Hello Bluesky! Let me reintroduce myself! My name is Kirby Ferguson and I'm best known for making the OG video essay series Everything is a Remix (2012-ish.) A new version of that series was completed last year and I'm very proud of it. You can watch that below. Come say hi!

Everything competes for attention, so everything is in competition with everything else.

1896 @nytimes.com article reports on book sellers blaming the bicycle boom on falling book sales

1900: Librarian says free libraries = too much reading “Great care must be exercised by parents to see that their children do not read too much” “When visiting a school recently 3 pupils in one room were noticed reading books under their desks"

1926: less radio, less reading in bed 2026: MORE please

The downsides of new things are an indictment. The downsides of old things are endearing.

In 1913 the creator of Kellogg’s corn flakes predicted what babies would look like in the 21st century…

You either die a disruptor, or live long enough to see yourself become an incumbent

You either die a disruptor, or live long enough to see yourself become an incumbent

2026 new year resolutions : cycle, read, play chess MORE 1926 new year resolutions: cycle, read, play chess LESS

Virtues of today were vices in the past. Did people have opposite New Year’s resolutions? (Via our newsletter newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/new-years-...) 2024: Read more 1924: Read less 2024: Cycle more 1924: Cycle less 2024: Play more chess 1858: Play less chess

193 years ago Henry Colburn observed: “objects of the highest importance to mankind, on their first appearance, are slighted and condemned. Posterity smile at the ineptitude of the preceding age, while it becomes familiar with those objects, which that age so eagerly rejected”

Virtues of today were vices in the past. Did people have opposite New Year’s resolutions? (Via our newsletter newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/new-years-...) 2024: Read more 1924: Read less 2024: Cycle more 1924: Cycle less 2024: Play more chess 1858: Play less chess

30 years ago this month, the New York Daily News ran this article bemoaning how complicated coffee had become, bemused by Dalton's introduction of pumpkin spice coffee and Starbucks' eggnog lattes, noting that specialty coffee "is a fad--like breweries. It's already peaked."

Reminds me of this gem by @xkcd.com 😄 Also, you might occasionally join forces with @pessimistsarc.bsky.social

Populism runs on pessimistic nostalgia

Populism runs on pessimistic nostalgia

This, exactly. I call it "opportunistic conservatism". In a societal setting it plays on the basic human instincts of fear and tribalism, which can be easily exploited by populists. Julius Ceaser was one exponent, but the tale goes back far into history.

Because worry is driven by fear it is very vulnerable to hijack by self-interested populists. So many of the unfounded concerns we share originate from societal elites trying to preserve cultural, political or economic power.

Once it was books, now its laptops & mobile phones. Everything changed while at the same time nothing changed.

People take the best of yesterday and compare it to the average/below average of today and present it as evidence of a decline from the good old days. This fallacy needs a name. The Apex-Average Fallacy?

193 years ago Henry Colburn observed: “objects of the highest importance to mankind, on their first appearance, are slighted and condemned. Posterity smile at the ineptitude of the preceding age, while it becomes familiar with those objects, which that age so eagerly rejected”

Italy has discovered us 🇮🇹

Rolling Stone, 20 years ago: - There are too many virgins! - How will Apple keep growing? - Vaccines cause autism?!?

Happy Birthday Google For many of your 27 years you were called a lazy vice. Finally you have attained the status of a thoughtful virtue of the good old days. 🥂 🥳

Happy Birthday Google For many of your 27 years you were called a lazy vice. Finally you have attained the status of a thoughtful virtue of the good old days. 🥂 🥳

1914

The media outlets rightly admonishing RFK Jr. need to reckon with their own roll in his rise to prominence. In 2005 Rolling Stone and Salon would publish his op-ed ‘Deadly Immunity’ linking vaccines to autism in children, based on tiny - later retracted - British study.

Do you have a fun example of resistance to new things in the past? Reach out! Seeking contributors and collaborators.

Italy has discovered us 🇮🇹

I swear if some of you saw an electric light bulb for the first time you'd be all "its so impractical and expensive, who even has a generator? We just just use cheap, renewable whale oil"

Pessimists Archive educates people on and archives the history of technophobia and moral panics See gadgeteer.co.za/pessimists-a... #conspiracytheory #FUD #technology

“Our forefathers had to carry water in pails; chop their own firewood to keep themselves warm; hew their own homesteads out of wilderness; walk miles to the nearest neighbour to borrow books.” (1928)

If anyone builds it, everyone dies (global telegraphy) newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/telegraph-...

The RFK Jr. article has its own Wikipedia entry lmao

Rolling Stone, 20 years ago: - There are too many virgins! - How will Apple keep growing? - Vaccines cause autism?!?

If anyone builds it, everyone dies (global telegraphy) newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/telegraph-...

"Modern technology depletes human cognitive abilities more rapidly than drugs, according to a psychiatric study conducted at King's College, London. And the curse of 'messaging' is to blame." - The Register, 2005 web.archive.org/web/20050424...

They said this about the bicycle in 1893 predicting the "evolution of a round-shouldered, hunched-back race"

They said this about the bicycle in 1893 predicting the "evolution of a round-shouldered, hunched-back race"

A century later, the evidence is in: Automobile Brain is real, and it’s a leading cause of Miserable City Syndrome.

People are devastated NYT mini crossword was put behind a paywall. Once upon a time the NYT looked down its nose at word games, refusing to put them in the paper. newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/the-new-yo...

“Our forefathers had to carry water in pails; chop their own firewood to keep themselves warm; hew their own homesteads out of wilderness; walk miles to the nearest neighbour to borrow books.” (1928)

Defence attorneys for kids love to scapegoat new technologies and trends. The media loves to write about it and lawmakers love to propose ‘solutions’ to the ‘problem.’ Often it is a waste of time, distracting from real problems and solutions to them. (1977)

I remember 🙄

See also novels in the 18th century. Outrage at new ways to tell stories and entertain has always happened. How Fiction Sparked Outrage in the 18th Century - Magazine share.google/kJIvj6eZRZ4S...