> To those in this thread denouncing these dystopian times my question to you is, how do we as technologists create a meaningful and successful career changing this?
Disclaimer: I don't mean to criticize you, just to critique the mode of thought expressed in your comment.
Why are we as technologists so rarely willing to entertain the idea that meaningful change (in this and other socio-political domains) and "career success" might be mutually exclusive? At best they tend to be orthogonal, I think. Very rarely are they tightly coupled. More often one arrives at work that leads to "success" as conventionally defined (i.e., high pay, job security, nice benefits, social status) by embracing preexisting ways of thinking and living: that is, by embracing convention.
Convention is precisely what needs to be challenged, if one wants to effectively resist social inertia in contexts like this.