I think COVID gave big-tech a rather HUGE boost, as it restricted non-tech businesses, while actively promoting tech as the substitute. As for safety hysteria, I want to clarify I don’t believe COVID itself was pure hysteria, although I do believe policy makers overstepped, and in turn caused excessive harm to youth for instance. Instead I’d argue the hysteria for COVID surrounding safety, extends into modern society, and is applied to subjects like social media bans for instance. And finally for the “expert” obedience part, or rather a technocratic approach over a democratic one, can be seen in politics being “advised” by “experts” rather than by democratic will, and the excessive presence of “experts” at talk-shows for instance, and the most obvious being social media censorship surrounding COVID skepticism, as outright “misinformation”. Even though a lot of it is purely nonsensical speculation of course.