finding it increasingly difficult to summon any optimism with respect to this stuff. opposing policy, proponents of which can fall back on "think of the children", is an uphill battle with both hands tied behind your back. the way things are going, someone born today, by the time they reach my age, simply won't have been able to get in touch with 90% of interests i value and give my life meaning.

back in my time as an (inadvisably) precociously online kid, the only real age barrier was having a credit card, so i had to beg/borrow/steal my way to someone on irc giving me a shell to a vps, and pay some other rando with a steam gift card to buy a domain then transfer it to my registrar account. and like that, i could start developing a presence in whatever online communities i insinuated myself into by acting mature enough nobody gave my age a second thought. physical realities like divorce and school troubles came and went, but moving and shaking online gave me my most steadfast friends and s/o to this day.

shift the timeframe a couple decades and i would have instead been gated by an id upload. bleak.