Kirk
No, you can't. You can have a custom domain ("PDS" is the term they invented for this) but it still relies on bluesky's servers.
Don't let them distract with with the "whattabout matrix". The Matrix Foundation is not a social media company, and furthermore it's a nonprofit.
You are correct. The term is called "openwashing". Now and then bluesky ~~employees~~ cultists will come on Lemmy and mastodon and try to LARP that their for-profit company has our best interests in mind.
BlueSky is centralized.
It comes from this 2019 post by Mike Masnick.
Unfortunately the atprotocol is more like Profits > People > Platforms
Absolutely I was not trying to take away from your point! Cory Doctorow actually recently wrote a good piece on Wikipedia that you reminded me of.
I agree with your overall point, but Wikipedia has a singular mission. Social settings can have wildy different missions from shitposting, to hobbies, study groups, to support groups, etc. There is no singular moderation ethos that can apply to all of them, that's why decentralization is important in social media.
We want to algorithms to work for the people, not have people slaving for the algorithms.
I agree, atomic distos have allowed me to make the switch and are better and easier than windows and even macos.