But as the dream of inevitable progress by doing good failed to materialize in most of the world, the political tenor has decidedly shifted away from the 20th century heydays of liberalism, inclusive globalism, and cosmopolitan network culture toward a balkanization of the political and cultural map.

Similar projects online and off followed suit as countries like India, Singapore, and EU began to make rules concerning how data was shared, what apps were allowed in their territory, and demanding that online infrastructure at least partially reflected the value of the state.

The west had “won” the Cold War and now a global consensus had halted the march of historical change as everyone settled into a unified global liberal economic, political, and social order.

What is happening now in the US (the soft power of Silicon Valley teaming up with the hard power of President Trump) does not herald a new world order on its own. It’s the West following suit into a new fragmented world order that the rest of the world has already been moving towards years before by architecting its infrastructure around cultural

At the same time the mechanisms, media, and institutions that previously were charged with creating some kind of consensus amongst society began dissolving.

As these online spaces become the predominant place where younger generations get their media, the big tent information of the clearnet, of mass media, of consensus middle gets hollowed out.

to the Dark Forest of the internet; off mainline socials where their speech and behavior was broadcast to anyone and into small niche communities on invite-only forums, p2p networks, and group chats.

• Brands and platforms emerge that propose a new economic model for creatives, a clear codex of what is good and bad within their system, a moral compass, such as Metalabel or Subvert.

• Crypto goes deeper into the Right-coded direction of Bitcoinmaxxies, memecoin grifters and anti-government types. While Ethereum, the more pro-social / governance

Going dark is one strategy of the savvy and privileged.