Yo, "the internet left us feeling helpless" is a gross misrepresentation. There have been times where content was shared on independent blogs, people discussed in forums that were not powered by large companies... *We* chose to leave that behind. I don't think the internet is to be blamed here. But it's complicated. And it's true, at this point it's learned helplesness. Just click okay, "accept", type in your phone number and you'll get your cat pictures or whatever. And the thing I worry about the most, even a large chunk of the nerds and computerphile people have become lazy and submitted to the dynamics. And nowadays they post on Medium or social media, Youtube and gather on Discord. Not all of them, though. There is some hope.