Sometimes there’s a disconnect in the social web community between political values and open web principles. They are not the same thing.

Politics can inspire us to build a better world. That’s certainly how I felt after the 2016 election, leading to the Micro.blog launch. But without a foundation in open web principles, there’s no lasting direction or strategy. There are only reactions to whoever or whatever we oppose.

Let’s say you leave a large social network because you dislike the person in charge, then create a Mastodon community where everyone feels safe and is mostly aligned on ideology. The software is decentralized, but identity and culture remain centralized around a single domain.

Often this works out great. I’ve been writing for years about the benefits of small communities. But with impulsive leadership, it can also create filter bubbles and mob behavior. Then you’ve recreated the thing you were trying to escape.

Opposition is not a principle. The political winds will inevitably shift, leaving polarization behind. Building a better web is much more universal. Empowering people to own their identity, publish more freely, form many kinds of communities, and leave without losing everything.

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” — C.S. Lewis

I came across this quote recently, in a different context, and I keep getting drawn back to it. I think it captures something that I’ve tried to write about several times over the last year.

What do we do when we encounter someone who is so convinced of their own righteousness that they justify attacking people, even to the point of lying, painting a false picture of us and the people we work with? I honestly don’t know.