I've seen a few bigger "indie" or open web proponents make overtures about returning to X recently and it boggles my mind.

You even have Mozilla, who did go back back to X, posting:

"We took time off of X, but we’re back. The internet is changing again, so we’re here as an independent voice for our users and the open internet."

What's changing, exactly? Open internet and X? Sure, Mozilla.

I think a lot of these folks would like to pretend that the open web is not political, but it absolutely is... especially when you have billionaires and now an almost trillionaire owning corporate social media like X and Meta, the AI companies, Amazon, etc. etc. Not to mention fascists in the White House who want to enrich their friends, punish enemies, elimate immigrants, and blame everything on transgender people.

The open web is an absolutely critical tool for communicating, organizing, and pushing back against this agenda because it gives marginalized people a platform and a voice free of censorship and the machinations of capitalism.

When someone like Manton Reece says: "Opposition is not a principle. The political winds will inevitably shift, leaving polarization behind.", I get frustrated because opposition is absolutely a tool the privileged should use as part of our allyship with marginalized people. That's a part of how things start to change: someone in a privileged group (say CIS white men) using political capital to publicly oppose things that negatively impact marginalized people. Not doing so and pretending these things aren't political (because your privilege allows you that benefit), is actually what not having principles looks like...

The only parts of society that worry about the "political winds shifting" are corporations and the rich -- the people that want to maintain the status quo. We've seen that firsthand with the Trump administration: the oligarchs line up, the media lines up, companies with longstanding traditions of diversity, equity, and inclusion like Target, fall in line. They traded their political power and opposition for power and money. My beliefs, and I'm sure most individuals who care about these things, don't shift with the political winds. I couldn't give a fuck who's in the White House -- what's right is right.

And it's not even as simple as just sticking up for your beliefs or "what's right", because that much leeway gives us shit like DHH's blood and soil screed. For the privileged, it absolutely has to start with taking a stand for marginalized people. I'm not perfect, but every day I try to do better than the last. It's all any of us can ask of each other.

The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free.

  • Maya Angelou