From nerds, niche, to Oligarchs.
From breaking boundaries to limiting alternatives.
From rebelling against the status-quo to become the status-quo.
The nerds now become the slave.
Look up all the shady stuff companies like Intel were doing in the 90s, from IP theft to outright bribing companies to avoid their competition (which was better). Apple and Microsoft were starting to polish how to lock in users. Google was created with the help of NSF and MDDS/CIA grants etc. It's not all rebels and outsiders.
Nerds to Oligarchs.
Things are so dire than Yann LeCun wrote a post on LinkedIN regarding grants cuts.
Chinese scientists who have lived in USA for 40+ years migrated to China to lead researchers just because The Administration decided to pick on minorities.
Of course this is not a problem specific to those in tech. It's just that we are the group that built the prison we now all find ourselves in.
Why would you blame tech workers? They're just another brainwashed mass that works for a living. If I were to suggest a wrong solution - I'd at least blame the finance sector.
Blaming doesn't solve anything because once you're done with your witch hunt - the problems remain. The systemic problem remains. We need systemic solutions and those require thinking, not reaching for a pre-made solution you've been brainwashed to reach for.
Until people recognize modern society to be a complex system that requires thinking to operate, there will be no meaningful progress. We're still operating under the system of I take people willing to dish out violence and go around bullying everyone in sight. I then take the plundered resources and tell nerds to go do their nerd shit to make me a complex society that works wonderfully.
It doesn't work. Not because nerds realize working for power hungry dummies is stupid but because we're destroying the planet and regular working people worldwide hate us and we have to work hard to barely keep the thing from falling apart. Constantly lying to everyone and yourself once you realize the fucked system you're in is exhausting, so it doesn't work. But please realize - the answer isn't to blame anyone. It's to find solutions and that takes thinking.