An #openweb organic intellectual,technologist and part of the #OMN
Published Date 7/21/15 9:35 PM DRAFT All the quotes are from Oscar Wild. “If you pretend to be good, the world takes you very seriously. If you pretend to be bad, it doesn’t. Such is the astounding stupidity of optimism.” LADY WINDERMERE’S FAN The chattering classes are a problem, they are a clear and present … Continue reading The problem of the chattering classes in activism
Published Date 2/5/14 12:18 PM In tech the successful part of the corporate internet is building peer-to-peer(ish) web projects. This is after the wholesale failure of the top-down hierarchical internet that went bankrupt in the dotcom boom. facebook and twitter, 4square and instagram, youtube etc are all built on horizontal(ish) peer production. Activism is still … Continue reading WordPress friend or foe for activism
Published Date 3/28/13 1:18 PM This is a DRAFT #Occupy has become bureaucratised and continues as e-mail lists and side projects, not very active. #ukuncut has become institutionalised. Still active – presser protests in conjunction with NGO’s #climatecamp The anarcho’ s left and most of the rest got jobs in NGO’s a few continue in … Continue reading A brief history of activism
Published Date 11/2/11 9:46 PM The is a churning of the wheel in activism, it is part of the explanation of why campaigns tend to tern in cercals, the social change we push is often bogged down by these muddy memory’s. The churning of the ground is mistaken for real movement, then activist get bored … Continue reading The memory hole in activism
Our current #mainstreaming path of paywalls stacked on paywalls isn’t life, it’s a trap, we need a way out. In our everyday lives, we’ve come to accept the absurd: And if you miss a payment? Game over (inspired by). That’s not a functioning economy, it’s not freedom, it’s a hostage situation, where every basic human … Continue reading Capitalism is a hostage situation -Not an economy
It took four decades of sleepwalking through #neoliberalism, cultural decay, ecological collapse, and social atomisation, but at last, the #mainstreaming is starting to talk about the #deathcult we’ve been worshipping. Case in point: Steve Coogan – yes, Alan Partridge – is now publicly accusing Keir Starmer and Labour of “paving the way for Reform UK,” … Continue reading The #mainstreaming is talking about the #deathcult – So why are you still waiting?
In our media and tech projects, we’re walking two very different paths – often without any or partly realising the tension between them. On one side, we’re seceding under capitalism. That means navigating funding applications, #NGO partnerships, grant cycles, and institutional compromises. It’s where projects get trimmed down to what’s legible to funders. It’s survival, … Continue reading Two paths, one bridge: Seceding under capitalism vs. seceding toward change
Looking back on the activist groups I’ve been part of over the past few decades, I find myself drawn to the messy business of memory. Not nostalgia – something more grounded. A desire to trace the arc of what happened, why it happened, and what it meant, both personally and politically. But here’s the thing, … Continue reading Trying to Remember: A Personal Reflection on Activist Histories and Memory Holes
The #fashionistas are coming https://yewtu.be/embed/u_Lxkt50xOg? It’s time to become more real before this inflow swamps our “native” reboot, if we let them they will consume it and shit it out as more mess. To mediate this shit storm, it’s time to act, please, feel free to repost these web posts, thanks. To understand where the … Continue reading Rise and Fall of Grassroots #OpenWeb
Over the last few years, we’ve been watching a familiar story unfold, we’ve seen repeat itself in radical spaces, tech movements, and grassroots networks for decades. It starts in the grassroots with “progressive” #fashernistas (yes, them) pushing themselves into the front to speak for “us.” They talk the talk of decentralisation, care, community, and #FOSS … Continue reading This is a story of power, plain and simple
The discussions on sovereignty at #NGIForum2025 make me wonder: what year are we in? It’s as if we’re rebooting grassroots conversations we’ve had for decades – but without the mess, memory, or movement that gave them meaning in the first place. A breath of clarity came from @renchap, who said it plainly: Absolutely. If that … Continue reading Getting through this era of collapse with anything humane intact