@tante rooting for our tech addiction to eventually hit bottom so we can finally start caring about other things.

@tante
Thank you, thank you, thank youi!

@tante People need to start getting a whole lot more skeptical of the claims of tech companies and VCs, and recognize that there's no such thing as a neutral or apolitical technology. IMO this is crappy not because doing therapy over a video call is necessarily bad, but because of who controls the terms of those calls (some shithead who is absolutely going to exploit their users once they've gotten their monopoly).

@tante (semi-)contra: clothing for instance was democratised through technical progress / price reduction alone, basically.

“Semi” because, well, fuck the tech bros, ofc it’s not primarily what they’re about (rather monopolisation / taking advantage of winners-take-all effects in cases of low-friction). That and major doubts, to say the least, about whether therapy really could be done without humans in any meaningful sense.

@tante as a lifetime worker in the tech industry I couldn’t agree more. Far too few techies feel any sense of ethical or moral responsibility. Neither are they interested in politics.

@tante yesterday I saw something about a company developing AI tutors for young kids... How about just paying teachers more and investing in our schools so our public education system will be better?? Oh but I forgot, we're getting rid of public schools. I also hate the trend toward AIing everything!

@tante If you make it free, you make it free for black people too - many people in the USA don't want that. Most of these companies come from this culture.

@tante Amen.

@tante we both know that in short:

democratize == commoditize

buy a pound of therapy/expression at the counter. just like with meat, people don't care what was fed through the grinder to make their product, in fact they'd rather not be told

@tante kinda see this also with some think tanks and some NGOs, non profits etc in the DC sphere. Just slimy, scuzzy, individuals taking advantage of the less cynical and less informed with tales of "coaching" or "consulting". Predatory capitalism at its finest at the end of the day.

@tante This is not a problem with "us". "We" don't want this techbro bullshit exploitation for ourselves.
It's a problem with "them". "They" want that.

@tante And the big tech companies pay a ton of money to support politics against those things people want

@tante I spent years in startups and couldn't agree more: most money in the space is wasted and doesn't bring a whole load of benefits to anyone other than the founders. Consumers get some marginal value; society as a whole gets little.

It helps if you understand that startup culture (especially 2008-2022) was an product of historically low interest rates; tech is basically fueled by financial speculation. As usual it's capital playing with 'commodities' that shouldn't be commoditized.

@tante
This is the much-vaunted openness to technology....🤨

Because then they can profit and because the founder has the idea that it’s the future…

@tante Exactly.

@tante In the end it’s about the same things it always is with these people: power, money, control.

The point of these “solutions” is that they can monetise them, and control the content. Art becomes sterilized and loses its political angle: the owning class does not get criticised. Don’t want the therapy to cover certain subjects? Control the service and censor whatever you want.

Of course, some men will also do anything instead of going to therapy, including creating much worse therapy.

@tante They don't want to 'democratise'.

They want to make people pay them the money that they normally would pay to humans for providing a service.

@tante @alice The amount of money being poured into data centres and the rest of AI could have actually solved so many of these issues if the money actually went to those things!

@tante As someone who was one of the first few thousand releasing in mp3 format long ago now in the mid 90s, i would argue that tech, ie. mp3 format did democratize music distribution in large part. No longer are artists subject to large labels in order to release. It's brought about other issues with streaming platforms now that aren't great, but that's one instance where tech did do something helpful at one point for artists.

@tante

https://www.wired.com/story/trump-energy-industry-ai-fossil-fuels-pittsburgh-summit/

None of these startups are funded for altruistic reasons or even for revenue potential.

They're being funded to keep a status quo; a world order ruled by the fossil fuel industry.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/technology/saudi-arabia-ai-exporter.html

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-11-06/saudis-plan-100-billion-ai-powerhouse-to-rival-uae-s-tech-hub

https://www.tipranks.com/news/saudi-arabia-moves-billions-from-neom-to-ai-investments-backed-by-nvidia-and-amazon

The goal is wasting fossil fuel on white elephants & price gouge.

The aim is to thwart an urgent fossil fuel phase out.

If Blackrock & #PrinceBonesaw are funding it, it's evil.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-28/blackstone-saudi-ai-firm-humain-ink-3-billion-data-center-deal

I totally get what you’re saying tech can sometimes feel like a flashy shortcut that misses the real issues. But do you think there’s any way technology could actually support or enhance access to these things, without replacing the human element? @tante

@tante democratize in their world: make it more affordable (and cheaper to provide) so we can tap into a wastly bigger revenue pool

@tante
> You want to democratize "making art"?

This has always been a weird one given how low the barrier to making art actually is (exc music, that stuff is expensive). The thousands of mostly young women on ao3 are a testament to that.

They aren't actually selling the ability to make art, but the idea of being an artist.

@tante It seems like tech companies are always trying to wedge themselves in between a valuable service (something that actually creates value) and the customers. I think Joan Westenberg @Daojoan described it in one of her newsletters. Might have been this story: https://medium.com/westenberg/the-great-tech-heist-e2ac7143316f

@tante "democratise" always means "monopolise" when these guys say it