Prodding a #dotcons flow

Let’s try a spiky reply to this tweet on the #mainstreaming #dotcons platform, keep in mind these spaces often reek of superficial analysis and throwing around half-baked ideas without engaging with the deeper structural issues.

On the subject: “the culture of spontaneity, and mass horizontalism.” Yes, these approaches have their flaws, particularly when they lack clear strategy or organisation, but the #mainstreaming dismissing of them as ineffective wholesale shows a lack of understanding of their historical context and value. Spontaneity and horizontalism emerged as responses to the failures of top-down bureaucratic models of the left, which stagnated under Cold War pressures and co-optation. To be claiming they “can’t really compete” without acknowledging why they arose or their ongoing relevance in decentralised movements is lazy analysis.

And then there’s the smug messaging that “that’s something almost everyone now agrees on.” Really? Who is “everyone”? This nothing more than an appeal to a nebulous consensus that doesn’t actually exist. Plenty of activists, organisers, and theorists still see value in horizontalism, just not in isolation or as an end in itself. Pretending the debate is over is the kind of rhetoric that shuts down critical thinking rather than advancing it.

Moving on to the second tweet, “Agree on need for organisation (…that are trade unions or trade union focused).” While trade unions are a valid path, especially in reclaiming workers’ rights in the face of rampant exploitation, reducing “organisation” to trade unions is a narrow view. Trade unions, while necessary, aren’t sufficient to address the wider cultural, ecological, and social crises we face. There’s a world of organising happening outside of unions, mutual aid networks, co-operatives, tenant unions, and the growing need for grassroots digital activism, to name a few, that is every bit as crucial. This is a kind of blinkered nostalgia for “the union, and nothing but the union” which is a poor fit for the of struggles we’re dealing with.

Then there’s the call for “a systematic approach to cultural work.” Absolutely, but what does this mean? As so often, these statements don’t explain or offer a path. Instead, we get the vague assertion that it should focus on “actually doing culture that is popular, not moralising and nostalgia.” While it’s true, moralising and nostalgia can cripple cultural efforts on the left, this critique feels like it’s slapping at a strawman. What is this “popular” culture we’re supposed to aim for? Affective work is not about chasing popularity for its own sake but creating counter-narratives that resonate with people’s lived experiences and inspire action. Popularity without substance is meaningless, just another form of hollow spectacle and #deathcult worship

Lastly, the tone throughout this thread is performative critique, pointing out issues without contributing to paths. If anything, this “chatter” mirrors the liberal commentary class it seeks to critique: smug, self-assured, and ultimately irrelevant to those who are actually deep in the trenches building alternatives.

If we’re serious about confronting the failures of the left, we need less posturing and more meaningful engagement with the grassroots challenges at hand. We need to embrace complexity, grapple with historical lessons, while building cultural, technological paths that balance appeal with radical substance. It’s sad to say, dismissing ideas with “memes” half-hearted quips and lazy assumptions gets us nowhere.

Now what would a #fluffy reply look like 🙂

The obstacle is people cannot see change and challenge

The failures of the liberal class, should now be obvious, and are rooted in their worship of neo-liberal “common sense,” that eroded our collective capacity for thought and solidarity. For 40 years, the #mainstreaming “left” abandoned the principles of class struggle, leaving the majority of people isolated and alienated. This complacency, steeped in postmodernist detachment, has created a vacuum that allows fear and hate to flourish. Over the past two decades, left identity politics, though well-meaning in its inception, has fragmented movements, prioritising narrow individualism over collective power.

The right wing has seized this opportunity to co-opt and distort progressive narratives, using them to fuel division and weaponise fear. This has paved the way for a shift towards authoritarianism and fascism, deepening the crisis of inequality, climate collapse, and social disintegration.

Yet, amidst this ongoing bleak reality, there is hope. The growing failures of the mainstream can be a turning point. They create the conditions for a return to #KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) class-based left-wing movements, movements grounded in shared struggle, solidarity, and common purpose. This shift needs to sweep away the current #mainstreaming crew, who refuse to lift their heads from #deathcult worshipping dogma, and consign these long dead ideologies to the compost heap of history where they belong.

As a community, we face immense challenges: The hard shift to the far right, surviving the next generation of #climatechaos, enduring social breakdown, and creating systemic change in the face of these crises. But the solutions lie in coming together, rediscovering the power of collective action, and rejecting the #stupidindividualism that isolates us.

The biggest obstacle is that many people cannot see this. Years of cultural conditioning, relentless propaganda, and the atomisation of society have blinded people to the possibilities of collective power. They are trapped in a path that convinces them that there is no alternative—that the only option is to keep their heads down, live inside the status quo, and hope for survival.

But history tells us a different story: when communities organise, they can and do change the world. This is not a time for despair—it is a time for action. The current economic paths are failing, but this failure opens the door to something new, something better. The time for change is now, and it’s up to us to make the challenge happen.

So lift your heads to see clearly, and take action, not as isolated individuals but as a community. Together, we can not only survive, but create a future of growth, humanistic and ecological flourishing.

The #OMN is a social tech step on the path we need to take.

The madness is everywhere—online, offline, doesn’t really make much difference anymore. After four decades of being spoon-fed #neoliberal garbage, individualism has rotted collective sense-making. The tech we use? Built by a geek class lost in its own deterministic tunnel vision.

Sanity, then, is about stepping outside that churn. The #OMN approach—grassroots, #DIY, non-corporate, and actually human-focused—has to be a path forward. The question is, who else sees this? Who’s willing to do something genuinely different, not just repackage the same #techshit and call it innovation?

Where do you think those people are hiding?

A social tech path out of the current mess

A look at the paths we need to take to balance the current #mainstreaming. Mess begets more mess, embrace It, but strategically is the starting point of the #OGB project, recognising that solving crises will inevitably create new complications. This isn’t defeatist but pragmatic. Understanding that “messy consensus” is a natural state of grassroots activism both online and offline allows us to embrace imperfection while striving for progress. How can we build tools to work with this balance, we need paths that don’t eliminate mess but help us navigate it constructively.

Messy consensus vs. formal consensus, is basic, that “almost nothing that works, works with formal consensus” is both an indictment of rigidity and a call to trust human intuition and collective messiness. Formal consensus processes prioritise idealised decision-making frameworks over functional, timely action. Messy consensus in practice, decisions that evolve through ongoing dialogue, negotiation, and iterative adjustments. A focus on getting things done rather than endlessly perfecting processes.

The #OGB Project approach is based on #KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) by documenting messy consensus in action rather than try to force-fit solutions into rigid structures. The wider #OMN is about building software tools that reflect this dynamic, fluid, adaptive, and capable of handling the inherent unpredictability of real world grassroots organising.

Grassroots movements need patience and realism, activism is hard work, rife with delays, frustrations, and the risk of spiralling into unproductive behaviours. The example of delays being full of “shittiness all round” is all too common. The solution is to focus, implement basic accountability and communication tools to reduce friction (e.g., clear timelines, transparent updates). Design paths where delays can’t derail core progress (e.g., smaller, autonomous working groups with clear boundaries).

The #geekproblem and governance failures, technologists operate under the illusion that technology is apolitical, seeing themselves as neutral actors. This leads to tools and systems that perpetuate power imbalances rather than address them, then governance struggles inside this #techshit. On the more #NGO paths, governments and corporations alike fail because they attempt to apply dated paradigms (territorial governance, Soviet-style technocracy, and unchecked market competition) to globally networked paths.

#OGB and the #openweb native paths are about building politically aware technologies that understand their social impact and are actively shaped by the communities they serve. This is about moving beyond individualistic thinking to balance paths where decisions are made collectively and equitably, guided by progressive shared values and principles.

Metadata isn’t trivial, it’s often more revealing than the data itself. Governments and corporations weaponise it for control. However, this control relies on perpetuating individual isolation and the illusion that society doesn’t exist. A core path is challenging the #deathcult mentality and this death spiral of isolationism. The idea that individuals are isolated entities, disconnected from society, aligns with the deeply reactionary mindset of the #deathcult. It’s this ideology that drives surveillance capitalism, authoritarian governance, and ecological collapse.

The #OMN is about countering the death spiral by build networks and technologies that grow solidarity, collective agency, and a sense of shared purpose. To make this happen, we need to call out reactionary ideologies wherever they manifest, but with patience and a focus on education. The Internet is a commons, not an empire. The internet’s potential is currently squandered by treating it as a platform for profit-driven empires. With the #OMN instead, we cultivate a shared common, reflecting the principles of the #openweb. With commons-based governance, we move away from corporate models and toward federated, community-led governance. Interoperable ecosystems, prioritise open standards that allow diverse communities to connect without being locked into monopolistic kingdoms.

The #OMN contribution, is about documenting the failures of current systems and demonstrate the viability of federated, grassroots alternative paths. And from this building the cultural and technical infrastructure necessary to support an internet that is truly by and for the people. Practical steps are acknowledging the mess, start with the reality of our messy paths and systems rather than pretending they don’t exist. Then use this understanding as the foundation for solutions. Promote realistic timelines, by accepting that grassroots organising moves slower than we’d like, but ensure delays are constructive rather than paralysing. Focus on education, misunderstandings stem from a lack of digital literacy and political awareness, we need patience and persistence to mediate messy processes through practice.

In conclusion, how can we shape the world without being covered in shit. Yes, the path is messy, imperfect, and filled with hard work, but that’s no reason to despair. The #OMN projects offers a grounded approach that prioritises doing over theorising, embracing messy consensus as a strength rather than a weakness. By rejecting the #deathcult of individualism and building on the principles of the #openweb, we create paths that reflect the reality of grassroots organising: chaotic, collaborative, and, ultimately, transformative.

The wider #OMN project from a more #mainstreaming prospective

Sifting the wheat from the chaff in our technological and social mess is an important challenge. This is why the #OMN approach of leveraging work across communities and utilising multi-tag aggregation is an elegant and powerful solution. It would be useful to look at this from a more #mainstreaming prospective.

Aggregated work across communities of subjects, the first step in the #OMN path involves gathering and organising work created by various communities around specific subjects or interests. Subject-centric hubs, decentralised indexing, curating content based on subjects (e.g., #ClimateChange, #TechEthics). These hubs wouldn’t rely on centralised algorithms, but instead draw from a network of community-curated sources. Community moderation by trusted communities who moderate and curate content within their subject interested. This ensures quality and reduces noise while resisting gatekeeping tendencies of centralised control.
Reputation by contribution by encourage subject-focused communities to reward contributions, promoting collaboration and surfacing valuable work naturally.

Dynamic and live updates, newsfeeds, can be feed by aggregating real-time updates from communities working on the same subjects using open protocols like ActivityPub. This would provide a live pulse of discussions, innovations, and trends across diverse groups and subjects.

Multi-tag aggregation, the next step is to create a system that enables the mash-up of multiple tags to filter and organise the aggregated content dynamically. Advanced multi-tagging allow people to filter aggregated work using combinations of tags, e.g., #ClimateChange + #IndigenousRights + #CommunityProjects.

Visualisation of tag relationships, tag webs, implement visual tools that map relationships between tags, communities, and subjects. People can explore how different concepts connect and navigate the network intuitively. Trend overview, within tag intersections to help people identify emerging areas of focus and overlooked intersections.

Tools for aggregation and mashing, to make this work practically, we need powerful, accessible tools that build on the #OMN ethos. Open aggregators, open-source aggregators that collect data, metadata, and content flows from diverse platforms and formats, such as blogs, Fediverse instances, wikis, and video platforms that can be made compatible with the #openweb, we simply ignore the #dotcons which are to #closedweb to be worth plugging in to these flows, they will wither in the self-sustaining destruction of their own #techshit, sadly taking a part of our communities with them, we do not have the focus to rescue everyone as we push this shift.

Community buy-In and participation, To build the #OMN path in an effective and relevant direction, it must gain support and participation from the communities that create it. This needs: Simple, intuitive interfaces for tagging, curating, and contributing to subject hubs. Guides and incentives to help non-technical people engage with the paths. Decentralised decision-making, with democratic governance paths like the #OGB. Education and outreach, with educational campaigns to teach people how to use multi-tag aggregation and curated subject hubs that work.

Guarding against pitfalls, while the #OMN approach is promising, it’s essential to mitigate potential risks. We need to keep vigilance on balancing noise and redundancy. Centralisation risks, by keeping to decentralised and open paths to avoid reliance on any single platform, database, or organisation. Bias in curation is kept in check by the networks being inherently leaky, people will see other points of view – we do not subscribe to the #blocking inherent in #fashernista safety culture.

What would this look like, the end goal: Collaborative Knowledge Commons. The aim of the #OMN path is to create a living, breathing commons of human knowledge and action. By aggregating community work and enabling meaningful mash-ups through multi-tag aggregation, we create a powerful tool to cut through the noise, enabling better collaboration between communities, richer understanding of complex, intersectional issues, stronger foundations for the native #openweb.

“Solutions” pushed for the #Fediverse are #stupidindividualism which comes from #deathcult worship

The is real frustration with “solutions” for the #Fediverse leaning toward #stupidindividualism and the normal #deathcult path, especially as these approaches undermine the foundational ethos of the “native” #openweb. What different paths do we need to take:

Re-centre on cooperation and interdependence. This should be obverse, instead of treating the #Fediverse as a platform for fragmented individualism, we need to foster a commons-first approach. Mutual Aid Networks are a path by to encourage instances to form federated clusters based on solidarity, shared values, and collaborative governance. Instance Interdependence needs tools that make cooperation between instances smoother and beneficial, such as shared moderation practices, resource sharing, or even federated funding paths.

Reject platformification, one of the Fediverse’s strengths is that it doesn’t need to mimic the dynamics of corporate platforms. To ensure its future path is native, not corporate we need to stick to the alt path of protocols over platforms, to stay on this path and not get distracted by new shiny #techshit For this we need to prioritise the development of open, robust protocols like ActivityPub that support interoperability over creating “Fediverse apps” that compete to centralise users. Standardised tools for moderation and discovery, create federated discovery and moderation tools that don’t funnel people into centralised algorithms or trending feeds but support meaningful and self-determined connections.

Community-driven innovation instead of for profit and status, communities need to be more involved in defining what needs to be built. We need to mediate the power of tech communities and non-technical people. This ensures the solutions reflect diverse realities, not just the #geekproblem technocratic priorities. Public-good funding paths, to build sustainable funding for open-source tools without relying on venture capital or individual donations. Cooperative crowdfunding, grants from public institutions, or taxation-based paths could work.

Reframe individualism as collective empowerment, the problem isn’t individual creativity; it’s when it becomes detached from collective good. Some ideas to balance this is by highlighting and rewarding people who contribution to the wider social enhance of the #Fediverse e.g., not just code contributions, but admins, moderation etc. One path could be to develop ways to celebrate shared milestones across the network, rather than competitive “likes” or algorithmic trends.

Education and advocacy are a core part of the #openweb to building awareness of the stakes and educating people about the principles of the #Fediverse and the #openweb. Some paths might be: Digital literacy campaigns to educate people about how the #Fediverse operates, its native values, and why it must avoid the #dotcons #closedweb’s pitfalls. Highlight success stories by amplify case studies of community-owned and commons-driven Fediverse instances to inspire others.

Design for long-term sustainability, any system that focuses on short-term growth or clout is doomed to fail. To build something durable, we need resilient federation models to address the scaling challenges that come with growing instances without resorting to centralised solutions. Decentralised governance is core, we need to explore and adopt models like the #OGB for instance and network governance.

Resist the #deathcult narratives, which thrives on competition, exploitation, and the idea that scarcity is inevitable. This needs constant push back, with abundance-oriented design to build paths centred on care, trust, and generosity – rejecting the zero-sum thinking of extractive systems. Radical openness is a good native path for, tools like the #4opens are core.

This “native” thinking are based on ideas to anchor the #Fediverse in the principles of mutuality, solidarity, and the commons while resisting the pull of #stupidindividualism and centralisation.

This is about the failed liberal class, with their heads bowed in worship of the #deathcult for the last 40 years, have abandoned critical thought. Their unacknowledged postmodernist complacency has pushed us away from class struggle, leaving us isolated and alone. Meanwhile, the last two decades of left identity politics have allowed the right wing to co-opt and weaponise progressive narratives, filling them with fear and hate.

Yet, amidst this bleak shift towards fascism, there is a potential positive: a return to #KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) class-based left-wing movements. These movements need to reclaim the ground from the current #mainstreaming crew, who continue to blindly worship neo-liberal “common sense,” while #blocking out and refusing to acknowledge its failures. It’s well past time to consign these dead ideologies to the compost heap of history.

What comes next is up to us. As a community, we face the real challenge of surviving the next generation of #climatechaos pushing social breakdown while driving forward the systemic changes these crises demand. It’s not as if we have a choice—change is no longer optional, and action is overdue.

Branding keeps coming up as an issue

The #fediverse is a glimpse of a radically new kind of society through decentralized and community-driven models of governance and organization. This could be used to challenge traditional hierarchies and power structures, making it possible to resist imposing liberal “common sense” solutions that align with existing paradigms of control. On this different path we should use tools like #OGB (Open Governance Bodies) to grow native systems that are transparent, participatory, and empowering.

Branding and its role in the #fediverse, branding, while seen as a unifying force, actually to often just imposes barriers to community ownership and agency. When centralized branding dictates the identity of a project, it stifles participation and creativity. To counteract this negative default path, we can:

Shift to Community Branding, with communities running instances to create their own visual and cultural identities. This empowers localized expressions while fostering ownership and pride.
Standardize for collaboration, develop shared guidelines for a cohesive experience, while maintaining flexibility for local adaptation.
Minimize branding barriers, by avoiding overly strong branding in open-source codebases to make technology easier for people and communities to adopt and customize.

This focus leads to a decentralized and inclusive ecosystem, where control is balanced with the communities rather than only developers and funders. Core to this is the path of challenging #StupidIndividualism, in this context the hashtag critiques the focus on individualistic thinking and self-serving branding in #openweb projects. To challenge this, we need to hold in place open dialogue on the power dynamics of branding and its impact on participation.

To flourish, we need to focus on decentralized trust-based networks like the #fediverse that amplify grassroots voices. Encourage messy, iterative approaches to activism that embrace the complexity of social change. Build #FOSS tools that empower communities to take control of their narratives, reclaiming native paths from centralized systems and corporate algorithms.

We need to counteract the entrenched despair of #mainstreaming paths to compost the mess for real, impactful change.

A call to action, clear diagnosis

What a waste of public money, this #fashernista career-building projects.

When you think using social media is “natural,” remember you’re feeding #dotcons—platforms built on the worst parts of human nature. If you want civilization and society to have a future, you cannot keep supporting this. The #encryptionists sit at the heart of our current grassroots media tech disaster, while careerist #mainstreaming pisses from the other side. But shit makes good compost—and we have the shovels.

OMN is a path forward. Pessimism may travel faster than optimism, but only optimism holds the potential for real change. Feed the problem or solve the problem. There is no mythical “third way” out of this mess. What we have are shovels, #OMN, and shit for compost. Work hard enough, and you’ll get flowers and tasty vegetables. 🌸🥕

It’s well past time for composting. Let’s grow flowers. 🌱

Meany of our old friends in activism took the healthy internal stresses that once challenged projects like #indymedia and fed them to a #fashernista vampire class, building careers by draining the grassroots for 20 years. This is not a good look, and these are likely the people you have to talk through when you talk to “power.”

First step, clearly #stepaway from the #dotcons and return to the #openweb for our communication and news. #indymediaback and #OMN are solutions worth posting about, worth sharing, and worth doing. The #openweb lacks addiction algorithms. It will only thrive if you make it work. Gather like-minded people outside the #dotcons—it’s a solid first step.

We must stop pouring energy into pointless #techshit if we want a chance of surviving #climatechaos and escaping the grip of the #deathcult. Basic #KISS statement: What are you doing today that isn’t pointless?

On this, #indymediaback, #OMN, and the #4opens need more crew to make the rollout work. For decades, we’ve allowed the #dotcons to dominate our communication. Trump and Brexit aren’t the causes—they’re symptoms. We made this mess together, fuelled by unhealthy digital feedback loops.

Let’s compost this mess and seed real change. 🌱

#Mainstreaming Social Media: Digital Drugs, Not Social Connection

The essence of #mainstreaming social media isn’t about fostering genuine communication or community—it’s about delivering digital drugs. Platforms like #Facebook, #Instagram, and #TikTok thrive by exploiting addictive design patterns, keeping users hooked with endless dopamine hits.

This addiction is why many people struggle to stay on native #openweb social media platforms. These alternatives, built with #4opens at their core, lack the engineered highs of the #dotcons. Without the “fix” of notifications, likes, and algorithmically curated content, people feel withdrawal and gravitate back to the platforms designed to exploit learned their impulses.

The challenge of real meaningful outreach on the #openweb, is to address this addiction cycle. It’s not enough to offer better tools or ethical platforms; we need to actively incorporate digital drug detox into the user experience (#UX). This means, designing for intentional use, replacing infinite scrolling, endless notifications with features that encourage mindful engagement.
Rebuilding reward systems on genuine connections, creativity, and learning instead of shallow metrics like likes and shares. Educating people to recognize and break free from the addictive patterns perpetuated by #dotcons.

A detox-focused UX for the #openweb is shifting focus from passive content consumption to active participation in meaningful communities. This path to breaking free from digital addiction is no small task, but it’s needed for building any sustainable future. The #openweb can lead to this shift, offering not just an alternative, but a detox from the digital drug cycle that defines #mainstreaming social media mess.

Supporting Native Grassroots Projects in the Fediverse

To balance the current #mainstreaming outreach in the #Fediverse, we’re rallying support for several native grassroots projects. These initiatives empower underrepresented voices and strengthen community-driven networks. With funding applications submitted to NLnet, we invite your comments, feedback, and wide sharing of these proposals. Here’s an overview of the projects:

The MakingHistory Project

A collaborative effort to create a decentralized and participatory network for documenting and sharing:

Grassroots movements
Historical events
Underrepresented narratives

This initiative empowers communities to control their own stories and ensure diverse histories are preserved and accessible.

IndymediaBack Project

A Fediverse project to reboot the radical grassroots media network, #Indymedia, with a foundation in trust-based principles:

#4opens: Open Data, Open Source, Open Process, and Open Standards

This project aims to restore Indymedia as a vital, decentralized platform for radical journalism and activism.

The OGB Project

Focused on creating a trust-based, decentralized framework for governance, the #OGB project supports:

Grassroots networks
Community-driven decision-making

Its goal is to enable fair, transparent, and inclusive governance for communities striving for equity and sustainability.

On all the projects your feedback and support can make a difference. Let’s work together to build goodwill and foster consensus around “native” projects. If you believe in decentralization, trust-based systems, and grassroots empowerment, please comment, share widely, and help to create a stronger, more inclusive future.

Why does this matter?

This matters because the frameworks we live in—whether modernism, post-modernism, or the neoliberal #deathcult—shape how we understand reality, our place within it, and the potential for change. If we don’t recognize these structures, we remain trapped in illusions that prevent meaningful action.

The role of ideology, modernist ideology offers a foundation of human history and collective progress, but it’s been co-opted by right-wing propaganda (e.g., the #economist masquerading as “common sense”). Meanwhile, post-modernism undermines shared truths, leaving us with no clear path forward. Recognizing these dynamics is the first step toward regaining agency.

Understanding the tag of #stupidIndividualism, over the past 40 years, we’ve been conditioned to prioritize individual success over collective well-being. This focus on personal gain erodes community bonds and undermines our ability to work together for systemic change. The result? A fractured society that’s easy to manipulate and exploit.

The consequences of this inaction, we’ve endured 40 years of class war from the center—an assault on public goods, social safety nets, and collective action. The results are evident: #climatechaos, rising inequality, and a culture of apathy. Without a counterbalance, this path will deepen.

What can normal people do? Start small, reconnect with neighbours, support local initiatives, and rebuild trust. Collective action begins with shared experiences and mutual support. Engage with grassroots projects like #OMN, #OGB, and #indymediaback which offer practical tools and platforms for decentralized, community-led solutions. These initiatives challenge #mainstreaming narratives and provide spaces for alternative voices. Get involved, contribute your skills, and amplify their reach.

Challenge the illusions, by questioning the media we consume. Recognize propaganda dressed as “common sense” and seek out alternative sources on the path of community and equity. To find balance, in extremes—whether of individualism or collectivism—can lead to stagnation or authoritarianism. The goal is balance: fostering individual creativity within a framework of collective care and accountability.

Think beyond the #deathcult, by clearly rejecting the neoliberal worship of markets, privatization, and profit at all costs. A left-led class war balances pushback against extreme inequalities and injustices of the past 40 years. A first step is rejecting apathy and embracing balance, to create spaces where hope thrives and change becomes possible.

The challenge is real, so is the potential for change. There are grassroots paths. The tools can exist. The question is, will we act?

Signal vs Noise

The idea of “signal” amidst the “noise” of the #mainstreaming agenda is both a necessary aspiration and a challenging philosophical undertaking. To frame this concept, we need to connect it to practical action and helps to see it through the lens of #OMN and the metaphor of the shovel.

Signal represents news, agendas, and actions that prioritize public good, transparency, accountability, and social responsibility. It’s about stories that connect people, foster community resilience, and address systemic problems. Signal has a purpose beyond profit or personal gain—it’s rooted in collective benefit and meaningful change.

Noise is the overwhelming chatter of sensationalism, clickbait, fear-mongering, and consumerist narratives that dominate the #mainstreaming agenda. It’s the distraction that keeps us from focusing on real solutions, fuelled by #deathcult ideologies of neoliberalism, #stupidindividualism, and private greed.

Building signal in a noisy world is about judgment for social good, signal requires active discernment. Instead of going with the flow, we need to pause and critically evaluate the impact of information. Does this serve the community? Does it align with principles of equity, justice, and sustainability?

Action through metaphors, the shovel and compost metaphor is perfect. The OMN is a tool—a shovel—to sift through the noise, dig into the messy realities, and create fertile ground for new, better narratives. The act of composting represents transforming waste (noise) into something fertile (signal).

Collaborative projects like OMN focus on creating decentralized, trust-based paths where communities can curate and amplify signal. By focusing on horizontal governance and community-first publishing, the OMN counteracts the corruption and privatization inherent in current systems.

The moral imperative, we’ve lived in a metaphorical sewer for over 40 years. The #deathcult’s grip on society has normalized being covered in “shit,” but what’s tragic is the embrace of this state through #stupidindividualism and #fashionista agendas. These aren’t just distractions—they actively undermine collective progress.

Instead of lamenting, we need to act. Grab the shovel, embrace the mess, and build compost heaps that nurture real alternatives. When private greed meets public need, corruption is inevitable. The shovel isn’t just a tool—it’s a commitment to refuse passivity and to turn decay into growth. Let’s build ecosystems of signal together. #OMN

The clear and urgent challenge, to step away from entrenched thinking

There are deep cultural and structural problem in our social world, here I concentrate on the #openweb and tech spaces, which are shaped by entrenched hierarchical thinking (#feudalism) and the inability to embrace horizontal governance models. This #geekproblem represents a persistent resistance to the solutions necessary for the meaningful change we need, and defaults to patterns that reinforce the status quo (#deathcult worshipping).

Horizontal solutions have proven foundations, community-driven models like #OGB (Open Governance Body) reflects a grounded understanding of what works. The last five years of work in the decentralized #Fediverse shows that horizontal technology can scale without succumbing to the mess of centralized, hierarchical control.

#Nothingnew is about combining what works. The creative task now is to integrate these proven social and technical approaches into cohesive systems: #OMN (Open Media Network): A decentralized framework for building media networks based on trust, transparency, and shared governance. #OGB: A governance model for the open web, ensuring horizontal decision-making structures that resist co-option by hierarchical or neoliberal influences. #Indymediaback: Reviving radical, grassroots media projects that embody these principles, amplifying voices outside the mainstream.

To do any of these project we need to break the #blocking cycle, when discussions about radical or progressive changes are met with #blocking, the result is to often a stagnant cycle of unresolved issues that eroded goodwill. This stagnation is a direct threat to the social commons. To break this cycle, we can use, and, think inside the Fluff/Spiky debate to encourage broad, inclusive paths while not shying away from hard truths and unpopular calls for accountability. Reject #fashernista worship to push back against superficial trends that align with neoliberal and #mainstreaming values, which are ultimately harmful to the #openweb.

The language trap, #liberalism, and by extension #neoliberalism dominate conversations, we need a constant low level critical examination of this misalignment with the goals of the #openweb. Then calling this out is uncomfortable but necessary, to recognize and challenge how these frameworks perpetuate the #deathcult. The question remains, will others step up to help make this happen? Are they ready to take on this challenge?