There are lots of cultural opposition movements online, like against work exploitation, consumerism, car culture, surveillance, intellectual property, etc. I can find communities on lemmy for all those topics. But regarding a more general opposition to advertisements and marketing, other than the occasional person telling others to use adblockers online (what about ads in every day life?), I fail to see organized attempts to challenge advertisements. There is a lot that can be scrutinized. Ethical concerns such as manipulation, lack of consent and just the simple fact your attention is for sale. The effects range from damage to environment, to our mental health, to harming industries themselves, lowering product quality and maintaining monopolies.


I dont think the main stream will ever meaningfully turn against advertising. We’ve collectively demonstrated that we’re willing to accept advertising and trade our privacy in exchange for free content and services.
That said, the worse the main stream web gets the better the “side web” gets. The good parts of the web will always exist, even if they’re not as popular as they once were.
Do you have any recommendations of cool ‘side web’ sites that are worth visiting?
Not really, although you might try the 512kb club.
https://512kb.club/
Im talking more about technologies and platforms. IRC, XMPP, RSS…