The “social shit” story is raw, real, and relatable

The metaphor of “shit” as both the cause of decay and a potential source of renewal is provocative and insightful. It captures the essence of the challenge we face in addressing #mainstreaming culture, where conversations to often get stuck in defensive and rigid negative thinking.

Why social change online fails, is in part that terms are barriers, people cling to #mainstreaming “common sense” because it feels safe and familiar. Talking outside these norms triggers defensiveness, making constructive dialogue nearly impossible. This is amplified by post-modern relativism (on the left) and authoritarian rigidity (on the right), which block ideas and meaningful conversations.

The role of #BLOCKING, dismissing or shutting down alternative perspectives perpetuates the #techshit mess and reinforces #deathcult values. It stifles creativity and solutions by keeping discussions within narrow boundaries. Social shit as the status quo, both left, and right ideological contribute to the decay, creating a world smeared in “shit” where truth is either denied or imposed. This leads to stagnation, not growth.

The plan and the #4opens, focus on action, “just keep working” is pragmatic. By creating and demonstrating the value of #openweb tech like #OMN, we can sidestep unproductive arguments and focus on planting seeds of change. Turning shit into compost, the metaphor of composting is powerful. Social decay (shit) can be transformed into fertile ground for growth, but it requires tools (shovels) and effort. This aligns with need for grassroots action and collective responsibility.

Reframing conversations is core, to break through defensive and angry reactions. For this to work, maybe we need to start with shared values, frame discussions about universal concerns like community, fairness, and sustainability this could build common ground. To balance relatable language alongside the “truth” metaphors, which are both vivid and compelling, sometimes it’s good to simplify for audiences to draw people in. Focus on demonstration, not debate, showcasing working examples of #4opens tech and grassroots projects to inspire people to engage.

Planting flowers, the imagery of strong women and sensible men wielding shovels to compost the mess and plant flowers, is an optimistic vision. It emphasizes collective action and the potential for beauty to emerge from decay. The open invitation for collaboration is key, maintaining this openness, we can hold open space for those ready to step away from the pile and start helping with the shovelling.

The “social shit” story is raw, real, and relatable. It smells like the mess we’re in, but also hints at the possibility of transformation. The challenge lies in inspiring people to pick up the shovel and join in the composting work. Maybe with persistence, transparency, and focus on action, this work will catalyse meaningful change.

Keep planting seeds—some will bloom in unexpected ways. 🌱

The question, how do we bring more people into this space of stepping away and creating something better?

There is a deep frustration with #mainstreaming culture, with its strong pushing of the wrong people and prioritizing misguided actions. How can we “think better” beyond the traps of the current socio-political mess.

The scum rises, in #mainstreaming culture, those who conform to the system, rather than challenge it, often rise to the top. This creates a cycle where meaningful change is stifled by mediocrity and opportunism.
Grassroots value, social progress has historically emerged from the #grassroots. By stepping away from the toxic mainstream, we can refocus on nurturing these sources of real value.
The wrong thing gets done, funders and institutional forces often push agendas that diverge from grassroots needs, resulting in projects that perpetuate the status quo.
Paralysis of choice, the perceived lack of viable options (e.g., “you have no choice but to do the wrong thing”) leads to a sense of helplessness and frustration.

Thinking better, we need paths that reject the foundations of the current #mainstreaming while building more collective, focused paths and actions. Let’s look at some broad outlines:

Anarchist paths focus on horizontal organization, mutual aid, and direct action.
Strengths: Empowers communities, resists hierarchy, and builds autonomy.
Weaknesses: Often struggles with long-term scalability and coordination.
Trotskyist/Stalinist paths centralized control with a focus on revolutionary goals and structural transformation.
Strengths: Can mobilize large-scale change and challenge systemic power structures.
Weaknesses: builds authoritarianism, co-option, and detachment from real grassroots needs.
Liberal paths lead to incremental reforms within existing systems.
Strengths: Pragmatic and accessible, with a focus on policy and advocacy.
Weaknesses: Co-opted by #mainstreaming agendas, leading to superficial solutions.

The #4opens approach, is a permissionless path to sidestep these systemic failures. This approach aligns with anarchist values of autonomy while addressing their scalability challenges through structured openness and federation. Some practical steps to nurture grassroots power:

Step away from toxicity, recognize when systems and individuals perpetuate harm, and refocus energy on constructive grassroots work. Muddle through together, embrace imperfection and collective experimentation. Mistakes are inevitable, but progress emerges from the process. Push back against funders’ agendas, build alternative funding models (e.g., community support, cooperative economies) to reduce reliance on top-down directives. Focus on trust networks, invest in relationships and trust-building at the grassroots level. Trust is the antidote to the cynicism of #mainstreaming. Hold space for uncomfortable conversations, lean into the discomfort of challenging entrenched norms and assumptions within movements.

The challenge is a very real mess, we’re stuck in a cycle where “the wrong thing” gets done under pressure from flawed paths. Breaking free requires stepping away, nurturing #grassroots alternatives, and committing to frameworks like the #4opens that push more collective empowerment over individual gain and #mainstreaming institutional control.

For more of this there are a bunch of grump old sods working on the same things seizethemeans and more, add them in the comments please

The question, how do we bring more people into this space of stepping away and creating something better? Currently, it is not very attractive to the #fashernistas

Why we need the #OGB

The #OGB (Open Governance Body) represents a radically different approach to power and governance compared to the traditional top-down models we see in the #mainstreaming.

Grassroots empowerment, the OGB is built on the idea of sharing power. It aligns with the ethos of 20th-century social movements that emphasized collective action and mutual aid. In this, it is a seed for change, which can grow into a robust model for grassroots governance. A pathway for movements and communities to reclaim agency and create sustainable alternatives to the normal centralized power paths. This project matters because it is a response to #mainstreaming co-opten of radical ideas,than watering down paths to fit the status quo. Were the focus is empowering of local action, it bridges the gap between global movements and local actions, ensuring that decisions are made by those most affected by them.

The first challenge is affinity group building for the tech, after this we face more challenges and opportunities:

Scaling the seed: How can the OGB grow while maintaining its grassroots integrity?
Bridging divides: How can it bring together diverse communities and interests without falling into the traps of personality politics and fragmentation?
Overcoming #deathcult influence: How does the #OGB challenge and outlast the entrenched neoliberalism (#deathcult) that dominates today’s socio-political landscape?

As a seed, it needs nurturing, collaboration, and commitment from those willing to embrace discomfort and change. The path is simple, people need to growing this seed within their own contexts. What steps can we take to make this more widely understood, to become the real alternative we need?

Looking at some of the issues we need to fix

#NGO-driven approach to activism are a part of the challenges of #mainstreaming agendas in both tech and social movements. NGOs at best aim to “make the mess work a bit better” without addressing root causes of anything in an affective way. This band-aid path aligns them too much with the mainstreaming agenda rather than fostering a systemic change agenda. This need for maintaining “relevance” leads to shallow solutions rather than transformative action.

With activist projects, half entangled in this #NGO world, struggling to build shared objectives, collaboration becomes fragmented, and efforts fail to scale horizontally or vertically and sustain much impact. We have historical paths to mediate this, like the #PGA (Peoples’ Global Action) that aligning around clear hallmarks galvanizes collective action. With grassroots tech and user engagement, projects fail without people and communities. If people remain tethered to #dotcons, our work on grassroot projects die before they take off. Activists criticize dotcons but often fail to leave them, perpetuating the paths and systems they oppose, a symptom of the #deathcult worship.

Many radical/progressive tech initiatives focus on aesthetics (#fashernista) or isolated #geekproblem goals without contributing to broader movements like rebooting grassroots media, these efforts become distractions and dead ends, they waste time and focus. What is needed is to provide compelling alternatives to the dotcons that people can genuinely use and build upon to step away, so activism can play a bigger role. Leaving the #dotcons and embracing decentralized, ethical platforms is itself a form of activism, it’s a #KISS path that undermines the #deathcult and creates space for alternatives to thrive.

Composting pointless projects, we need to identify and “compost” projects that fail to contribute meaningfully to broader goals. This isn’t about cynicism, but about redirecting energy toward initiatives that matter. Use the energy of critique to inspire better efforts rather than dismiss entirely. Key question, how do we bridge the gap between critique and action to avoid losing people and momentum in the current mess, and not just create more mess? A first step is to challenge activists to step back, think critically, and act boldly, with a reminder that inaction—or misguided action—is a victory for the #deathcult.

Q. how do you envision the #4opens and #OMN evolving? What can you do to make this happen?

#4opens vs. #4closed

The critical paths between governance, activism, and the ideological underpinnings of #FOSS, #opensource, and the #openweb. The problem, governance without “politics” which FOSS and opensource often ignore and block the politics, leading to governance models resembling feudalism where “better kings” may emerge, but the underlying structure remains inequitable. Without addressing systemic issues, projects replicate the very power imbalances they aim to escape.

Decentralization is a post-capitalist concept, as decentralization eliminates middlemen, undermining the foundations of capitalism. However, capitalism co-opts decentralization, selling illusions while embedding scarcity (e.g., #encryptionist projects). Recognizing and resisting this is vital to preserving the openweb. Composting the shit, current activism often worsens the “shit pile” by pouring misaligned efforts and unclear priorities into an already broken paths. Instead, we need shovels for composting—tools and frameworks like #OMN and the #4opens to transform waste into fertile ground for radical change.

A solution can be found in 4opens and #OGB, this creates a permissionless path, framework for decentralized, equitable governance. The Open Governance Body (OGB) fosters participatory decision-making, breaking away from feudal hierarchies and cultivating more of a balance of collective ownership. The path is building together, the Open Media Network (OMN) embodies this ethos by emphasizing “you and me” over “just me.” A core part of this path is that activist media must embrace discomfort as a catalyst for change, balancing inspiration, information, and critique to challenge the status quo.

A world in flux, old paths are gone, there’s no going back, reboots are imminent—social upheavals (#Trump, #Brexit) and environmental crises signal the need for systemic transformation. The 4opens promote transparency, participation, and shared ownership. By contrast, the #4closed represent secrecy, exclusivity, control, and commodification—aligning with the #dotcons and the #deathcult’s vision of the future. Words as power, the spell of repetition, the 4opens is more than a mantra, it’s a way of embedding ethical, decentralized values into public consciousness. This “spell” counters the pervasive narratives of the 4closed and offers a tangible path for the needed transformation.

Personality Politics

Liberal personality politics is a big distraction to the change and challenge that we need, it is disrupting progressive projects, especially in tech and social activism paths. This repeatedly derails efforts by prioritizing individual egos and interpersonal conflicts over collective goals. The path to mediating this needs resilient, open, and structured processes that balance the impact of this messy dynamics.

Strategies to Counter Personality Politics

Shared Principles: Define the project’s mission and values early on, ensuring that these shared early and often to act as a guide for decisions and actions. Frameworks like the #4opens provide an excellent starting point.
Transparent Governance: Establish open and participatory governance models where decision-making is visible and accessible. This reduces opportunities for power grabs and grows trust within the group.
Focus on Objectives: Anchor the project around achievable, practical goals. This keeps efforts aligned with outcomes rather than personalities, avoiding distractions from the work at hand.
Conflict Mediation: Build in mechanisms to address conflicts early and constructively. Mediation processes should prioritize the collective good over individual grievances, ensuring disputes don’t derail the wider projects.

By emphasizing these, grassroots progressive projects build communities that remain focused on their paths, navigating the mess of personality politics, without losing momentum and motivation #KISS

Let’s build tools that reflect human flourishing

One of the strong #blocking forces is #mainstreaming objectives being imposed on non-mainstream projects. This is a strong recurring issue in alternative tech spaces like the #openweb and #Fediverse. This happens because people perceive mainstreaming as “common sense,” mistaking it for adding value. Over time, this mess erodes the radical, decentralizing paths, feeding people back into the centralization of #dotcons and perpetuating the #stupidindividualism we are trying to overcome.

Define and defend non-mainstream objectives with strong clarity of purpose. Clearly articulating the goals and principles of #openweb projects, emphasizing the value of non-mainstreaming paths. This needs to be anchored in frameworks like the #4opens and ethical guidelines such as the #PGA Hallmarks. Build the community agreements to hold these in place to ensure contributors understand and commit to these principles. Actively use documents, onboarding materials, and collective discussions to signpost these paths.
Strengthen “native” culture against #stupidIndividualism by balancing the push for collective governance, we need federated and decentralized governance structures like #OGB (Open Governance Body). These prevent individuals from overriding group objectives with personal agendas. Emphasize trust by fostering a culture that prioritizes relationships and trust over competition and self-interest.
Build post-scarcity #FOSS tools that focus on simplicity and functionality, avoid overloading projects with unnecessary features (#techshit) that complicate usability and dilute the #KISS vision. Prioritize accessibility, with tools that empower communities without requiring heavy technical expertise, making them usable and scalable without compromising their radical foundations. Use the #4opens to anchor technology in open processes, data, licences, and standards to ensure transparency and prevent co-optation.
Compost the stinking pile of #techshit. Shovels are a metaphor for composting, to open spaces for critique and push back #mainstreaming attempts constructively. Use feedback loops to identify and counteract behaviours that undermine these paths. Use real-world examples to illustrate the long-term harm. To combat the “common sense” myths, highlight how #mainstreaming benefits centralized systems and reinforces the #deathcult that meany people worship.
Resilience in the #fediverse and beyond is grown by practical limiting node scalability, in federated flows, understand scalability limits based on moderation and quality. This prevents overgrowth and maintains trust within smaller, more accountable communities. Encourage decentralization, by supporting the diversity of smaller instances rather than a few dominant ones. This ensures resilience and reduces the risk of centralization.

We need to be building tools for flourishing, in a large part to counteract #stupidindividualism and mainstreaming, for this we need affinity groups that focus on post-scarcity tech and tools that foster trust, collaboration, and grassroots empowerment. To make this happen, we need these affinity groups to use the #4opens as a guiding framework and the #OGB to organize collective governance. By prioritizing these non-mainstreaming flows, we expand the #openweb sustainably while preserving its radical, human-centered roots. Let’s build tools that reflect human flourishing, not corporate consolidation. It’s hard work, but it’s the only path forward that can work.

We can now talk about composting, the privatisation of our “commons”

The Thatcher era in the UK was led by #deathcult privatisations, which are now ripe for contemporary criticism. And this criticism could be a useful push for the change and challenge we need.

Water Companies, privatized in 1989 with promises of efficiency and investment, have since faced continuous scandals over sewage spills, underinvestment, and skyrocketing bills. The outcome, profits have been pushed over public service, leading to environmental and infrastructure mess which will coat billions to compost.

Railways, privatized in the 1990s under Major, have led to fragmented operations, high ticket prices, and crap service. Public subsidies have increased dramatically, effectively making it a publicly funded but privately profiting system. The failures of companies like Railtrack highlighted systemic issues. This urgently needs to change, but this is a mess that leads to huge public costs.

The Steel Industry, British Steel, was privatized in 1988 but continued to struggle to compete globally. Subsequent closures and job losses have been crippling to industrial regions. Today, the UK steel industry remains a declining mess, requiring government intervention and subsidies to survive. We don’t have a path out of this mess, in the era of international instability we need a solution.

Energy, the privatisation of electricity and gas led to reduced competition over time, with prices soaring for consumers. Companies have been price gouging and underinvesting in sustainable energy. A mess, to manage the shift to renewables, that we now need to compost.

Telecom, while privatisation of BT (British Telecom) did modernize telecommunications, it created an uneven playing field, with BT retaining dominance and smaller competitors struggling to compete meaningfully. What is the path with this?

The promise of our worshipping of the #deathcult was to reduce costs through privatisation unsurprisingly, this hasn’t materialized; instead, public funds have been used and continue to be used to subsidize failing privatized nasty fuckwits.

The broader impact has been widening social inequality. Essential “commons” services were turned into profit centers at the expense of affordability and quality. With privatisation, it transferred wealth from the public to a small group of greedy and nasty people.

The scale of these failures and public dissatisfaction might be a force for the change and challenge we so urgently need. If we can make the more horizontal path actually work for us #OMN

What is the plan?

Privatization has been a buzz word for the last 40 years

Federated Trust Networks: A Path

The future of grassroots and decentralized media lies in federated trust networks, not merely replicating the centralized, broadcast-focused models of the #dotcons. There are problems with simply copying #dotcons as #FOSS that is replication without change, simply mimicking the #dotcons replicates their flaws, including centralized control and scalability issues that lead to degradation in quality and trust.

Broadcasting models focus on individual reach rather than collective, community-driven engagement.
For example, #bluesky and #mastodon scale without accountability, over-scaling singular nodes results in reduced moderation quality, fostering misinformation and people’s dissatisfaction.

There is a strong case for human scale federated trust networks, with human moderation for quality. In the #OMN, every instance is moderated by a competent crew responsible for maintaining content standards. Expanding requires growing the moderation team to sustain quality. This path ensures people and communities gravitate toward smaller, well-moderated instances, balancing scale and trust.

Tag flows for better categorization, we need to create distinct admin tools for personal and news flows, so networks can handle content more effectively and avoid mixing purposes.
Decentralization with purpose, federated networks with #ActivityPub, allow instances to share content while maintaining autonomy. This prevents over-centralization and supports diverse community voices.
The #4opens—open process, open data, open licenses, and open standards—are baked into the #OMN to maintain transparency and community ownership.

An example of this is the #OMN is key to rebooting #Indymedia The #OMN project provides a framework to reboot alternative media, like #indymediaback, in a way that prioritizes the “native” quality, trust, and community moderation. The first steps toward a reboot will be integrating federated systems and trust-based governance to revitalize the platform. This is key, learning from the past, avoiding a rehash of dead indymedia, the #OMN emphasizes creating new structures based on lessons learned, particularly the importance of human-centered workflows. With the ultimate goal is to restore indymedia domains to active use while avoiding past pitfalls.

For those wanting an #indymedia reboot, supporting #OMN projects is crucial, as it is directly aligned with this vision. The #OMN and federated trust networks offer a roadmap for reclaiming decentralized media spaces. By focusing on trust, moderation, and the #4opens, we move beyond the failures of centralized #dotcons and create sustainable, community-driven alternatives. This isn’t just a revival of the old; it’s a necessary evolution to meet the challenges of today’s digital paths.

Open-source and #FOSS as everyday anarchism

Grassroots Open Source Software (#FOSS) is a powerful example of anarchist organization in action, even if unintentionally. It’s a decentralized, cooperative model where people work together, driven by shared goals, not bosses or hierarchies. #FOSS has proven faster and more responsive than proprietary systems, cutting through bureaucracy to solve problems.

While not perfect (projects can fail due to poor organization or lack of interest), this path outpaces the traditional alternatives bogged down by debt, delay, or rigid management structures. It thrives because skilled teams self-manage, focusing on tasks that matter without over-management, a principle that resonates far beyond software.

Even in construction, this approach shows promise. Imagine crews self-managing their work, coordinating through elected foremen, and collaborating in federated councils with architects and community representatives. This isn’t just theoretical—it’s a practical path to efficiency, replacing the delays and over-budget failures of state-run or capitalist systems. The #OGB is a tool to push this out as a social tech path native to this.

Anarchist solutions don’t need to be perfect; they just need to be better than the deeply flawed paths we walk now. And #FOSS proves that they can be #KISS

The #NGO and #dotcons use of #FOSS is a whole another subject we do need to talk about.

Why Humans are Social First, Individuals Second

Human beings are inherently social creatures, our identities, communities, and shared values are what define us as human. The #deathcult of the last 40 years, driven by neoliberal ideologies, has systematically isolated individuals, eroding the social bonds that sustain our shared humanity. This isolation has fostered nihilism by acclimatizing people to a world-view devoid of collective meaning and purpose.

Social bonds are the foundations of humanity, we develop meaning, empathy, and creativity through relationships. Without connections to others, individual existence loses its depth and context. Isolation undermines mental and physical well-being, as can be seen in the increase of depression and anxiety in hyper-individualistic societies we have created for the last 40 years.

The role of digital tools, in this, and internet systems SHOULD amplify our social nature rather than diminish it. Building #FOSS tools that prioritize social connections over individual convenience is essential to counteract the isolating current paths. Projects like the #OMN and frameworks like the #4opens focus on creating platforms that reinforce this community, trust, and collective purpose.

Market-driven ideologies reduce relationships to transactions, prioritizing competition over collaboration. The has been terrible damage from 40 Years of the #deathcult worship, economic and social atomization, with policies that dismantled collective institutions like unions, community centres, and public services, leaving individuals to fend for themselves in increasingly precarious conditions. The normalization of nihilism, fosters a sense of hopelessness, where people accept destruction and exploitation as inevitable. This normalization stifles resistance to systemic harm, as individuals lack the solidarity needed to push back with any real effect. This has lead to a loss of collective power, with well inturned efforts to challenge this system, such as labour strikes, protests, and cooperative initiatives, being undermined by the fragmentation of social groups and the emphasis on “common sense” individualism.

The path we need to take to change and challenge this – building social-first tools – designed with community-building as the primary goal, ensuring individuals feel connected and supported. This includes fostering spaces for dialogue, collaboration, and mutual aid. Empowering the collective, decentralized, transparent, and accountable to the people who use them. Federated technologies like #activitypub offer alternatives to centralized systems, encouraging diversity and horizontal collaboration. Reclaiming shared values is hard, but prioritizing cooperation and solidarity, we can combat the nihilism that comes from isolation. Reinforcing the idea that human values are rooted in relationships rather than material success is key.

What needs to happen next: Resist Isolation by pushing back against narratives that promote individual solutions to systemic problems. Emphasize the need for collective action to address crises like #climatechange and inequality. Shift design paradigms, to ensure that tools and platforms prioritize human connection and accountability over profit and efficiency. Rebuild social infrastructure, to support community-focused initiatives that rebuild the trust and solidarity undermined by decades of dogmatic neoliberal policy.

By recognizing that humans are social first and individual second, we can take paths that reinforce our shared humanity, resisting the nihilism and destructiveness of the #deathcult. This approach isn’t just better—it’s necessary for our survival.

The Problem: Postmodernism, Hate, and #StupidIndividualism

The influence of postmodern thinking among #fashernistas—people more focused on appearances and trends than substance—has eroded the core purpose of activism: fostering positive social change rooted in love, solidarity, and mutual aid. Meanwhile, the rise of a new breed of right-wing “activists” using hate and fear to advance the agenda of neo-liberalism’s #deathcult highlights the stark difference between activism and fascism. It’s critical to reclaim language and purpose in this context to clarify and reinvigorate progressive movements.

Confusion, postmodernism’s emphasis on skepticism and deconstruction has undermined the unifying narratives that once drove collective action. While useful for critiquing power, it results in fragmented movements without clear goals. This confusion allows #fashernistas to dominate activism, prioritizing visibility and personal branding over systemic change.

Hate-based “activism”, where the right-wing movements use hate and fear to build “solidarity” based on this fear, by reinforce the “stupid” part of individualism, feeding off the #deathcult of neoliberalism. These movements weaponize the language of activism, but their actions serve fascist goals of division and destruction.

This is the core of #stupidindividualism poison that neoliberalism breeds, isolated people and erodes the collective bonds necessary for transformative activism. This individualism poisons movements, turning them into echo chambers of self-interest rather than engines of solidarity.

Even the conservatives think we are in a mess

Ideas for antidotes, reclaiming activism for progressive change:

* Redefine activism anchored in solidarity, and collective care, rejecting hate and fear as tactics. Clearly differentiate between activism (which builds and unites) and fascism (which destroys and divides).

* Center collective narratives, move beyond postmodern fragmentation by building shared stories and visions for the future. Activism that connects people to a larger purpose and community. Embrace horizontal structures, by foster decentralized and inclusive decision-making processes, thus reducing reliance on vertical, personality-driven leadership. This actively counters #stupidindividualism with collaborative frameworks like the #4opens.

* Focus on systems and paths, not individuals, shift away from individual heroics and saviour complexes. Build tools and strategies that empower communities rather than centring individuals.

* Reclaim language, use honest language to name problems and solutions. Call hate-based movements what they are, fascist. Avoid diluting terms like “activism” with actions that lack integrity and constructive purpose.

Building a liveable, humanistic future, needs us, to reclaiming activism, grounding in principles that resist the #mainstreaming influence and cultural by-products like #stupidindividualism. Movements that reject hate and fear as tactics, fostering instead the solidarity needed to challenge oppression and resulting environmental destruction. The antidote lies in collective care, shared purpose, and tools like the #4opens to ensure accountability and #KISS progress. We need foundations to build from, with this we counter the cultural decay of the #deathcult and take paths toward meaningful, sustainable change we really need.