Making this post to gauge how many people are on the same wavelength as me in this regard because I'm toying with the idea of making a community. It's also just a conversation to be had, I think.

Is anyone else kinda disappointed in the mainstream fandoms of nerdy things and alternative / punk / metal music these days? Honestly the nerd scene always harboured incel types but it's been quite depressing to see that the alternative scene (at least online, where people are more honest and less polite) has swung conservative. The alternative spaces on mainstream social media are largely people who think there's been no good music since Metallica, or a game of punk or Joe Rogan fan, goth or Harry Potter fan. And sadly even here on Lemmy, it seems to be on the instance that half of Lemmy is defederated from for right wing shit. And honestly the old guard of artists has been pretty disappointing too. Either apathetic with nothing to say after decades of preaching punching nazis, or making the news for signing bombs or misunderstanding Bruce Springsteen or calling for Charlize Theron to be arrested.

As far as nerd shit goes, the discussion for comic book media and games are an absolute dumpster fire, now more than ever. One that has escalated ever since Gamergate or the Captain Marvel movie. I'm not going to pretend that Supergirl didn't have any issues. But I'm also not going to pretend that it was bad enough to warrant the extreme reaction, or that I didn't predict that reaction the moment it was announced based on the pattern, or that the majority of the 'criticism' I saw wasn't basically just men complaining about not finding Millie Alcock personally attractive.

In short, the alternative scene is getting fucked by honorary boomers that would've been looking the devil in heavy metal records alongside the republicans and christians in the '80s. And the nerd scene is long overdue for a grrrl riot.

Alt people and nerds have always been kinda overlapped in circles that I've been in. And Lemmy is really too small to have a seperate community for every little thing. So I'm thinking of a Blåhaj friendly space for fans of nerdy shit and rebel to post a mix of: music they want others to hear / sci-fi or fantasy or romantacy books they're reading / comic book related media discussion / gaming discussion without the COD enthusiasts. A safe space for: women, LGBTQIA+ people, non-conformists, metalheads that are more likely to say "we're not gonna take it" than "don't tread on me", punks that prefer Joe Strummer to Johnny Rotten. And an unsafe space for: manosphere dick bags, terfs, conservatives, 'phobes, pearl clutchers, bootlickers, church people, nerds that are terrified of cooties.

Does this interest anyone? I've even thought of a cool comic book related name for it. "Danny the Street" is a character from Doom Patrol, a sentient genderqueer street that teleports from place to place, picking up people along the way. The Dannyzens that live on Danny are largely drag queens and trans people and gender non-conformists but also misfit metahumans or anyone that feels like they belong there more than anywhere else. Their enemy is the Bureau of Normalcy, a government agency that seeks to stamp out and eradicate anything that doesn't conform to white christian cisgender neurotypical standards.

Only problem is that I've never made a community or moderated before. And I can't promise I'll be around to punch nazis 100% of the time, easpecially if I find a job. So I'll be both learning as I go along and possibly looking for help if it ever gets busy. It's a niche of a niche though, so it'll probably be quiet. I would love a space like this personally, if there are any others like me.

I've listened to this track multiple times today already. Seems to be a brand new artist that I'm definitely gonna keep my eye on.

The absolute state of it. Ever since leaving Reddit a couple of years ago, I've been on a bit of a tour of other platforms. Except Twitter, wasn't ever my style in the first place and based on everything I've seen in screenshots and conversations about, it would just be one big case of rage bait for me, or blocking everyone I see.

And most of it is just a dumpster fire in some way, the mainstream stuff at least. Good content creators, especially once the algorithm knows. But SO many alt right trolls and transphobes and manosphere drones and preachers trying to save souls making most comment sections no go zones. It's all just rage inducing.

And after being away from here for a while, I think I have to accept that this platform is probably always going to be more like the forum sites of old than anything close to Reddit. Which is cool but really needs something extra if you want to somewhat in touch with the world. So at this point, I'm honestly interested in this supposed resurrection of MySpace on the horizon.

Honestly not venting, or trying to incite an angry circlejerk in the comments. Just wanted to dump my observations over these last few years somewhere. It's a sinking ship and looking like the best way forwards is backwards in this case. Back to forums and a MySpace account for friends and not algorithm slop. I'm kinda looking forward to it.

Apparently real Satire of satanic panic propaganda. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Before we had the transgender woke turning kids into violent far left anitifa terrorists, we had:

I hope this isn't photoshop or AI. I haven't done homework to verify this.

Edit: it was bothering me, so I confirmed it. Apparently this particular picture is a Yellow Bellied Toad but multiple types of frogs and toads have varying pupil shapes.