> Politics have become an attack on intelligence, decency and research in favour of fairy tales of going back to “great values” of “the past when things were better”.

This is a major blind spot for people with a progressive bent.

The possibility that anything could ever get worse is incomprehensible to them. Newer, by definition, is better.

Yet this very article is a critique of a new technology that, at the very least, is being used by many people in a way that makes the world a bit worse.

This is not to excuse politicians who proclaim they will make life great by retreating to some utopian past, in defense of cruel or foolish or ineffective policies. It's a call to examine ideas on their own merits, without reference to whether they appeal to the group with the "right" or "wrong" ideology.