The Fediverse Is A Countercultural Garden

Had I been born earlier, I’d be a beatnik or a hippie…

I was cogitating about how to convince someone to give a shot at getting into the fediverse. My first thought went along like this:

The fediverse is a decentr…

And then I stopped myself. It does not matter how true what I was about to think is. For most people who would listen to this, it just does not make for a great argument. So what if it is decentralized? There are benefits to decentralization, but they would seem rather abstract to most people.

Here is a better argument. The fediverse is a realm where the edicts from above are few. It is a realm where some obscure algorithm does not force content down your throat. The algorithm works for you, not against you. The content you see is from people you follow, and only from people you follow.

Moreover, if there is content you do not want to see in your timeline, you can filter by keyword, or you can mute, or in extreme cases, block the people whose content you find objectionable. Nobody is going to stop you. You won’t get the posts from Mr. Popular shoved down your throat.

Then I cogitated some more, and it hit me. The fediverse is that garden on the Internet that allows counterculture to flourish. I’ve never been as surrounded on the Internet as I am right now by other autistic and queer folks than in the fediverse. I was on Facebook. I was on Twitter. There’s no comparison between these, and the fediverse.

Even The Church of the SubGenius is present in the fediverse. They run their own server at dobbs.town. Praise “Bob!” If you don’t know this church, it is a parody religion, and guess what? Wikipedia has it in the categories counterculture of the 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_SubGenius

Then there’s the fact that I became aware of outfits like RetroStrange TV, and The Indie Beat Television through the fediverse. After becoming aware of The Indie Beat TV, I became aware of NHAM, Gravitons, Mirlo, Fairplayer, etc., and of various musicians and musical bands, that, for the most part, are not part of the mainstream, but are active in the fediverse.

Now, what I’ve mentioned above are just examples of some of the things that I’ve found. I wish I could give you a map of the counterculture in the fediverse, but to my knowledge no such map exists, and I doubt such a map could even exist. The counterculture is, by nature, disorganized. If it were organized, it wouldn’t be the counterculture.

Had I been born earlier, I’d be a beatnik or a hippie, but instead I’m in the fediverse.