"Yet the idea that tech can help us "change the world," as the old mantra would have it, is hardly left-wing. Internet culture, on the contrary, has always been a libertarian-infused mélange that celebrates individual liberty, social tolerance, and collective empowerment through technology and free markets."
During the late 1990s dot-com boom, an idealistic belief in the Internet’s power to improve lives fueled exuberance in San Francisco. The magazine and its parties celebrated participation in the revolution while acknowledging contradictions that would later burst the bubble. Over the next three decades, techno-optimism shaped the internet industry, but it is now fading. The decline is attributed to failed promises and to political wars in the country. Some right-wing tech leaders dismiss earlier idealism as “radical woke left” ideology and promote a different techno-optimism centered on militaristic nationalism and harsh Darwinian competition. The belief that technology can change the world is not inherently left-wing, since internet culture has long blended libertarian values with tolerance and empowerment through free markets.
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