Yeah, the essay was off from the beginning, that's true. I kinda lost focus on the beginning of the article after how outrageous the end of it was, I guess.

But you're right that it's a very odd article all the way through... it reminds me of those fanfic tourist pieces you get from time to time, but this is clearly a person who has at least done *punk-subgenre reading if nothing else... but then why is his objection that everything else is inherently superior? Like why didn't he just read the other kinds of sf all along?

I wonder if what's happening is some convoluted mental gymnastics in order to justify a kneejerk hate for new *punk words in particular? Like, "Well, classic cyberpunk was good, but these kids nowadays should stop trying to reinvent the wheel and just admit they're just copying cyberpunk's greatness".