On one end there’s Riley, wanting to turn back the clock to an age where there were forums and communities freely searchable on the internet, and lamenting centralization.
“I don’t want to do that [joining the fediverse]. I really just want the internet to be fixed”.
On the other end there’s Jakob, making a case that the clock can’t simply be rewinded back, and that the solution for a modern internet without centralization is…a modern internet without centralization.
“You’re like: ‘Hm, my issue is all of these different places are closing off themselves and there’s all this information and stuff on the internet that’s becoming centralized, gated’ - decentralization is what the fediverse is!”
As for Riley’s point about “If I join the fediverse, and no-one’s there, I’m cutting myself off from culture”: This is exactly why these platforms are closing themselves off. They’re seeing that even if people want something different (and Riley has expressed this desire throughout the entire podcast), the fear of not being able to keep our things can be a strong incentive to never improve one’s situation. And there’s no better proof than his own statement. It works.