"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of."

Edward Bernays, Propaganda (1928)

'We' being techno-utopian, libertarian startup types I guess. Which isn't that unfair on this site.

The we is capitalism I suppose. We voted for this, we chose this, we continue to choose it. Kind of like walking blindly into this unfortunate predicament a lot of people find themsevles in. Yeah, it's not necessarily a single action any single individual made, but the collective direction we as a society went. We're frogs boiling ourselves literally and figuratively; question is are we going to jump out or do nothing.