[mlmartin]

The thing is - the 'old' internet is still there. IRC is there, despite slack and discord making closed privately hosted versions. NTTP newsgroups are still there, despite reddit and stackoverflow etc. All that infrastructure still there that doesn't algorithmically keep you in a perma-outraged state for engagement. If I have some sort of spiritual or scientific awakening that I just have to share with the world - The web still lets you self host. I can hide that behind onion routers if I need to.

Not to say that the modern alternatives don't fix a lot of problems, particularly with accessibility to end users, but whats to stop us from going back and creating a new branch from that base that tries to solve the problems without the toxicity? And more importantly, engaging only with that network? (the sad probable answer: Because we're collectively lazy).