Rewilding a people-first web, beyond the #dotcons

In the early days, the internet was a wild, open landscape, a place of creativity, collaboration, and decentralization. But over time, the rise of corporate platforms (the #dotcons) turned it into something far more controlled, walled-off, and extractive.

What if we could reclaim that original vision? What if we could build an open, federated, and people-powered web, free from the stranglehold of Big Tech? That’s the mission behind projects like the Open Media Network (#OMN), a radical push to create a truly #openweb, built on trust, transparency, and grassroots collaboration.

What’s the Problem? The modern web is dominated by a handful of corporate giants that:

Own our data – You don’t control what you create, they do.
Manipulate what you see – Algorithms push engagement over truth.
Extract value – Your attention, creativity, and connections become profit streams.

The result? A digital world that feels more like a walled garden than a thriving ecosystem.

The Alternative: The Open Media Network (#OMN) A different way of thinking about the internet, based on open protocols, federated media, and trust-based networks rather than corporate silos.

How does it work? Decentralized publishing – No single company controls what you post. Interconnected platforms – Information flows freely between projects, not locked inside proprietary walls. Built for grassroots communities – Not for advertisers, but for real people creating real change.

It’s inspired by the early #Indymedia movement, the rise of the Fediverse, and the belief that we don’t have to accept the internet as it is, we can build something better.

Why “Stupid” Wins Over “Perfect” A big lesson from past internet experiments is that perfection is the enemy of progress. The web itself succeeded not because it was the best design, but because it was simple and open enough for people to build on.

Nobody agrees on “perfect”—so it never gets built.
“Stupid” solutions work—because they let people create their own versions.
Diversity leads to growth—and growth challenges the corporate web.

This is the philosophy behind the OMN and other #4opens projects, build something simple, open, and adaptable, and let communities shape it for their needs.

How you can help rewild the web. If you’re tired of Big Tech gatekeeping your online life, there are ways to push back by ditching corporate platforms to explore the #Fediverse and self-hosted alternatives. Support open projects by contribute to decentralized media, grassroots organizing, and federated tech. Spread the word to help others see that another internet is possible.

The internet can be beautiful again, but only if we reclaim it. What do you think? Is an open internet still possible? What are your favourite-decentralized projects? Let’s discuss. #RewildTheWeb #InternetIsBeautiful #OMN

The Open Society and its Media (Mark S. Miller at GMU, 1991?)

The video is bad quality VHS, but worth your time to see a progressive #openweb native capitalism, and to find grounding for post-capitalist with the #OMN project.

Mark S. Miller’s presentation on the Xanadu Hypertext System at George Mason University (GMU) in the early ’90s is good to reference when discussing the #OMN (Open Media Network). The ideas explored then were ahead of their time, but the web ultimately took a worse/better path, a “stupid” #KISS implementation rather than the more idealistic and complex vision of #Xanadu.

Why “Stupid” Wins Over “Perfect”, the lesson is clear:
✅ Nobody agrees on “perfect”, so it never gets built.
✅ “Stupid” solutions work because they let people do their own version.
✅ From diversity comes growth, from growth comes change.
✅ Change is what challenges the current #mainstreaming mess.

This is exactly what the #OMN is doing, taking a simple, “stupid” approach that lets people build their own solutions, rather than arguing endlessly about abstract perfection. Just like the web succeeded by ignoring Xanadu’s “perfect” vision, the #OMN will thrive by avoiding over-engineering and focusing on real-world usability.

With the #Fediverse and the #Openweb, it helps to see the Fediverse as a half-decentralized #openweb project that allows people to communicate across different servers. Unlike centralized platforms, it shifts control back to people and community, but it inherits many of the same flawed assumptions from the #dotcons. Strengths of the Fediverse:

Decentralization – No single company controls it.
(Supposed) Privacy – While privacy is valued, it’s ultimately a #4opens project, meaning transparency is the real focus.
Freedom of Expression – No single authority to censor content, it has community moderation.
Control Over Data – People can move between servers (to some extent).
Customization – Communities can shape their own experience.

Where the current #Fediverse falls short

❌ It still copies the #dotcons too much.
❌ It struggles with large-scale collaboration.
❌ It isn’t designed for media or broadcasting.

The Fediverse is a big step in the right direction, but it lacks a strong foundation for alternative media and real working #DIY culture. The #OMN is designed to fill this gap, moving beyond microblogging clones and building real federated media networks.

The key to success in all these paths is leaving capitalism out, one of the biggest reasons the #Openweb worked while Xanadu fizzled is that it didn’t try to “fix” capitalism, it just ignored it. Many well-meaning open projects get stuck because they try to compromise with the existing system rather than building outside of it. This is where the #OMN takes its stand: Not trying to “reform” the #dotcons. Not chasing corporate funding or NGO approval. Building tools that actually work for grassroots communities.

If we take the #4opens and #DIY cultural path, we can create an alternative, something that doesn’t get swallowed by the #mainstreaming like so many past projects. In the end, if we don’t build these spaces, the corporate web will absorb everything. Let’s see the current mess as compost, we can either let it rot uselessly or turn it into the soil for something new. We are empowered to act on this, the choice is ours.

The geek path for tech and social change, was always a diverse view, though always full of the #geekproblem. It’s interesting that this all turned into monopoly capitalism with the #dotcons we have now. The problem is the #geekproblem, we need to do better.

One thing to be aware of is that encryption is largely used to introduce scarcity into natural post scarcity digital paths, in this it is about imposing the old on the new. Encryption as a tool of digital scarcity, a core problem of crypto/blockchain hype – it recreates capitalist control structures rather than abolishing them.

We need to break out of this cycle

Funding structures are built for #NGO nonsense, not grassroots projects where actual value is created. The #OMN, #indymediaback, and #OGB challenge this, but funders can’t grasp it because they don’t understand value outside institutional framing.

Fixing the funding #blocking, funders need to THINK, not just UNDERSTAND. Right now, they “understand” in the framework of existing institutions, which means they miss the metaphor-driven, emergent nature of the #OMN. Our #Hashtag story is for THINKING, not passive understanding. They are useful tools to push the conversation forward, not dogma to be accepted or rejected. The two often treating them as fixed truths leads to #blocking the needed real change.

We need to break out of this cycle, 20 years of #techshit which is still strengthening the gatekeepers, we can’t keep playing by these rules. The biggest realization here is that truth and metaphor are not the same. Funders, #NGOs, and the #mainstreaming crew think in terms of fixed truths, while real change comes from dynamic thinking. That’s why they keep failing us.

So, how do we move forward?

Funding Proposal: Archiving the “Commons” with #MakingHistory and #OMN

#Indymediaback Funding Application 2025-02-036 indymediaback received

Application 2025-02-032 Open Governance Body #OGB

Funding application for the #OMN

Maybe it’s time to stop trying to fix broken tools, to build with a truly native approach?

The reality of trying to build real alternatives, without deep-rooted community support, even the best projects wither. The liberal/progressive crowd shouts into the void, but when it comes to actual action, they tend to retreat into safe, performative bubbles rather than engaging with real, messy change.

Offering a real alternative to the dotcons world

The Mastodon codebase is an example here, it was designed by copying the #dotcons, so the fundamental social architecture reinforces #stupidindividualism rather than community building. Instead of nurturing federated, collective spaces, it encourages a kind of fragmented, isolated posting, which is why it struggles to grow meaningful movements.

Why do we still find it hard to compost this mess making? At the root of this is likely a lack of shared vision, too many people still mentally operate within the #dotcons framework, even when they try to leave it. Then we have tech that doesn’t align with community of activists needs, #Mastodon (and similar platforms) weren’t built for real social cohesion; they repackage old models with a federated twist. No real commitment from “allies”, the move to the #openweb was ignored by the #mainstreaming left who stay on the #dotcons even though they are evil. The liberal crowd loves theory, but often won’t do the hard, unglamorous work of actually shifting paradigms, this leaves in place structural hostility to #DIY Culture, people are so trained to consume rather than create and maintain that even the “alternative” spaces get stuck replicating the same individualist consumption patterns.

So, what’s next? it’s simple we need to compost this, we could look at:

Building with different codebases that don’t replicate the #dotcons model.
Focusing on non-liberal, real-world community building, finding people willing to work, not just talk.
Reframing “failure” as learning and redirecting energy to something that actually fits the needs of a federated, people-driven network.

The current #fediverse model is only a first step, not itself the answer, for the second step we have the idea’s behind the #OMN. Maybe it’s past time to stop trying to fix broken tools and instead build the truly native path?

Mediating bad faith missteps in grassroots movements

Activism is messy. When we push against #mainstreaming, bad faith actors will come at us hard. Our best, often only, defence is sticking to good faith, telling our own stories, and holding onto process. Without this, the dominant narrative (which serves power) will drown out our voices.

The Problem is well-meaning people who wreck everything, in grassroots social movements, some of the biggest obstacles come from inside. People who believe they’re doing good will still do harm, sometimes more harm than outright bad actors. The worst ones often work the hardest. Why? They lack experience with #DIY culture. They unthinkingly worship the #deathcult. Not only that, but they confuse personal virtue with effective action. Shit stinks, but composting it makes flowers grow. The trick is to turn the mess into something productive instead of letting it rot everything.

Mediation is a core #OMN process, we need tools and processes that identify bad faith early (before it spreads), turn well-meaning but harmful actors toward productive paths, filter out the worst behaviours without turning authoritarian. This is a social problem first, a tech problem second. Good moderation, transparent process, and community accountability are the essential path.

Then the #4opens is about making It clearer for outreach, if democracy is survival, then in the digital era, you can’t have real democracy without the #4opens. This has to be at the root of our growing garden of ideas. We need to frame this in a way that connects to real-life impact with questions like: Why does this matter for democracy? How does it protect against the #deathcult? How does it help people step away from #dotcons?

The OMN project is building from the grassroots up because we can’t rely on the “progressive” top-down crowd to do anything meaningful. We need to tell our own stories before we get drowned in their bad narratives. Making the #4opens process simple and clear for outreach is mediation as a core practice (not just a reaction). Turn bad energy into compost, rather than letting it poison the roots we grow from. Keep the focus on real democratic structures, without them, it’s just mess and bad chaos.

This isn’t easy, but it’s the work that needs to be done. Ideas?

Ideological traps

The blinding effect of mainstream ideology, whether it’s neoliberalism, conspiracy-laced #spirituality, or rigid #geekproblem worship. These all act as barriers to change, keeping people locked in reactive cycles instead of building something different.

The #deathcult (neoliberalism) ensures its survival by designing failure, carbon offsetting, cap-and-trade, plastic recycling, all engineered to look like solutions while maintaining the status quo. These weren’t mistakes; they were intentional. The same happens in tech, where #encryptionists believe they’re liberating people while locking them into opaque, controlled, isolated paths. Security as fear, rather than trust.

What do we do differently now? We have to stop playing by their rules, whether it’s cancel culture’s purity tests, the process geek bureaucracy, or liberal progressives too afraid to act outside the acceptable neoliberal framework. That means:

Break from #mainstreaming narratives – Stop looking to “official” solutions when they are structured to fail.
Stop feeding fear, cowardice, and greed – Recognize when “safe” choices are actually surrendering power to systems of control.
Step into federated, trust-based models – #openweb and #4opens approaches don’t just shift power; they change how power operates.

Mediating the #geekproblem is core, we have the tools to build alternatives, but they are often blinded by their own logic traps, trapped in a false neutrality that serves power, or in rigid frameworks that make real-world change impossible. If we can challenge this blindness, we can bring them into broader movements instead of leaving them locked in their own subcultures.

Non-geeks need pathways to access, understand, and shape technology.
Decentralisation and federated trust models should be built with social movements, not just coders.

The #4opens is a path, the commons-based approach to software is an example of an alternative that works. The stagnant ideology of capitalism blocks innovation that already exists in open, federated models. But the blinded majority keeps trying to push radical tech back into the broken frameworks they understand instead of embracing real alternatives. That’s the cycle we need to break.

If we don’t step outside of our own ideological traps, we won’t see the paths that already exist. The world doesn’t have to be this way, but we need to start living the alternatives, not just critiquing the failures.

Ransom War: The Rising Threat of Cybercrime and National Security

Professor Ciaran Martin and Dr Max Smeets talk about his new book, Ransom War: How Cyber Crime Became a Threat to National Security.

What did I get from this event: Cybercrime is no longer only about stolen credit cards and leaked emails, it has become a battleground for national security. This was the focus of the conversation between Professor Ciaran Martin and Dr Max Smeets, a new kind of war, ransomware has evolved from crude digital extortion into a highly sophisticated business model. It’s no longer just about money, it disrupts critical infrastructure, healthcare, and entire governments. The NHS cyberattack in London and the Costa Rican national emergency in 2022 illustrate its devastating impact.

Smeets explains how ransomware groups now operate like legitimate businesses, complete with branding, customer service, and even guarantees. If they fail to decrypt your files after payment, their reputation suffers. Many provide a free decryption demo to prove their credibility—demonstrating the paradox of trust within crime.

The geopolitics of cybercrime often overlaps with national interests. Many ransomware groups originate from Russia, where they operate with implicit state tolerance, as long as they avoid targeting Russian businesses. Russian secret services sometimes leverage these groups for political ends, though the connections remain murky.

Other states are now stepping into the ransomware scene, Ukraine – Once a hub for cybercrime, now co-opting hackers into its war effort, with groups like MB65 supposedly working in support of the state. North Korea & Israel – Expanding their ransomware operations, possibly for both financial and intelligence purposes. China – Running state-controlled ransomware campaigns, but is the goal money or data?

Smeets argues that Western states do not operate ransomware groups, at least not openly. But if cybercrime is now a tool of state power, will governments start adopting more aggressive tactics? We are already seeing discussions about hacking back, sanctions, and even assassinations and drone strikes against cybercriminals.

The Evolution of ransomware has moved beyond lone hackers and small groups. It has professionalised, with specialised teams handling different tasks: Some focus on technical exploits. Others on negotiation and victim management. Others still on money laundering. English-speaking countries are prime targets, as criminals can easily understand and monetise stolen data.

Originally, ransomware groups operated hierarchically, relying on top-down trust structures. Now, they are shifting to decentralised and federated models, outsourcing different parts of the process to specialist teams. This makes them more resilient and harder to disrupt.

How can this be mediated? Smeets offers several strategies to undermine ransomware networks:

Disrupt trust – Leak internal communications and sow distrust within groups.
Expose operational methods – Make it harder for them to operate in the shadows.
Target infrastructure – Dismantle command-and-control systems.
Sanction financial networks – Make it harder to launder ransom payments.

A ban on ransom payments won’t end ransomware, but it might shift attackers toward easier targets. The core question remains: Is ransomware just about money, or is it a new tool for states to exert power in the digital age?

My view is an alternative path, might social and economic change, the #4opens and redundant data flows work. In a world where cybercrime thrives on secrecy and centralised control, could radical transparency be part of the solution? The #4opens philosophy suggests an alternative: highly redundant, open-data systems that resist extortion because no single entity holds all the power. If data is widely distributed and accessible, ransomware loses much of its leverage. This is a shift from reactive defence to proactive resilience, a challenge to both cybercriminals and #mainstreaming vertical state actors and culture. This is already a core idea behind both the#OMN and #Fediverse networks, but yes we are talking about both economic and social models and paths shifting fundamentally, it’s a project.

#Oxford

Escaping the #Mainstreaming Mess: A Call to Real Change

The current political and economic systems don’t just sustain the mess, we are drowning in them. Every major institution, from governments to corporations, actively pushes crisis after crisis, while refusing to deal with the root causes of the disasters they create. For decades, politicians across the spectrum have fuelled endless wars and military interventions, while militarising domestic police forces. Justified global instability and repression in the name of “security” while making the world more dangerous. Celebrated economic growth, while wages stagnate, inflation crushes ordinary people, and skyrocketing rents make survival a daily struggle.

This directly leads to the ecological collapse we are living through, record heat waves, wildfires, extreme weather, it is not an accident. It is the result of decades of environmental neglect, corporate greed, and political cowardice. None of the major parties have taken meaningful action; they always in the end prioritise profit over the survival of the planet and future generations.

At the same time, the state clamps down on dissent with mass incarceration and police crackdowns, which aren’t about safety, they’re about control. Social movements are repressed, not because they are wrong, but because they threaten the status quo. Then the public anger at #neoliberal policies is hijacked by demagogues like #Farage and #Trump, who sell hate, racism, and authoritarianism as the alternative. But this does not bring solutions, only the march towards #fascism.

#KISS real change is not coming from these institutions. We need to step away from the #mainstreaming mess by rejecting the ongoing pushing of “common sense” of liberal, neoliberal, and fascist agendas. To organise and resist what we oppose, and push towards building something different. To create alternative communities and economies, humanistic, decentralised, and free from the grip of collapsing #mainstreaming structures.

This isn’t only a negative fight, it’s a positive necessity. The world built by the #deathcult is falling apart. We either allow ourselves to be dragged down with it, or we joyously build something new.

One of the places you can support this work: Open Media Network

Decoding the Hashtags: A Roadmap for Social Change

The world we live in is shaped by 40 years of #neoliberalism and #postmodernism, both of which have systematically dismantled radical change and challenge paths that used to exist. To reclaim these paths, we now need to reject the illusions of “common sense” fed to us by the #deathcult and reboot our social view from a place of clarity. This is where the #hashtags come into use, acting as linking/flow tools for navigating, understanding, and breaking free from the mess we’re all in.

#nothingnew – A Radical Return to Modernism

The #nothingnew hashtag is a simple and effective (#KISS) framework for understanding where we went wrong and how to start moving forward again. It rejects the dominant neoliberal and postmodern ideologies that have smothered radical politics for four decades. Instead, it seeks to reboot social change by returning to the original modernist path, rooted in progress, structure, and tangible social transformation.

Once we re-establish this foundation, we can move beyond it to build #somethingnew. But without a starting point, all attempts at change remain trapped in the same mess and fog that has been #blocking in the status quo for too long. The modernist approach of clarity, direct action, and meaningful social structures needs to replace the disorienting, fragmented logic of postmodern cynicism that has paralysed social movements and left the field open for growing fascist dominance.

#geekproblem – Technology, Control, and the Worship of Power

The #geekproblem is a complex challenge, one that sits at the heart of many of our current struggles. While technology could be a liberating force, it has instead been shaped into a tool for control, both in the hands of capitalist class and within geek culture itself. The problem stems from, that, geeks, historically, have been builders and problem solvers. But many have a deeply ingrained need for CONTROL, which is fundamentally out of balance with the collaborative ethos of modernism. Over the last 40 years, as technology has concentrated power, geek culture has been co-opted by the #deathcult, prioritising power, profit, and authoritarianism over openness and freedom.

To fix this, we need to take the “problem” out of the “geek.” That means confronting the fetishisation of control, hierarchy, and technocratic elitism that pervades much of tech culture. This is not a #KISS problem, it requires real and deep reflection, social engagement to bring back into focus the reclamation of technology as a force for liberation.

#deathcult – The Worship of Neoliberalism

The #deathcult is a blunt and direct metaphor for neoliberalism, the ideology of destruction that has dominated the world for the last 40 years. This is a #KISS idea because it’s simple, Neoliberalism isn’t about building, it’s about extraction, enclosure, and control. It disguises itself as common sense, but in reality, it is an economic death spiral, for the planet, for workers, for public services, and for communities. Every time you hear markets presented as the solution to our problems, you are hearing the voice of the #deathcult.

For an example of this, just look at #UN COP process, where the world’s response to climate catastrophe was to double down on markets and profit-driven “solutions.” We are in a truly nasty mess because we have spent decades blindly worshipping a system destined to destroy us.

Breaking free from the mess, understanding the #hashtags can push clarity to conversations, as it hard to talk “common sense” with such a clear rejection of the confusion and stagnation that has kept us locked into #mainstreaming dogma.

#nothingnew gets us back on the right path.
#geekproblem helps us understand why technology has failed to free us.
#deathcult reminds us who the real enemy is.

Using these frameworks, we begin to rebuild a movement that is rooted in reality, not neoliberal delusions. The question is, are we ready to do this work?

Worshipping at the Temple of the #Deathcult: The Business Class and Its Myths

At the Oxford Arms Dealer School, in the room with the “enemy“, the business class, we gathered to hear Rain Newton-Smith, Chief Economist and CEO of the Confederation of British Industry, preach to the “faithful”. But at the drinks after I find the ordnance is actorly a mix of locals and academics, less enemy than frenemy. The wine and nibbles are good.

The message of the talk? Confidence is the mythical glue that holds together the #deathcult of #neoliberalism. The sermon? A familiar tale: business must be given free rein, deregulation is the key to prosperity, and any redistribution is a sin against the gods of capital. If only we believe hard enough, the market will save us. The myths of confidence and growth, Newton-Smith speaks of investment, but not for public good, this is about private wealth. Her concern is business confidence, the great phantom that, if disturbed, will cause the economy to crumble. The solution? Keep to the path, no change, no challenge. Keep worshipping the deathcult, and perhaps the gods of profit will smile upon us.

A nod to #climatechaos, but only as an economic opportunity. No mention of the wreckage it has already caused, only that with the right “leadership” (read: the same leadership that led us here) we can turn catastrophe into a marketplace. Innovation will save us, more mythology.

China? She’s pragmatic, trade first, morality later. The UK? She hopes for “stability”, a stable continuation of 40 years of destruction, a sweeping away of the mess, not to fix it, but to make the temple of capital more presentable, more safe for capital.

Fear and the business priesthood, is the overriding theme of the event. Fear of uncertainty, fear of change, fear that the high priests of capital in the current government might lose faith and deviate from doctrine. The business class wants certainty, certainty that their power remains untouched, their profits unchallenged, their control intact.

The EU? Negotiation, to reduce fear. Trade? More important than people, the fear of disruption. Regulation? Only if it removes uncertainty, fear is the real enemy.

The Q&A touches on AI. A bubble of nonsense inflates and then bursts, but somehow the same mythology survives. #AI will fix capitalism’s problems, we are told. A few #climatechaos activists push back, capitalism will heal itself through “innovation” and faith she says. At every turn, she circles back to the cult, unwilling or unable, to step outside the narrow doctrine of the worship of capital.

Conclusion, the mythology in this space remains Intact, this event, like the building it’s held in, is a temple to the #deathcult. Nothing changes, because they fear change more than they fear collapse. The business class doesn’t seek solutions, it seeks certainty. It doesn’t want to fix the mess, it just wants to ensure its own survival as the world burns. Regulation is acceptable, but only if it protects them from risk. Innovation is holy, but only when it upholds the status quo.

Yes, this is the same 40 years of mess, we do need to break free from #KISS

#NLnet #EU #NGI #NGIzero – Will we get it right this time?

With the hard shift to the right in US tech, Europe can no longer afford to sit idly by in tech development. The myth of neutrality has always been a convenient lie—if we don’t actively counterbalance this shift, we risk watching the #FOSS and #openweb movements collapse, taking with them a core pillar of our democratic and digital future. These movements aren’t just about code; they are the foundation of a fair, open, and just society. Now is the time to step up, not stand by.

For the past five years, I’ve been applying for funding for native #openweb projects—projects rooted in real, grassroots needs rather than corporate gatekeeping and academic abstraction. The problem? #NLnet and the wider #EU funding landscape lack people who can actually judge #FOSS projects in this space. The results are predictable:

Bureaucratic checklists
Conservative, incremental funding
Projects chosen based on who fills out forms best, not who builds the tech we actually need

So the real question is: has this changed? Because right now, I see the same mistakes repeating. We have proposals like:

#MakingHistory – Restoring a radical, federated approach to storytelling and digital archiving.
#IndymediaBack – Rebooting independent media with the lessons of past failures baked in.
#OGB (Open Governance Body) – A vital step toward decentralised, federated governance—something we desperately need to keep tech in the hands of communities, not corporations.

These proposals should not be niche. They should not be afterthoughts. They should be a part of the core of NGI funding strategy, the checks and balance on the bigger tech projects, if the EU is to be at all affective about counterbalancing the rightward shift in global tech.

So let’s ask again: Has #NLnet and the #EU stepped up this time? Are we funding the future, or are we just shuffling papers while the #deathcult eats our humanistic heritage and the last remains of the #openweb?

The risk, as always, is that the funding just shifts to the next well-polished pitch deck, rather than the real, messy work of change. But hey, one can but prod—because without that, nothing moves at all.

Activism for tech development and #FOSS paths

To look at why this is important, we need to move outside the comfort zones of current #mainstreaming thinking. Let’s start by touching on the role of #protestcamps in direct action: protest camps are temporary activist spaces set up in public areas to bring attention to social, environmental, and political issues. These camps create a direct action environment where people gather, discuss, and demonstrate. They range from #fluffy (peaceful and symbolic) to #spiky (disruptive and confrontational), depending on the nature of the cause and the activists involved.

This raises the question of who uses these strategies and spaces, some examples of protest movements: #Occupy Movement – Challenged economic inequality and corporate influence. #ClimateCamp – A radical grassroots direct action movement to counter #climatechaos through awareness, policy pressure, and direct disruption. Climate camp was active in multiple countries, it peaked in the late 2000s and early 2010s, influencing both public debate and government action. #CriticalMass – A decentralized cycling activism movement, founded in 1992, that uses monthly mass bike rides to reclaim public space and challenge car culture.

These examples are all of grassroots politics operates from the bottom up, empowering people to engage directly rather than relying on mediating political parties or institutions. This long traditional path give communities a voice and enable change outside the often #blocking traditional power structures. Direct action & grassroots politics is always the working change and challenge when activism bypasses traditional political intermediaries, using disruptive tactics like strikes, sit-ins, and blockades.

Together, these methods provide the non #mainstreaming democratic and practical ways to challenge authority, disrupt harmful policies, and drive real change. Let’s look at another example, the debate around #XR (Extinction Rebellion), founded in 2018, #XR uses nonviolent civil disobedience to push governments to act on the #climatecrisis. The movement is divisive, some see it as #spiky, using direct action to force political change. Others argue it’s too #fluffy, adhering to liberal ideas of legality and nonviolence, that limits its radical potential. Whether #XR is a radical or liberal movement remains an active debate, but the impact it has had on public discourse and activism is undeniable. This active fluffy/spiky debate is core to affective grassroots activism.

This experience is what we need to pass onto the #4opens alternatives & horizontalist paths in tech, which to often have the assumption that liberal legality alone will fix systemic problems, which is an easy to see #geekproblem fantasy. A better path is learning from the history of activism, native #FOSS and #4opens structures, which yes are not without challenges, need this to build alternatives that avoid the false hope that #mainstreaming institutions will voluntarily dismantle themselves.

As I keep highlighting, activism isn’t separate from tech development, with the #FOSS traditions coming from tech activism already. Movements like #Indymedia, #Fediverse, and #OMN show that #FOSS paths can be built with social movements in mind. If we don’t shape our own digital tools, they will, and are, co-opted by #dotcons and restricted by #mainstreaming “common sense”. The solution? Rebuild from the ground up—not just by resisting, but by actively creating the alternatives we want to see.