Python was the first programming language (outside of ti-basic) that I was able to master, after trying to learn c and java. I learned it to script blender games, which had a very fun little game engine.
Blender's use of python was quite extensive, as a way to quickly retool the program as an animation studio experiences many changing requirements from clients. Fun fact, blender and python both have dutch roots.
I think Python's main acceptance came from it's uses as an embedded scripting language, and as a perl or bash replacement for automating computing tasks. Tools like scons to replace make, or PIL to do image processing were pretty big deals. You would often hear about such and such replacing their complicated patchwork of tooling and manual processes with something more organized built in python.
Where TTS excels is for designers. It's super quick to change rules in the middle of the game, import new components, make small alterations, you name it. You can open a new table and just start experimenting with the components they give you, and move on to importing new assets when you are ready. And you don't need to code up a ui for it.
This freedom is good for tabletop roleplaying as well, though if you are working within an established ruleset that has an implementation on roll20 or fantasygrounds those give the gm more out of the box automation tools.
As someone who learned on python (many years ago), I think the balance of being allowed to shoot myself in the foot, while only having to learn complexity when complex concepts came up, was a good combination rather than a bad one. Trying to learn C++ and Java before, having to type everything was an impedement. On python, you find out that types still matter when you try to add a string to an integer, for example. The moment the type matters to you is when you need to dig into those details. I'm not sure I would have the career I do if it hadn't been around to be the one language that fit my 16-year old brain.
I'm not surprised at how your mom reacts to Trump. I'm surprised so many young people believe that covid is no big deal. I agree with you that the quality of our ideas has improved, but I also disagree in that the spread of our bad ideas has also improved. Concepts that were held by a fringe of society in the past, like the idea that the Earth is flat have grown their own communities who have interests in keeping those ideas alive. Ideas, bad and good, have gotten a lot stickier.
With stickier ideas, the marketplace becomes worse, because nothing ever gets pruned out of it. Too much energy is spent on limiting the growth of bad ideas than can be spent on refining the better ideas.
There are multiple levels. While I like the idea of separating seeing only what my followers post and seeing other posts, it gets really blurry when the people I follow are clicking the "like" and "retweet" buttons. I would guestimate around 30% or more of my twitter feed are posts people I follow have liked or retweeted rather than posted on their own.
And the network can make that happen on its own, without an algorithm reordering content - if someone I follow is retweeting something that someone they follow retweeted.
I mean, I CAN have visuals like that, as I don't have aphantasia. But I don't believe most of my ideas originate from the visual imagining. It usually starts with concepts, is connected through logic, and then along the way images may or may not be generated, depending on what I am ruminating about.
Blender's use of python was quite extensive, as a way to quickly retool the program as an animation studio experiences many changing requirements from clients. Fun fact, blender and python both have dutch roots.
I think Python's main acceptance came from it's uses as an embedded scripting language, and as a perl or bash replacement for automating computing tasks. Tools like scons to replace make, or PIL to do image processing were pretty big deals. You would often hear about such and such replacing their complicated patchwork of tooling and manual processes with something more organized built in python.