we're all running away from everyone forever. it's okay. that's the point. when we get out here we find the people like us.
Also, no one is using Gemini exclusively, the web still exists
What constitutes someone like me?
I absolutely mostly want to hear from people with similar attributes to me, similar fundamental guiding principles about what makes someone good or bad, and so on, but I'd also like to hear from people with very different experiences to me. I don't think these are especially incompatible ideas
So yes, the small internet movement seems to be about esoteric technologies and only people interested in them will join. But I don't see that as exclusionary on a personal level. It's just a weird hobby.
Most people are nothing like me and i've definitely suffered for it. If you don't have that problem maybe you don't need to go looking for people like you.
It is possible to have a community where people disagree, voice their disagreements in a civil manner, and try to understand the other side.
Likewise, it is possible to have a community with a plurality of interests where people explore interests outside of their own.
I suspect the size of the community, rather than exclusivity, is the driving factor. I have lived in small isolated towns a couple of times. These were by no means social utopias, yet I did find that people were more interested in the ideas of other people within their community. This is in stark contrast to the Internet where you look around for communities that reflect yourself, and that are more trigger happy when it comes to dissenters.