YOU can’t do social change or challenge without annoying people If you think you can, you’re probably play-acting – and part of the problem – does that annoy you? If it does… maybe sit with that. 🙂 Food for thought, #4opens is a shovel for composting.
The value of the #Fediverse comes from its cultural roots in the #openweb. The tech – like ActivityPub – grew out of that culture. It wasn’t built by #mainstreaming interests.
Now money is flowing in, and with it comes risk of dilution of culture, capture of direction and loss of the commons. As more #mainstreaming users return to the #openweb, we need better tools and processes to handle the mess this brings.
And yes – sometimes the problem is us – when people inside our own spaces act badly, we need ways to respond, mediate, and move forward – without falling into cycles of negativity. That’s part of the work, part of #OMN.
The #Fediverse is native to #openweb thinking, it works. It will likely destroy billions of dollars of #CONTROL, and create billions in actual human value in return. But like the early #openweb, it can also be captured and pulled back into the same old control systems, this is the balance.
So the question is, are you on the side of CONTROL or TRUST?
Our obsession with control is doing real damage, it’s fed by dead-end ideology (#postmodernism), and amplified by #fashernistas pushing surface over substance. Yes – it’s messy. Yes – it’s complex, but ignoring that just makes it worse.
#stupidindividualism and the #deathcult are building an inhuman world, we can do better – but only if we’re willing to do the uncomfortable work.
The billionaire problem, Elon Musk, tech oligarchs, and the #deathcult of wealth as a social path.
Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter is emblematic of a larger issue: the unchecked power of tech oligarchs. These aren’t your run-of-the-mill millionaires; they’re part of a nasty few, the class that operates above the ultra-wealthy, shaping politics, economies, and societies to their inadequacy. While the myth is pushed that billionaires are brilliant innovators who work harder than everyone else, the reality is darker. Their actions reflect a destructive #deathcult mentality, hoarding resources, manipulating public discourse, and pushing harmful ideologies for personal gain and standing.
Let’s start with Musk himself. People think of him as the “SpaceX and Tesla guy,” (this is not true, but that’s another story) his behaviour since acquiring Twitter reveals his priorities. Musk purchased the platform for $43 billion, not as a business investment, but as a tool for propaganda to consolidate power and influence politics. To platforming far-right politics, by amplify propaganda and undermine the thin remaining democratic paths. From boosting bots that inflate the appearance of support for far-right ideologies to reinstating accounts that push hate speech, these actions directly impact global politics.
This control of Twitter, and most importantly the chattering classes that stay in this #dotcons, has silenced the little dissent left. Bot-driven disinformation spreading far-right ideologies isn’t accidental; it’s strategic manipulation of public opinion to push agendas. Like supporting trump and authoritarianism, spending over $250 million on Trump’s election campaigns.
Musk isn’t alone, tech oligarchs like Bezos and Zuckerberg are equally complicit in reshaping society to benefit themselves, at the now clear expense of the public. Bezos’s quiet Influence, unlike #Musk, #Bezos operates in the shadows, Amazon spends millions lobbying US politicians to block antitrust laws and maintain monopolies to exploits workers and maximise profit. His strategy is quieter but no less harmful. #Zuckerberg’s free speech farce, with the ending of liberal fact-checking on #Facebook under the guise of “free speech.” The result? A flood of bots spreading hate speech, disinformation, and simple propaganda. By prioritising profit over public responsibility, this #dotcons becomes another breeding ground for extremism.
The #feudalistic influence of tech princes and oligarchs has consequences that go far beyond social media with political manipulation, global meddling. This is no longer just about wealth, it’s about shaping geopolitical realities. This is going to accelerate the current climate and resource chaos. So why do meany of us keep bowing? There is a persistence of the billionaire myth, the idea that they’re smarter, harder-working, and more deserving, which keeps #mainstreaming people from challenging this power. But it should be obvious these aren’t self-made geniuses, they’re nasty inadequate opportunists thriving in a broken system. This isn’t just about Musk or any of the other nasty few billionaires. It’s about rejecting the #deathcult of greed and exploitation our socialites are based on. The rise of billionaires as political actors isn’t inevitable, it’s a symptom of a path that values unrestrained profit over people.
Where is this going, they crave #control, so they assume everyone else is out to control them. They weave #conspiracies to crush their enemies, so they see a world drowning in conspiracies against them. In the final stages, a fully rotted #ideologue can’t even see threats or weaknesses; their perception is warped by their own decayed #moralcompass. At this point, outside direct, action they are beyond reach. Every word we speak will be twisted against us. Every action we take will be seen as an attack #paranoia#fascist.
The #OMN has a vision for something better, decentralised, open, and community-driven governance. A world where power is distributed, not hoarded by a handful of deranged oligarchs. The challenge is to make this vision a real path, and to turn our distaste for the status quo into action for this change and challenge.
#ActivityPub is, in many ways, an accidental reboot of the #openweb. It came into existence because the #dotcons (#mainstreaming platforms) showed up to a World Wide Web Consortium meeting and didn’t find anything useful for themselves, so they walked away, leaving the “weirdos” to get on with it. Working with the #4opens as a foundation, this loose group managed to hold things together long enough to develop the ActivityPub standard and release it to the world.
From commons to cats, has in recent years seen a shift toward the familiar “libertarian cats” dynamic of fragmented, individualistic and hard to coordinate paths. As a result, this #openweb reboot is now being partially consumed by the same forces it set out to move beyond. That might not be the outcome many hoped for, but it’s not the end of the story.
There are still active efforts to build on this native path – alternatives to strengthen grassroots infrastructure to keep moving away from #mainstreaming. The focus isn’t on reforming the mainstream, it’s on composting it.
Why this matters – This story highlights key tensions in the #openweb – Grassroots vs institutional power, commons vs control and culture vs capital. It also shows the importance of:
The “accidental” nature of ActivityPub is important as it reminds us that real innovation comes from the edges, not the centre. So what is ActivityPub? It is a decentralised social networking protocol, standardised by the World Wide Web Consortium in 2018. It enables interoperability between platforms, forming what we now call the #Fediverse. It builds on earlier #openweb technologies:
RSS / Atom
ActivityStreams
OStatus
Pump.io
The goal is a unified, federated #openweb communication layer based on #4opens principles.
Historical Milestones
Predecessors (2007–2014) Early work on RSS and decentralised social tools like StatusNet, OpenMicroBlogging, and Pump.io laid the groundwork.
W3C Development (2014–2017) The Social Web Working Group developed the protocol (then called ActivityPump).
Standardisation (2018) ActivityPub became an official W3C Recommendation.
Adoption (2018–Present) Mastodon provided critical mass as a Twitter-like entry point.
Diversification Other platforms followed:
PeerTube (video)
Pixelfed (images)
Lemmy (links)
#dotcons Interest (2022–2025) After upheaval at Twitter/X, mainstream interest surged:
Threads began implementing ActivityPub
WordPress added federation support
The Fediverse is now approaching a decade of growth, ActivityPub continues to expand because it allows people on one server to interact with others in decentralized communication without walled gardens. It is a return to simpler (#KISS), interoperable networking. But the open question, tension, remains:
Or will it be absorbed back into #CONTROL systems?
——————————————————————————-
OLDER DRAFT
#ActivityPub is an accidental reboot of the #openweb. It came into existence because the #dotcons (#mainstreaming platforms) attended a #wc3 meeting but did not find anything useful for themselves. As a result, they left the “weirdos” to build an approach based on the #4opens principles. The “weirdos” managed to keep things together long enough to develop the #activertypub standard and release it to the world. However, in recent years, there has been a shift towards the normal “libertarian cats” path, and this #openweb reboot is being consumed. While this outcome may not be what many desired, there are efforts to build real alternatives and shift away from #mainstreaming. The focus is on composting the mainstream approach rather than reforming it.
This is interesting because it provides insights into the dynamics and challenges of the #openweb movement. It highlights the tension between #mainstreaming platforms and grassroots efforts, showcasing the passion and dedication of communities working towards an open and decentralized web. The accidental nature of the #ActivityPub reboot adds an element of serendipity to the story, emphasizing the power of #DIY culture and the resource constraints faced by #openweb technologies. The recent shift towards a “libertarian cats” path and the potential consumption of the #openweb reboot raise important questions about the future of alternative platforms and the need for continued resistance against #mainstreaming.
ActivityPub is a decentralized social networking protocol, standardized by the W3C in 2018, that enables interoperability between different platforms, growing the “Fediverse.” It originated from earlier #openweb protocols (like RSS, atom, activitystreams, OStatus and Pump.io) to provide a unified, #4opens standard for federated communication.
Historical Milestones
Predecessors (2007–2014): Its started with RSS then latter attempts at decentralized social networking, such as StatusNet, OpenMicroBlogging, and Pump.io, laid the groundwork for federation protocols.
W3C Formation (2014–2017): The W3C Social Web Working Group began developing the protocol, then known as ActivityPump.
W3C Recommendation (January 2018): ActivityPub became an official W3C Recommendation (standard), enabling consistent, secure communication between disparate servers.
Adoption and Growth (2018–Present): Mastodon the twitter clone microblogging platform adopted ActivityPub, providing the “critical mass” needed for adoption.
Diversification: Other platforms followed, including PeerTube (video), PixelFed (images), and Lemmy (links).
#dotcons adoption (2022–2024): Following changes at Twitter (now X), #mainstreaming interest in decentralized alternatives surged. Meta’s Threads began implementing ActivityPub as did WordPress.
The Fediverse is now nearly ten years old and #ActivityPub continues to grow in use as it allows people on one server to #KISS interact seamlessly with people on another for decentralized, “walled garden” free networking.
