The TLDW : In the 90s clippy was a symbol of a friendly product feature that wanted to help you do one thing (but you could opt out). Clippy wasn't stealing your data, serving you ads, or anything malicious, it just wanted to help you do one specific thing (e.g. write a letter). The clippy movement is about sending a message to big tech that we don't appreciate ads in our start menu, having our data scraped and sold, being forced into dark patterns, having AI try to take jobs and/or destroy industry, blatant theft of work, etc. Basically, "make computers friendly again".
Yeah, Clippy was one of the early examples of infantilization and annoying anthromorphization in software, no better than the "cutesy" error messages or engagement popups that plague us today. It should be an example of what not to do but I guess nostalgia is a powerful drug.
