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Comment by pannSun | Hacker News Reader

> A triple threat of economic globalization, generational transition, and new technology has flattened the aesthetics of our digital and physical lives. What are the origins of these regressive trends?

Given that things used to be less flat, uniform, and globalized, and now they are more, with no signs of the trend stopping, it would be more accurate to call these trends not regressive, but progressive.

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Progress doesn't just mean "moving toward the future". It is not "progressive" to remove diversity and agency in favor of a strict sociocultural contract.

This is rather a perfect example of conservatism: refusing to extend beyond comfort zone boundaries because of a strong sense of risk avoidance, for fear of missing out on market opportunity. This conservatism has always existed but has a much broader reach in the era of the global community, and expresses itself in paradoxically new and exciting ways as it froths through the reactors of specific cultures.

I believe "regressive" is used in the sense that the aesthetics are "regressing toward a mean", which is true almost by definition, assuming you believe the postulates in the article.

If discarding the old, traditional, inherited logo, and adopting a new one in line with current trends, with the intent to show a commitment to "diversity & inclusion", is "conservative", then the word can really mean whatever you want it to mean, can't it?

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