Considering that computing and the tech industry arose out of the military-industrial-congressional complex, I think it’s fair to say that the tech industry has always been suspect in the eyes of many people outside the trade. The rise of adtech and surveillance capitalism has only made things worse, because now it directly and adversely affects most ordinary people. Too many of us are too willing to just build what we’re told to build without giving any thought to how the tools we make might be weaponized.
This is why we need a strong trade union, so that when one of us says, “I think this is unethical, so I won’t build it,” we aren’t standing alone.