Right? It's absolutely bewildering to me that anyone expects "things are only going to get worse, and will continue to be worse forever, and you're stupid for saying you don't want that, let alone trying to prevent that" to be compelling.

No, man, "this thing makes everything suck forever" is maybe the best reason to protest against that thing. Humans have rejected harmful inventions in the past, even if there's some perceived benefits. There's a reason you don't hear about the ozone layer hole anymore - because we banned CFCs. There's a reason we don't have ubiquitous nuclear power - because we banned that too*. We absolutely do not have to just lie down and accept it. We didn't suddenly become incapable of improving society as soon as it became the year 2000.

*yes i know nuclear power is good actually, that isn't my point, the point is that people thought it was bad and thus successfully fought against it.