Honestly, if you consider why you were likely attracted to them, it’ll probably beceome clear why they’ll never die. For me it’s DIY culture, something that while available online through personal websites,^[1] within zine culture also comes with the possibility of both arts & crafts as well as meet-space level community events.

Zine culture is about as active as it’s ever been in the subcultures it has always been a part of (punk, diy, activism, etc).

I disagree with the idea that the younger generations (gen y+later) lack media literacy. I’d argue the opposite, actually. The older generations rarely question anything and much of what they were fed was/is clear propaganda for their respective governments. The younger generations spend most of our time online in spaces like this talking to each other about what we believe or consuming media that is divergent from the status quo.

The comment we’re both replying to is a good example of this, I believe. They mention that wanting to change things is often deemed “radical”. I’m an anarcho-communist, not only would the things I believe be classified as radical, I identify with that label myself. And yet there are clearly many more people now who do not identify as radical who seem to share my beliefs. Don’t know what generations y’all belong to, but I’m willing to bet you’re not boomers and Xers seem to be more nihilistic than anything.

If this guy is still alive, I bet he’d really appreciate you telling him he was right. It can be exhausting trying to get people to see the issues in society and having everyone just constantly write you off as crazy. Since you’re here posting this instead of reddit, you’ve probably had that experience yourself since then.

The least they could do is give us the damn body augmentations already. We got all the shitty parts and none of the cool tech.