is that not what lemmy is? lol

it’s more than a thought; it’s familiarity in ways you’ve likely forgotten about if you were using the internet as an adult back in 1995 and is now the only way to escape the oligarchy manufactured narratives and capture like op describes.

back then, you can only find things using either word-of-mouth or independent search engines. the instances of the fediverse that have been isolated by the mainstream narrative loving masses (ie hexbear, lemmygrad, etc.) now serve the same word-of-mouth function and things like searxng are fulfilling the independent search engines that altavista, excite, lycos, etc. used to do.

in some ways, it carries on in the spirit of what the internet used to be like in 1995, but by accident/need rather than intention.

back then, the internet was an even mixture of profit seeking companies trying to get your attention and sites that required minimal technical proficiency contained interests/works that the mainstream media pretended didn’t exist. over time, things like reddit appeared where it combined the two to get the mainstream hoards so overwhelming in number that the internet has become almost indiscernible to mainstream media.

now, as the mainstream internet enshittifies to protect the mainstream narrative; the people who seek reality over narratives now have to up their technical acumen to continue their access.

the internet is going back to their wild west days because the oligarchy is trying to exert control over it with liberal & conservative consent.