the meetoothanks manifesto

this will forever be a running WIP, don't expect anything academic as this is just ramblings from a partially-read person you found on the internet.

The point of this manifesto is to explain why I'm making this website and why I believe the smallweb, indieweb, whatever you want to call is a vital space on the internet. These are mainly just observations and reasons I found for them. There's no sweeping analysis here and I'm not trying to come up with ways to change how things are. With that out of the way, as I was scrawling notes of the last couple months, trying to assess my motivations for this, a few themes started to reoccur. Captialism, privacy, the general state of the internet, creativity, separation and balance, nostalgia. These have become the main sections of my manifesto.

Captialism

The societal structure that dictates everything about your life (if you live within Western Hegemony like myself). Who you are, how you think, what you do, what you like, if you'll even survive. And its forces can be felt everywhere, even in non-physical space such as the internet. I'm not the best at explaining this over text (I'm much more of an orator than an author) so have a youtube video that brings up how capitalism infiltrates your life. I also suggest perusing their other videos. I'll expand on my observations of how capitalism manifests on the internet in the current state of the internet section. But to put it concisely, I have a visceral need to combat everything capitalism is, does, and stands for, as should all humans. Its a scourge on our kind that has the potential to end us all if we don't fight against it, even in small ways.

Privacy

This is more of a personal thing than an internet-wide thing. Well.. actually, with the recent push for age/ID verification, maybe not, lol. So let's say both.

Anyway, two things:

• I don't want my irl self to be findable on the internet. At least not too easy. This is for personal reasons.
• I really like the idea of just being the meetoothanks persona on the internet. Part because of the point above, but also to create a degree of separation between irl and internet me which will be discussed further below. Not that my internet persona is much different than my irl one. Maybe more reserved and blunt? Which you'd think would be the opposite, lol.

Making my own website in lieu of pouring myself into a profile of a social media site is a great way to make sure I'm hard to find.

State of the Internet

This is going to be a big section. In my humble, biased opinion, the internet has become yet another tool of capitalism instead of the free highway of information it was supposed to be (or at least what was told to us in the 90's). Below are some of my observations.

Monopolization aka 5-Website Internet Theory

What does the end state of capitalism look like? Fascism and monopolies. I won't touch on the fascism part. But monopolies?

You ever feel like when you are online, its just a rotating cycle of websites? Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook, Twitter... on and on. For all intents and purposes, the internet is now a set of monopolies, some of which own more than one of the few sites.

One example of this I like to bring up is forums. God, I used to love forums. The forum for my RuneScape clan was one of the main staples when I was younger. There was a forum for EVERYTHING, all on different websites with different styles and rules and people. Now its all been consolidated into Reddit, a now for-profit company whose main purpose is to make money off of you (and probably your data).

Sure, the consolidation does make it more effective to find everything in one place... until it doesn't.

Commodification and the Algorithms

Algorithms. The thing that now drives what we all see on the internet. One that is controlled by those in power, those who benefit the most from capitalism. An algorithm that thrives on ragebait and that feeds us those sweet, sweet dopamine hits. Its built to keep us scrolling, keep us online because of...

Commodification. The capitalist class has turned the internet into a vehicle to sell you something, whether it be through ads and marketing or the ever pervasive subscription model. And in return, the internet, as a space, has become a commodity itself. The users have also been forced to commodify themselves by the way of the algorithm. You have to be marketable (and/or acceptable to the capitalist class) to be pushed to people or stay in complete obscurity.

Enshittification

One of the more recent phenomena we've seen is the enshittification of the internet. Google no longer returning relevant information to your query but relevant information to you. Websites barely working, especially search functions. Now that the internet has been sufficiently monopolized, commodified, and crucial to everyday life, why would the capitalist class need to put any more effort, more money, into it? You're gonna use it anyway, you HAVE TO use it anyway. And what other options do you have?

I like to hope that a personal website is another option.

The Death of Creativity

Everything is bland and beige or smooth, round, and white, both online and off. So lifeless. no whimsy. Great example: drove past this car wash two days ago called "Castle Car Wash." now BaCk In mY dAy, that car wash would've had battlements and a fucking moat and the sign would've been a crown. But it was just a rectangle with brick accents. Old man shaking fist at cloud aside, I want some whimsy in my life and I love creating silly lil spaces like these. And the profit motive kills creativity.

Separation and Balance

Technology and the internet has made physical space and non-physical space too intertwined, at least for me. I want to live my life without always thinking about.. well, the internet, lol. But don't get me wrong, computer is life and I love being chronically online (until I don't). Which is why I want to find ways to experience the internet without it being my entire life. And building this website is a way I do so and create separation.

Nostalgia

I would be lying if I said this doesn't play a part also. I never got to fully experience the "old web" due to the conditions I grew up in but I've always admired it. So now as an elder, I'm going back and experiencing what I couldn't before.

Future Topics

Technocrats and their Death Cult