The #deathcult is neoliberalism

If you’ve spent time on my website, you’ve come across the term neoliberalism. It’s a word that’s used so much that its meaning has maybe been diluted. You might have a surface-level understanding: deregulation, privatization, tax cuts for the rich, the classic “trickle-down” nonsense where we’re supposed to believe that if the rich get richer, everyone will magically benefit. It’s not entirely wrong, but it only scratches the surface.

So, what really is neoliberalism? It’s the core of what I call the #deathcult – this unquestioning faith in the free market, a belief that capitalism, when left completely to its own devices, will allocate resources efficiently and justly. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t. This ideology has been pushed to the heart of why our society and is now why it is collapsing, why inequality is rampant, why climate change isn’t being addressed meaningfully, and why we’re on a collision course with disaster.

#Neoliberalism isn’t new. We’ve seen it before in the laissez-faire economics of the late 19th century, which crashed into the Great Depression. It ended in global upheaval, political unrest, and the rise of authoritarian regimes, leading to globe war. And now we’re on the same path with social disintegration and #climatechaos, this time the mess is even more poisonous, with ecological collapse looming.

At its core, neoliberalism is about giving all the power to the #nastyfew in the “business class”. Not the people, not communities, not workers – just businesses, capitalists and what remains of the old feudal orders. In a #neoliberal world, the capitalist class gets to make all the decisions: setting wages, determining prices, managing resources, polluting freely, without interference from governments and collective movements. It’s a system designed to serve the interests of the most evil people while pretending to offer “freedom” to “consumers” what ever this means. But that “freedom” is a lie. What kind of choice is it when you can’t afford housing, healthcare, or basic survival? “Pick one” shiny piece of crap they say, while everything crumbles around us.

And the worst part? Neoliberalism doesn’t just push suffering, it justifies it. If you’re poor, it’s your fault. You didn’t work hard enough. You’re lazy. The cruelty of it is staggering: the rich hoard their wealth, built on the backs of workers, while the system vilifies those who are struggling to get by. This ideology isn’t just economic, it’s political. Neoliberalism co-opts the state, transforming it into an enforcer for the business class. The state’s role becomes about protecting corporate interests, not public welfare. Deregulation, privatization, militarization, these are its tools to keep the market “free” for capitalists while making life increasingly unfree for everyone else.

This is the mess we are in now. We’re witnessing the slow, methodical destruction of the real social safety nets built up by workers after the second world war, of any meaningful government oversight, and of collective power. Neoliberalism hates unions, despises activism, and fears real challenge and challenge to class interests and power. And when push comes to shove, it would rather align with #fascism than allow any alternative like socialism or genuine collective power to rise to balance the current mess.

So when I talk about the #deathcult, this is what I mean. It’s a simple metaphor for #neoliberalism, an ideology of destruction, dressed up as “freedom” and “efficiency.” The task before us isn’t just to critique it but to compost it, to build affinity groups, to seed movements that understand the depth of the problem and are ready to nurture the seeds of real alternatives. We can’t afford any more to just sit back and let it continue. We have worshipped this #deathcult for 40 years, we need to lift our heads and shovels (#OMN), and we need to do this now.

Where do you see the opportunity for these dialogues

The #openweb – Escaping the Grip of the Algorithm

For meany people, the old #dotcons like #Instagram, #Facebook and #Twitter still dominate their online lives, shaping not only what they see but also how they still think and interact. These platforms, with their complex dark algorithms, offer an addictive experience people find hard to resist. The allure is not just in the content they provide, but in the nature of how that content is delivered – tailored, curated, and designed to keep engagement to the point of dependency.

This dependency on these algorithms has become a digital addiction. This is even more true for the next generation of digital drugs from fallow on generations of #dotcons. The algorithm decides what to show people, shaping perceptions and influencing decisions. Over time, this erodes people’s ability to make choices independently, undermining the freedom that the internet was initially supposed to offer. This loss of autonomy is frightening, as it suggests a surrender of our agency to the invisible hand of the algorithm, which prioritizes engagement in capitalism over well-being.

The Algorithmic trap, how we got here? The business model of these “#closedweb” social media platforms, the #dotcons, is based on addiction. The more time people spend on the platforms, the more data they collect, and the more targeted the ads and “content” becomes, leading to increased profits for the #nastyfew. This cycle creates a powerful incentive for these companies to make their platforms as addictive as possible. The more we rely on them, the more they control us, and the less freedom we have to think and choose for ourselves.

What is particularly messy about this model is how it normalizes digital dependency. For meany people, the idea of switching back to the #openweb, to federated, decentralized social media, where algorithms do not dictate what you see, is unappealing precisely because it does not offer the same instant gratification, fix. These platforms do not feed the addiction in the same way, making them less attractive to those who have grown accustomed to algorithmic curation.

To break free from this spiral, people need digital detoxification, but It’s hard to know how to go about this? This is not just about reducing screen time; it’s about reclaiming the paths to make choices independently of what an algorithm suggests. It’s about learning to engage with content and people on your own terms, rather than being passively fed by a machine designed to keep us hooked.

Driving this mess is our worshipping of the #deathcult for the last 40 years, the social shift towards practices and systems that, while profitable for a few, are destructive for the many. The #dotcons have built their empires on this, creating digital paths that prioritize profit over people, “engagement” over enlightenment. This mess extends beyond social media. It speaks to a broader critique of how our paths in technology and #neoliberal ideology have shaped our lives. #Neoliberalism, with its focus on free markets and strong right-wing social government intervention, seeped into our thinking, making us blind to the ways in which we are being manipulated and controlled. This ideology is so ingrained that it has become “invisible” to most, making it difficult to see any potability of a different path we could take.

To see beyond the ideological wall, we need to help people see the invisible, to recognize the ideological frameworks that shape their perceptions and actions. Many people find it difficult to appreciate perspectives outside their own, particularly when those perspectives challenge deeply held beliefs. This is why so many people are #blocking by dismiss paths that try to explain these concepts from different ideological viewpoints. For those of us who try to view the world through multiple lenses, it can be frustrating to see how limited the #mainstreaming narrative is. With liberal media, pushing a narrow view of the world, that reinforces rather than challenges the status quo.

Activists and thinkers, who have long warned of the dangers, are frequently sidelined or ignored. This is why it’s crucial to keep telling these stories, even if they are not always heard or understood. We must continue to highlight the ways in which our digital lives are being shaped by forces that do not have our best interests at heart. We must strive to make the invisible visible, to reveal the ideological underpinnings of the systems we interact with daily.

This is a needed, but difficult story, the story of digital addiction and the #deathcult. It requires us to confront uncomfortable truths about how we live our lives online and how we’ve allowed ourselves to be manipulated by the tools that were supposed to set us free. That the way we engage with technology is not a matter of personal choice but is shaped by the economic and ideological systems in which we are all a part. It’s a story that needs to be told from multiple perspectives, not just those of the chattering classes or the narrow liberal media. A story that should include the voices of activists, technologists, and everyday people struggling to reclaim humanistic paths.

In the end, if we want to have any future, let alone one that is truly open, decentralized, and free, we need to recognize the dangers of digital addiction and the ideologies that sustain it. We need to support the #openweb and the technologies that empower people rather than control them. This is a first step to break free from the #deathcult mentality, creating an online and offline world that we might like to live in #KISS

How we bridge current #blocking conversations for change and challenge

Understanding the Hashtags: A Guide

In the activism of the #openweb hashtag story, they can serve as tools to share complex ideas with social movements. On this site, I use a hashtag story to highlight both the positive and negative aspects of our current socio-political and technological paths. Here’s a guide to what some of these hashtags mean:

#deathcult: The pervasive influence of #neoliberalism, which operates invisibly in our minds, dictating aspects of society without us realizing it. Example: “The corporate-driven decisions affecting climate policies are a clear manifestation of the deathcult mindset.”

#dotcons: This highlights how we have been deceived into enriching a #nastyfew through the use of digital platforms and technologies. It’s a product of the #deathcult. Example: “Major social media platforms are the epitome of dotcons, prioritizing profit and control over people’s well-being.”

#stupidindividualism: This represents the peak of current social trends where extreme individualism overrides collective well-being to our detriment. Example: “The resistance to community-based solutions for climate change is rooted in stupidindividualism.”

#fashernistas: Flotsam influenced by fleeting trends and currents. In the #dotcons era, this refers to a large directionless majority. Example: “Influencers today are fashernistas, swayed by whatever is trending rather than contributing meaningful change.”

#4opens: A horizontal approach to technological development. Example: “Projects adhering to the 4opens principles build transparency and collaboration.”

#openweb: Refers to the decentralized digital network that revolutionized communication 30 years ago but is now pushed under by people’s use of the #dotcons. Example: “We must reclaim the openweb to preserve the internet’s native path of free and open communication.”

#OMN: An #openweb project that has been in development for the last 20 years, based on the #4opens. Example: “The OMN initiative is a beacon of hope for creating a more democratic digital path.”

#stepaway: A safe method to break free from the addiction to #dotcons while maintaining connections with friends, one step at a time. Example: “By taking a stepaway, we can gradually reduce our reliance on exploitative digital platforms.”

These hashtags are real perspective and a positive path in our digital and social choices. The negative hashtags (#deathcult, #dotcons, #stupidindividualism, and #fashernistas) point out the pitfalls and dangers we face, while the positive hashtags (#4opens, #openweb, #OMN, and #stepaway) offer pathways to more sustainable and community-oriented tech and social solutions. By using and linking these stories, we build better, for real and meaningful change.

It’s not hard (it’s kinda #fluffy)

We need to be disturbed

We are in a mess with the building #climatecrisis due to our collective refusal to acknowledge reality, after 40 years of worshipping a real #deathcult The problem we now need to mediate is that I am not sure meany people know what reality is. What we’re experiencing now is a preview of what’s to come. It’s going to get far worse, and then it will keep on getting worse. Yet, the narrative pushed by the media and #mainstreaming politicians suggests the same consumerist delusions. That the climate and weather will simply shift to a different state, and we can adapt to it. This is not only lying – it’s dangerous.

To hide this building mess, the view is pushed that we can easily adapt to the ever-worsening #climatechaos, this is a fallacy. Adaptation becomes increasingly difficult as conditions deteriorate, especially when so much remains unknown. The failure to recognize that the situation will continually worsen isn’t due to a lack of language to express it – I’ve just articulated it plainly. No, this is a deliberate act of #gaslighting. It’s a wilful distortion of reality, designed to downplay the severity of the crisis and to reassure the public that adaptation will be straightforward and successful. The motivation of this deceit is clear, to avoid alarming the public into demanding urgent action. The tactic, to maintain business as usual, uphold the status quo, stifling the calls for systemic change.

We’re given the illusion of democracies where the public’s will prevails. However, at the same time, we’re told that things can only be this way. The priests of the #deathcult who benefit from the current failing paths, the wealthiest and powerful, asserts that the system is immutable and that they will not permit any change. This is in stark contrast to the lies we’re constantly fed about the will of the people, democracy, and freedom. The simple truth, those in power dictate what is best for us, to our detriment.

What is real, that the current governments (and governments in general) do not exist to serve or protect the public. They are captured and shaped by vested interests, representing the nastiest, most wealthy and powerful factions. The party system, present in every country, acts as a filter, it systematically excludes representatives of the people who are willing to challenge the interests of the #deathcult. The #mainstreaming paths are about maintaining business as usual while asserting that this status quo is in the best interest of the public.

The contradiction, governments preserve the status quo rather than protect or serve the people. In every electoral option, the powerful and wealthy win, while the public loses. This illusion of public representation is simply an illusion. Governments may concede to public demands on issues to prevent revolutionary change, but are very resistant to anything that alters the balance of wealth and power. They are resolute on this point: it will not change.

There are limited options outside this mess, in the #mainstreaming independents are vetted, anyone whose views clash with the intrenched interests will be smeared and discredited by the corporate and oligarch-owned media. This is why we’re facing a social, climate and ecological emergency. Humanity and our civilization are on a path toward global suicide because maintaining this suicidal path serves the interests of the #nastyfew. This is why they are rich and grasping to power, and why they will fight to kill and displace billions of us to keep things exactly as they are. It’s a #deathcult we need to fight, best to be honest about this.

A Positive View Of Current Trends

The challenges of today: #climatechaos, inequality, and the social impacts of #dotcons technology are a creating a very nasty social mess. However, there is a some potential for a positive transformation if we push the power of #openweb and #4opens technology and align it with progressive and radical “native” grassroots politics.

Addressing Climate Change with Technology and Revolutionary change

Renewable Energy: Solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources are becoming more than cost-effective and widespread. With strong political will, we can transition to a carbon-neutral economy. By reducing consumption and shifting this energy balance, we take a step to mitigating some of the effects of climate change.
Climate Resilience: Investment in both physical and social climate resilience infrastructure, flood defences and mediation, sustainable agriculture. This will shape and can protect vulnerable communities and ecosystems as we weather this transition. On the digital side, federation is a big step towards more #p2p native infrastructure, which will help to mediate the failing of our overly centralise #dotcons world.

Leveraging Automation for Social Good

Reducing Work Hours: Automation reduces the need for human labour, allowing for shorter work weeks and more leisure time without reducing productivity. This leads to improved quality of life and wider social and mental health benefits.
Universal Basic Income: #UBI provides a financial base for building sustainable alternatives, ensuring that wider groups benefits from increased productivity and technological advancements, rather than the normal #nastyfew.

Ensuring Equitable Access to Resources and Services

Universal Basic Services: By providing free and universal access to essential services such as healthcare, education, housing, and public transport, we create a more equitable society where people has the opportunity to thrive and build social good.
Socialized Finance: Redirecting financial resources from speculative markets to socially beneficial projects ensures that investments are made in areas that improve public well-being and infrastructure.

Fostering a Culture of Innovation and Inclusion

Inclusive Policy Making: Ensuring that marginalized communities have a voice in policymaking leads to more equitable and just outcomes. Participatory democracy and community-led tech initiatives like the #OGB drive inclusive development and the needed social challenge to become the change we need.
Education and Retraining: As the job paths shift, providing education and retraining opportunities helps people transition to new roles, ensuring that fewer people are left behind.

Utilizing Technology for Global Collaboration and Problem-Solving

Global Cooperation: Harnessing #4opens technology for international collaboration can address global challenges more effectively. Federated platforms for knowledge sharing and linking joint initiatives leads to real solutions for climate change, health, and economic development.
Data for Good: Using #openweb and #4opens data, metadata analytics to address social issues leads to more effective public planing, policies and resource allocation.

Conclusion: A vision of hope, in tech

There is a potential for a positive future when we combine technological innovation with radical progressive politics and a commitment to social equity. By addressing #climatechange, leveraging automation, ensuring food security, and providing universal access to essential services, we build a wider world of opportunity and basic justice.

This vision needs us to reimagine our current paths to prioritize humanistic well-being over profit. With the right policies and collective action, we can turn today’s challenges into opportunities for basic survival and a better global society.

You can support a technological project https://opencollective.com/open-media-network it’s a small step.

The Urgent Need for Climate Action

The mess we build when public’s attention is being deliberately diverted by those in power. They want us to focus on national borders and other divisive issues, preventing us from addressing the real crisis #climatechange. This distraction tactic is designed to benefit the #nastyfew who continue to profit from the destruction of our planet.

As we approach, another election, the insidious #deathcult ideologies offered by the main political parties have gutted life for the majority, while vile conmen exploit our ignorance and anger, distracting us with racism and hate. To hide the underlying economic warfare waged against us by predatory capitalism.

We are at the most perilous point in human history. Future generations, if they survive the coming decades, will look back and think us insane for not having climate scientists and progressive agenda leading our countries. Instead, we allow fossil fuel agendas to dictate our policies.

Figures like Farage are human smoke bombs, generating clouds of xenophobia and culture wars to hide the economic exploitation pushed by the capital that funds their campaigns. Farage’s vision of a future is filled with labour shortages, crumbling public services, and deepened social divisions.

The fight against climate change is fraught with challenges, from powerful economic interests to political distractions. However, the voices of activists, scientists, and concerned people highlight the urgent need for action.

By pushing #KISS core issues and building grassroots #DIY alternatives as seeds to prioritize the planet, we can try to mitigate/weather the worst impacts of this growing global crisis.

https://opencollective.com/open-media-network

#climatechaos requires radical work

The Seven Stages of climate denial:

1. It’s not real
2. It’s not us
3. It’s not that bad
4. We have time
5. It’s too expensive to fix
6. Here’s a fake solution
7. It’s too late: you should have warned us earlier

Looking back you can see that trolls use all of these stages to deny the reality of #climatechange. With this in mind, it’s worth looking at the climate crisis and its broader implications for our liberals:

Understanding the Crisis

Climate Change Impacts:
- Primary Effects: The direct environmental impacts such as floods, storms, and droughts, species loss.
- Secondary Effects: These encompass the broader impacts like social breakdown, mass migration, fiscal crises, and conflicts and wars.

Soft Problem: Infrastructure Response

To affect the primary effects of climate change, we need to:

Invest in Resilient Infrastructure:
- Develop, diversify and upgrade infrastructure to withstand extreme weather events.
- Implement sustainable urban planning and disaster preparedness programs.
Promote Environmental Stewardship:
- Encourage policies that protect natural ecosystems and biodiversity.
- Support renewable down scaling with energy sources and totally end reliance on fossil fuels.

Hard Problem: State Stability and Security

Addressing the secondary effects involves:

Economic and Social Policies:
- Develop political and economic policies that buffer against fiscal crises caused by climate change.
- Strengthen social safety nets to support communities impacted by environmental changes.
Global Cooperation:
- Foster international collaboration to facilitate the mass migration and sharing of resources.
- Support global peacekeeping efforts to hold justice in place and prevent conflicts exacerbated by climate stressors.

Accountability and Legal Action

Prosecuting the #nastyfew is a start, individuals and groups for their direct roles in the climate crisis involves several considerations:

Legal Frameworks:
- Establish clear legal standards for environmental crimes and corporate responsibility.
- Develop international agreements to hold entities accountable for environmental damage.
Ethical Considerations:
- Ensure that legal actions are grounded in social justice and fairness.
- Avoid simple scapegoating and ensure that those prosecuted are responsible for significant harm.
Focus on Prevention:
- Prioritize measures that prevent future harm alongside punitive actions for though who are found responsible.
- Promote corporate and governmental accountability through regulations and incentives for sustainable practices and well as impotently building real alternatives.

Moving Forward

To effectively address the #climatecrisis and its security implications, a wide approach is needed:

Promote Public Awareness and Engagement:
- Educate the public on the causes and effects of #climatechange.
- Encourage community involvement in real sustainability initiatives.
Policy and Governance:
- Advocate for robust climate policies at national and international levels.
- Ensure that climate action is integrated into broader progressive security and economic strategies.
Innovation and Adaptation:
- Invest in research and development of soft and hard technologies for climate mitigation and adaptation.
- Encourage the needed adaptive practices in agriculture, industry, and urban development.
Ethical Leadership:
- Foster community leadership outside the current #mainstreaming agendas, that prioritize long-term sustainability and ethical governance.
- Promote #4opens transparency and accountability in society and climate-related decision-making.

We do need to see that addressing the #climatecrisis needs radical and balanced paths that combines immediate action with long-term planning, prominent legal accountability with widened ethical governance, and national efforts with wider global cooperation. By working and focusing on these areas, we try to work towards a sustainable future.

For a #mainstreaming view of this https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pope-francis-urges-action-on-climate-change-its-a-road-to-death/

On this subject: The #EU Eurocracy are hopelessly incompetent on progressive social and tech issues – it’s our job to help them be less incompetent as best we can. The other, radical native path is more dangerous, to get rid of them, the dangers with this, which we are seeing, is the right-wing will take their place. This applies to changing most #mainstreaming institutions and people, so we are left with “challenge” as the safe path.

Why European Social Democracy for some people is a path to a just and sustainable future

For decades, European social democracy has stood as a counterweight to the relentless logic of capitalism, proving that societies can thrive when they prioritize people and planet over profit. Yet in recent years, these ideals have been swept away by the rise of #neoliberalism and the slow creep of corporate capture. For some people it’s worth revisited the core principles, not as relics of a bygone era, but as seeds for the future? Let’s look at potential benefits of this approach, and why reclaiming its best elements might be help in rebuilding our world in the face of #climatechaos and growing inequality.

Reduced income inequality by challenging the hoarders of wealth, Social democracy actively fights against the extreme wealth inequality that fuels the #deathcult path of capitalism. By implementing progressive taxation on the ultra-rich and corporations, wealth redistribution to fund public services and social programs, outs limits on wealth accumulation to prevent runaway hoarding. This old #mainstreaming path treats wealth not as a private treasure, but as a collective resource. It challenges the idea that billionaires should exist at all while millions live in poverty, and asserts that the role of the state is to level the playing field, not deepen the divides.

Improved standard of living, a life of dignity for all, not only trying to mitigate suffering, this works to actively uplift people’s quality of life through: Universal healthcare that prioritizes public well-being over profit. Free or affordable education as a path to empowerment. Robust public services like transport, libraries, and childcare. By ensuring everyone has access to the essentials for a good life, social democracy shows that collective care leads to individual flourishing. It breaks the narrative that people must “earn” the right to exist and replaces it with the belief that dignity is a human right.

Stronger safety nets with protection from capitalist precarity, where markets rule, people are left vulnerable to constant boom-and-bust cycles. Social democracy disrupts this instability by creating social safety nets that catch people when they fall. Unemployment benefits to prevent destitution during job loss, Disability and sickness support for those unable to work, Public pensions to ensure people can retire in dignity. These policies directly challenge the capitalist threat that without endless labour, people deserve to suffer. Instead, they affirm the belief that societies are strongest when no one is left behind.

Greater economic security with power to the workers, social democracy strengthens workers’ rights and provides economic stability: Job protections & fair dismissal laws, living wage policies tied to actual living costs, Support for unions & collective bargaining. This redistribution of power away from corporate greed towards the workers who actually produce value is a radical shift from the top-down hierarchies of capitalism. It proves that economies don’t need to run on exploitation, they can be collaborative systems where workers share in the prosperity they create.

Increased political representation by reclaiming democracy, deepened democracy where people have a real say in how their societies function through, proportional representation to ensure every vote counts, publicly funded elections to reduce corporate influence, citizen assemblies and referenda for direct democracy. This expands democracy beyond just voting every few years, empowering people to shape the decisions that shape and impact their lives. It challenges the idea that politics is the domain of #nastyfew elitists and replaces it with the radical belief that people can and should govern themselves.

Environmental protection by defending the future from #climatechaos. Social democracy recognizes that the health of the planet is inseparable from the well-being of people. That’s why this path champions investment in renewable energy & public green infrastructure, strict environmental regulations & corporate accountability, sustainable development policies that balance human and ecological needs. Rather than treating nature as a resource to be exploited, this path sees the environment as a common inheritance that must be preserved for future generations. It directly challenges the short-termism of capitalism, which sacrifices the future for the sake of immediate profits.

Investment in public goods for the collective good, instead of pouring public money into private profit machines, social democracy reinvests in the public commons through infrastructure development for sustainable transport and energy, public research & innovation for collective progress, cultural and community spaces to foster connection and creativity. This long-term public investment shows that societies thrive when they share resources, not when they sell them off to the highest bidder. It dismantles the myth that privatization is more “efficient”, and proves that public ownership can build lasting prosperity.

What this means for radical media and the #openweb, The principles of solidarity, collective ownership, and democratic control, overlap the values that grassroots projects like the #OMN and #indymediaback embody. But instead of waiting for governments to catch up, we can start building these systems and paths now. Decentralized media platforms to break corporate control of information, open-source technologies governed by communities, not corporations, digital commons where people can share, learn, and organize freely.

The #4opens already provide the blueprint for a more democratic and sustainable digital ecosystem. It’s an easy path that by combining the best aspects of the older #mainstreaming social democracy with the “new” power of decentralized tech, we can bypass broken #deathcult institutions and start creating the future from the ground up. The old story of social democracy showed us a path, now it’s time to take it further http://hamishcampbell.com

#SocialDemocracy #WorkersRights #PublicGood #ClimateJustice #OpenWeb #ReclaimTheFuture