Cassandra is only carbon now
The relationship that the median person has with tech is so toxic, and is such metastasized exploitation, it's kind of mind-blowing.
Jul 15, 2025 at 7:19pmWeb
Show threadCassandra is only carbon nowJul 15, 2025

I don't mean the median person On Here. I mean the median person whose eyes glaze over the moment you mention anything that isn't Facebook or Twitter, who is deeply scarred and traumatized (yes, traumatized) by anything tech-y, and who goes running deeper and deeper into corporate enclaves in response.

It's an abusive cycle, through and through.

I don't know how to break it.

Show threadCassandra is only carbon nowJul 15, 2025

One very painful lesson I learned somewhat early in life is that you cannot help someone break an abuse loop unless they are willing to try and are looking for help.

So, like, I get it. People are fucked up from years and years of this shit, and so yeah, those of us On Here are in some tiny percentile in terms of our relationships to tech, and the corporate worlds of Twitter, Pinterest, IG, Threads, and Bsky win out.

Show threadCassandra is only carbon nowJul 15, 2025

Same story goes with just about any other sphere of tech, whether it's messenger apps, browsers and ad-blockers, password managers, even entire operating systems. Hell, even using a desktop or laptop at *all* instead of phones and tablets is getting to be farther from the median.

At the same time, tech companies have ramped up the abuse even further with AI. I don't know where this shit ends if left to its logical extrema, but nowhere good.

Show threadCassandra is only carbon nowJul 15, 2025

A few things that don't work:

• Yelling at people inside that abuse loop.
• Replicating that abuse loop outside of corporate tech.
• Denying that corporate tech is, at least in this present moment, largely driven by the same psychological abuse loops we see in many other cases of power imbalance.
• Ignoring the intersectionality of the whole thing (e.g.: "oh, just go buy $EXPENSIVE and it'll all work").

Show threadCassandra is only carbon nowJul 15, 2025
To be clear, that abuse loop consists of corporate tech making something hard in ways that are *legitimately* and *actually* traumatizing, then offering a "solution" that pushes people further into corporate tech.
Show threadIrenes (many)Jul 15, 2025
@xgranade this is a really good insight. thank you very much for it.
Show threadCassandra is only carbon nowJul 15, 2025
@ireneista Thank you for the kind words, I really appreciate it! ♥
Show threadSean BootsJul 19, 2025
@ireneista @xgranade +1!
Show threadMatt CampbellJul 15, 2025
@xgranade Do you think the median person has been scarred and traumatized by any of the non-corporate things that we want to promote? Like, I imagine that most don't have any direct contact with sysadmins, e.g. from a university or small ISP. I suppose some could have come in contact with toxic Linux/OSS zealots.
Show threadMatt CampbellJul 15, 2025
@xgranade I guess my point is that if my guess is correct, then they've been scarred and traumatized by corporate tech, the very thing that they're retreating deeper into.
Show threadMatt CampbellJul 15, 2025
@xgranade I guess, though, part of what they might be retreating from is email spam and phishing, and I guess the corporate enclaves can provide some protection from that, at a high cost.
Show threadMatt CampbellJul 15, 2025
@xgranade As for how to break the cycle, the only thing I can think of is for some of us, those who have the spare cycles, to patiently work with willing friends or family on migrating away from the corporate platforms to the extent that they practically can.
Show threadMorgan ⚧️Jul 15, 2025
@matt @xgranade even if they haven't, if their experience with technology has been mostly bad I don't see them volunteering to do things that are more involved and require knowing more about technology