We are living in the fall of The Republic and the beginning of The Empire.
This is similar to how for hundreds of years it was forbidden for Roman Troops to enter the city. Then they did.
It was forbidden to go armed into The Forum. Then they did.
It was forbidden to go armed into The Senate. Then they did.

Interesting post but you have confused two totally different issues with sci-fi writing.
1. PC/SJW bullshit to "re-educate" sci-fans according to their playbook.
2. The dystopian / post-apocalyptic subject matter that is popular in sci-fi writing.

Good Lord sir, correct you are.
I was amazed at the article and the site itself. The word pedestrian comes to mind.

Obviously this is somebodies attempt to get traffic to their site with some help from /.

Perhaps I'm the exception, but I haven't experienced this "I'm going to f#$k off for the last two weeks before I move to a different job" scenario presented here as "the norm".

Pretty much every place I've worked in IT(except one...) I literally worked until about the middle of the last day, whereupon my boss and co-workers would take me lunch and drinks, etc;

Here is really bad example:
I was the only IT person at a smallish company(~50 employees) that had three sites, with a NetWare 5 server at each location. One of the three Netware servers went down, forcing me to drive to the other site and troubleshoot the server while my going away party was in progress(thank God for backups!). I returned heroically to the party after it was over and all that was left were the leftovers...

will probably be higher than the cost to build and run it, with how things are in that neighborhood.
It would be a prime target for ISIS/DASH or your flavor of retard islamic extremists of the week.

"We've always been at war with Eastasia"

is one not-so-catastrophic terrorist event to happen and all this talk about oversight, rights, freedom, privacy and The Constitution will go right out the fucking window and everyone knows it.
One Event

Think of the children. Hell, think of the shareholders...

I'm surrounded by Apple users. iPads, iPhones, iThis and iThat...
Have been for years.

I was going to get an iPhone after my BB became annoying...
I got a Galaxy instead.
Yes, they are both very tied into their respective "camps". And I understand the evil ways of Google too well...

However, I cannot stand Apples UI.
I have never understood the appeal of being forced to do things a certain way, when there are other devices that allow multiple ways to achieve things on a device.
Never understood the appeal.

I concur completely on your description of that age group. Sad it is, and quite disturbing. I've noticed over the last 5-10 years how a sort of "groupthink fog" has enshrouded Millenials.

A groupthink fog engendered by conforming to the whims of "social", instead of thinking for themselves.

However, I must point out, anyone who would be under the 24/7 influence of the smartphone/app/FB/twitter/texting paradigm they have been brought up in would end up the same way.

Interesting times indeed.

There is an optional grid tie in.

There is more than just a "green" reason to build local microgrids.
Energy Security and Grid Reliability are two.

The American electrical grid, built decades ago and in need of major upgrades, is acknowledged to be a problem moving forward with renewable energy. Utilities complain that they can't handle the load. As utilities whine about what solar and wind will do to their grids(while simultaneously poopooing renewables and how much power they can generate) SolarCity will build microgrids that will allow localized power generation and distribution, so the tender and fragile utilities-of-old won't have to be bothered by pesky solar derived electricity.

The American megagrids serve a purpose, and they should be upgraded, however we should be simultaneously building infrastructure than is localized and more robust.

Someone should not lost power because a tree fell on a line hundreds of miles away.

Holy shit mod points!

It seems that sunlight will degrade plastics. Maybe not quick, but quicker than things that aren't outside in the sun and weather.

Because were living in the Roman Empire.

I love your optimism. Love it!
However you are leaving out one critical piece of the puzzle when it comes to agriculture: Water.

Where can we start?
How about the Cripps Institue predictions about water in the Western US/Colorado River Basin, that are now playing out.
How about Californias Central Valley?
How about overdrilling and polluting the aquifer under Sao Paolo in Brazil?
What about the overdrilling in India due to cheap and illeagal diesel pumps?
Etc;