Ame on Nostr: No, I think that's it. The early internet felt like an independent culture onto ...

No, I think that's it. The early internet felt like an independent culture onto itself, and that gave it a certain safety and sincerity. With the advent of mass censorship, the sense that everything is organic faded, which colored everything afterwards in a different lens. It's the difference between being among friends and being in an office, supervised by HR, on mainstream platforms. On alternative platforms, you instead get the sense of being in a trench, playing cards with the other lads, rather than hanging out with them as a kid in the suburbs playing Manhunt into the night.

Part of this is childhood nostalgia, but the internet used to be a place where the real world had no presence, and didn't matter. The real world has gotten more pervasive and outright worse at the same time.