Twenty years ago, even some more, the internet was something that brought me hope for humanity:
A democratic network of knowledge open to anyone for both participation and access. I truly expected this to improve the lifes of those in less fortunate countries and backgrounds, and help reduce conflicts between people by understanding each other.
Yeah, a bit too much “we are the world”, but you read about the pioneers of the internet and this was a shared belief.
That’s exactly what happened in Hungary, Slovakia, Russia… terrestrial news stations and papers all have people at the helm that have ties to their government.
I don’t think it’s much different in the US either.
This is where capitalism needs to be leveraged - with a vengeance. Do not ignore that most of the media outlets are commercial in nature, and entirely dependent on advertisers.
I remember watching the Arab Spring unfold. Twitter being a guiding light through the darkness for so many people whos government tried to control available communication.
The countries that hit the brick wall fastest during the Arab Spring were - curiously - the ones where the US had the biggest influence. Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, the UAE, Oman, Iraq… all saw the movement flatline in a matter of weeks. Egypt and Turkiye saw some early movement and even a successful turn of government, but immediately boomeranged back to military dictatorship when too many Arab Nationalists started gaining steam. Gaza and the West Bank had a moment, only for the Israelis to freak out and start killing people for mentioning the Nakba.
Libya, Syria, and Iran saw real instability, though. The Qaddafi government came crashing down, with its ex-leader dying to sodemy by razor blades. Assad put down his revolt with horrible violence per family tradition, buying himself another ten years of dictatorship. Liberal Iranians once again became cannon fodder for the counter-revolution, while Americans were prompted to liberate the country in the same way we’d liberated its Saddem-Era neighbor.
None of these stories ended well, because none began with an eye towards actual democratic liberalization. The Arab Spring was a beautiful narrative spun atop a horrifying region wide civil war for control of… oil.
All that has happened with the consolidation of social media into a propaganda arm for governments and corporations makes the fediverse decentralized network an important step forward in the right direction.
If there were another “??? Spring”, could the fediverse be a tool for communication central to a movement still remains a question.
Empty true, might not always be that way, we’ll have to see. Scattered is an advantage IMO.
I’m more worried about what the instance owners and admins might do when pressured. I suspect widely different treatment depending which country was in spring so to speak.
This is the final end run of policy and people pushing for it who have been slinking around in the shadows since Ronald Reagan. It’s a whole bunch of white paranoia and greed rolled up into a reactionary viewpoint and it’s been carefully cultivated for decades.
The one bright point in its implementation, is that the demographic most taken in is the one still dominantly getting it’s information from cable TV. And there’s a reason that as the demographic ages out and dies, cable TV viewership is falling.
You’ve got another 25 years or so until the last of the boomers hit their life expectancies. Hang on.
Yeah now-a-days the internet is a surveilled corporate hellscape. People in power are trying to make it moreso (age verification, war on encryption, etc).
I think the Internet is still a good thing, it’s just become so pervasive and ubiquitous that it’s easy to ignore when it’s not a bad thing. Humans are really good at noticing bad things, which makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. They stand out more starkly against a neutral background.
It is, and people are sharing all the knowledge in the world, in a way that was never possible before.
Just because an AI-driven botnet is flooding it with bogus articles, and mainstream entertainment is full of brain rot, it doesn’t mean the internet isn’t incredibly useful, to the point that many people would struggle with daily life without it.
Yup. The Internet was going to demolish barriers and let people communicate mind to mind without prejudice. We were going to democratize information and science, put the power in the hands of the people, and put an end to pointless conflicts.
Far fetched? Sure. But we should never forget what they stole from us. The most complex and powerful machine humanity has ever created, a collaborative project built in the spirit of cooperation and empowerment, is being monoplized and exploited so some high functioning sociopaths can get rich.
for some reason they never seem to consider they can just…not eat the shit?
since the advent of the printing press, there has always been more media than any one person can consume in a lifetime…if your not filtering the content you consume your doing it wrong
That the internet is not a good thing.
Twenty years ago, even some more, the internet was something that brought me hope for humanity: A democratic network of knowledge open to anyone for both participation and access. I truly expected this to improve the lifes of those in less fortunate countries and backgrounds, and help reduce conflicts between people by understanding each other.
Yeah, a bit too much “we are the world”, but you read about the pioneers of the internet and this was a shared belief.
Turns out it was like Cyberpunk, but like boring.
It’s more of a billionaire nazi propaganda problem. Imagine if they bought up the newspapers and tv stations and there was literally no alternitive
That’s exactly what happened in Hungary, Slovakia, Russia… terrestrial news stations and papers all have people at the helm that have ties to their government.
I don’t think it’s much different in the US either.
Still currently in progress but most of the way complete. We’re gonna have a hard time un-fucking it at this stage.
This is where capitalism needs to be leveraged - with a vengeance. Do not ignore that most of the media outlets are commercial in nature, and entirely dependent on advertisers.
…they have done that. like 5
peoplebillionaires own the majority of media in the US, radio/news/3 letter networksBut we do have an alternative
Yeah, too real. We should kill the rich and turn the dead billionaire corpses into fertilizer. Eating the rich is cannibalism and unhealthy
I remember watching the Arab Spring unfold. Twitter being a guiding light through the darkness for so many people whos government tried to control available communication.
Such high hopes for people back then.
The countries that hit the brick wall fastest during the Arab Spring were - curiously - the ones where the US had the biggest influence. Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, the UAE, Oman, Iraq… all saw the movement flatline in a matter of weeks. Egypt and Turkiye saw some early movement and even a successful turn of government, but immediately boomeranged back to military dictatorship when too many Arab Nationalists started gaining steam. Gaza and the West Bank had a moment, only for the Israelis to freak out and start killing people for mentioning the Nakba.
Libya, Syria, and Iran saw real instability, though. The Qaddafi government came crashing down, with its ex-leader dying to sodemy by razor blades. Assad put down his revolt with horrible violence per family tradition, buying himself another ten years of dictatorship. Liberal Iranians once again became cannon fodder for the counter-revolution, while Americans were prompted to liberate the country in the same way we’d liberated its Saddem-Era neighbor.
None of these stories ended well, because none began with an eye towards actual democratic liberalization. The Arab Spring was a beautiful narrative spun atop a horrifying region wide civil war for control of… oil.
Occupy Wall Street and Me Too, also. I thought we were headed in the right direction. Fast forward… We got this.
All that has happened with the consolidation of social media into a propaganda arm for governments and corporations makes the fediverse decentralized network an important step forward in the right direction.
If there were another “??? Spring”, could the fediverse be a tool for communication central to a movement still remains a question.
The fediverse is empty and scattered as hell
Empty true, might not always be that way, we’ll have to see. Scattered is an advantage IMO.
I’m more worried about what the instance owners and admins might do when pressured. I suspect widely different treatment depending which country was in spring so to speak.
My point is there is no enough mass here to make a difference.
You can say not yet but the way I see this world moving we’re already past the end.
Not yet… and TBH, if the shit hits it, all that will be needed is a few people well placed within the system, to disseminate news to everywhere.
This is the final end run of policy and people pushing for it who have been slinking around in the shadows since Ronald Reagan. It’s a whole bunch of white paranoia and greed rolled up into a reactionary viewpoint and it’s been carefully cultivated for decades.
The one bright point in its implementation, is that the demographic most taken in is the one still dominantly getting it’s information from cable TV. And there’s a reason that as the demographic ages out and dies, cable TV viewership is falling.
You’ve got another 25 years or so until the last of the boomers hit their life expectancies. Hang on.
I hope you’re right. But something tells me there isn’t a generational limit on shit-baggery and overt, planet killing greed.
All the dystopia, none of the mantis blades.
Yeah now-a-days the internet is a surveilled corporate hellscape. People in power are trying to make it moreso (age verification, war on encryption, etc).
I think the Internet is still a good thing, it’s just become so pervasive and ubiquitous that it’s easy to ignore when it’s not a bad thing. Humans are really good at noticing bad things, which makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. They stand out more starkly against a neutral background.
It is, and people are sharing all the knowledge in the world, in a way that was never possible before.
Just because an AI-driven botnet is flooding it with bogus articles, and mainstream entertainment is full of brain rot, it doesn’t mean the internet isn’t incredibly useful, to the point that many people would struggle with daily life without it.
Social media made the internet not worth it. I had high hopes also but humanity sucks as seen when we are all interconnected with global squares.
Yet here we are, defiant in someone’s server in a basement in Germany.
Yup. The Internet was going to demolish barriers and let people communicate mind to mind without prejudice. We were going to democratize information and science, put the power in the hands of the people, and put an end to pointless conflicts.
Far fetched? Sure. But we should never forget what they stole from us. The most complex and powerful machine humanity has ever created, a collaborative project built in the spirit of cooperation and empowerment, is being monoplized and exploited so some high functioning sociopaths can get rich.
How is the Internet not a network of knowledge open to anyone??
It’s full of crap, yes. Back then it was just much smaller, but still very much crap-filled.
people eat shit and wonder why it tastes bad
for some reason they never seem to consider they can just…not eat the shit?
since the advent of the printing press, there has always been more media than any one person can consume in a lifetime…if your not filtering the content you consume your doing it wrong
This is a really upsetting thing.
I grew up with “not everything on the internet is real” but it seems all the people that told me this forgot it.
I was promised access to the whole of human knowledge, but everyone ignores it because we’ve been trained not to read critically.