Degeneration on tech portals
I generally avoid reading tech portals because the quality of today's "articles" is embarrassingly low, and honestly, there's just nothing interesting there. Sometimes I'll check out places like Lobsters, diff.blog, or Hacker News, where at least a somewhat intelligent community decides what's worth looking at.
Recently, though, I decided to check out which mainstream tech websites are trending these days and see if I could find anything of value. I started by dismissing the ones that don't have an "apple-touch-icon" (because if they can't manage something that basic, why should I care about what they have to say about tech). That left me with a few portals, many of which I remember from back in the day, from my younger years and/or their print versions.
To my horror, it turns out that quite a few of these sites have sunk to gutter-level standards. It's a cultural disaster, and honestly, I don't even have the words for it. Just two examples:
PC Magazine – An "article" by Chris Stobing where he straightforwardly recommends VPNs for accessing porn sites without ID check. Yes, the entire article is dedicated to that topic. Does that even need a comment? Leaving aside the cultural and ethical questions, I wonder if this kind of "guide" isn't outright illegal in some countries?
WIRED – An "article" by Eric Ravenscraft reviewing a masturbation machines. I mean, are you serious? How far have we fallen as a civilization?
I get it, I really do. There are people so morally degenerate that they think this stuff is completely normal. But for God's sake, keep it to yourself! Don't parade this in public like it's something to be proud of. Doing so puts you squarely outside the moral norms of Western civilization.
I genuinely feel sorry for parents raising young kids right now, parents who want to protect them from inappropriate content. Not so long ago, a well-configured home router or Pi-hole was enough. Now? I have no idea. It's just disheartening...
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