I hate the past. To me, the past is something we should learn from but never return to. I have no desire to return to the days where gay and the r-slur were every day jokes and and “Tits or gtfo” was a common reply to women on the internet.
But I love old machines and gizmos. I love gears and levers and buttons. I love things that clunk and whir. Vinage music boxes, Clockwork toys and VHS machines that sound like they’re trying to go into orbit when you rewind a cassette. I’ve always liked old stuff for as long as I can remember.
Is it nostalgia or just autism? Is it something I should be ashamed of?
You don’t yearn for the past, you yearn for a less alienated relationship to technology. The exploiters just hadn’t had as much time to set up all the alienation in design they wanted yet, back then. Waves of planned obsolescence, monopolization, and major defeats for the labor movement were required to give rise to the generation of miserable engineers and designers who spawn today’s abominable consumer devices.