If that's true, it accurately reflects what I see as societies changing attitudes to the industry, driven the enshiffication of tech, privacy scandals, degrading of work conditions and political actions by certain tech leaders.
Of course I am not trying to rationalize their side that is harmful for several societies, but at least for me, TC used to be the place where I could find companies doing something useful for a couple of people.
PersonallyI would pay a service like TC circa 2014-2017 that is a directory of start-ups/scale-ups and bring some great digest about the industry in a more nuanced view in terms of capabilities and new companies.
This phrase is a good example of it, as though every bad business decision were somehow part of an inevitable war. Some companies make good decisions; some make bad ones; and it changes over time. But now we have to have someone in every comment section mention this "inevitability", which just has a chilling effect on perception of the industry.
I see what you're saying, but your message implies that this perception of the industry isn't understandable/fair on a personal level and/or that it doesn't reflect the trajectory the industry has taken. Do you feel the perception among consumers is not earned, or that it is not "fair" for people to feel this way as the tools and places people use to use change, switch to subscriptions, harvest ever more data, fight against ad blocking technology, etc.?
This isn't the fault of the tech journalists in my opinion, their bitterness and the tech industry's perception is a symptom of a shared root cause in my opinion.