For years, critical AI discourse has found refuge in the "stochastic parrot" label to puncture hype. I argue this stance has become a professional comfort blanket that avoids engaging with how these systems are currently reshaping education, politics, and labor. We do not need AGI to achieve disruptive automation; we already have it. Using software engineering as an example-where agentic tools now generate a significant fraction of corporate code-I illustrate how AI increasingly functions as infrastructure rather than mere substitution. Drawing on Stephen R. Barley's sociology and historical parallels like the Linotype, I show that "bottlenecks" and power are shifting. We are witnessing the proletarianization of high-skill work, where the autonomous creator is demoted to a supervisor of a machine that has swallowed their craft. To avoid complicity by omission, we must move beyond dismissive rhetoric and look directly at how these "parrots" are rearranging the workplace.