My point is, is there is a vibe in those zines from the mid-90s to the early 2000s that is unique to that time period, and if you were not there in that time period, making those zines with the resources available in the culture that you found there, and you tried to replicate that now, you would be a poser.
Because there is something special about that time period. Just like if you tried to recreate the shenanigans of Monty Python nowadays with a new skit show and new actors, even if you had the same comedic chops it wouldn’t hit because the culture is different.
A dead budgie sketch is not going to land as anything better than an homage to the dead parrot sketch, and it would have to be amazing to be counted as an homage.
You seem to misunderstand that I am not saying you can’t make zines now. I’m saying you can’t make THOSE zines now.
There are plenty of cultures to tap into and zines to be made and periods of self-expression that have yet to be touched by humankind. And I understand what you’re saying, but my point is you cannot make those zines anymore without being a poser.
They’ve patched out Captain Crunch.
Pay phones don’t work on pulse tone modulation anymore.
People don’t rig together phreak boxes out of busted phones and 9 volt batteries. They use fucking zero-bit flippers bought from AliBaba and shipped over from China, and then they use that to de-auth people’s Wi-Fi so they can sneak in their own access points onto their credentials and set up a rebroadcaster so they can torrent without a VPN.
It is a completely different scene.
Even phreak has an official magazine now that’s been running for 40 fucking years and the modern magazine is nothing like the original. 2600 is a shell of its former glory, even though it’s still cool.
If you still can’t understand what I’m saying at this point, then there is no explaining it to you.
Its blasphemy.