We are living in an age of upheaval. And the future is becoming ever more visible. You can see it in people, initiatives and technology already doing things a little differently today. You may not spot it straight away. But once you pay attention, you see it everywhere. Our conviction is simple: whatever contributes to a future with more freedom, equality and justice must grow bigger, and whatever stands in its way must be torn down. That is the work of Post-X Society.
Where we stand
Democracy is not a given. You have to maintain it continuously, and sometimes reshape it. If we don’t, power shifts to places without oversight or dissent. To opaque algorithms, to a handful of multinationals, to autocrats, or to systems we have no say over. Market power, technological power and state power are merging in an ominous way.
Our research shows the consequences. Tech companies, for instance, think they no longer have to account for anything. They imagine themselves above the law. For example, they left 97 per cent of the unlawful content we reported online. At the 2026 municipal council elections they also left illegal advertisements untouched. Meanwhile, the Democratie Monitor, which we co-founded, showed that the system meant to correct this, our democratic constitutional state, does not pass its check-up. Politics itself is becoming more radical and more extreme, and the room for civil-society organisations is shrinking.
This is no unfortunate coincidence. It is not a force of nature. It is the result of choices. Choices not to regulate, not to enforce, to go for the cheapest or easiest option, to treat technology as if it were neutral.
This is where we stand now. The good news is that we can also make other choices.
Our starting point: the X
People often think change means you have to swap A for B. That is not how it works. B is often already here, just still small. What it needs in order to grow is more money, more attention, more people, a stronger network. At the same time, the old does not disappear on its own. You have to tear it down actively, with research, with rules, with enforcement and with pressure.
These two movements cross each other. That crossing forms an X. The X stands for: we build what comes next, and we tear down what holds us back.
The X has a second meaning too. We are working towards a society that is post-capitalism, post-patriarchy, post-colonialism, post-reality, post-climate crisis, post-fear, and so on. A single fitting label for that society does not yet exist. That is why we call it post-X society. As soon as we have found the label, we will change our name.
In all of this we always ask the same question: what does this change do to power? How is it distributed, and how is it held to account? Who gets a say? Who decides? Who wins, and who loses? Changes are never neutral. They are always a distribution of power.
On to the world we do want
In our work we look at the same crossroads through three lenses.
Post-reality. The virtual and the artificial increasingly determine how we see the world. That calls for finding new forms of connection, trust and responsibility. It requires, for example, being allowed to look over the algorithms’ shoulder. It calls for a new take on resilience.
Post-capitalism. An economy built on endless growth and enrichment harms us all. We need to find new ways of valuing things. An economy in which value is shared fairly and the damage to the planet counts.
Post-tyranny. Technology must never rule over us. We want technology that we own and govern ourselves. That is why we build free, open alternatives, and a cooperative cloud that no one can simply buy up or switch off.
These three lenses are not separate departments. They are ways of looking at the same question: whose is the future?
How we work
Post-X Society is not a rigid institution, but an eclectic workshop. We are a transition incubator where initiatives emerge, grow and branch out. We deliberately keep the contours vague, but the outcomes are very concrete. Take, for instance, HEIO, which watches over the online integrity of elections. The Democratie Monitor checks the health of our democracy. Vrije Cloud is building digital independence.
We are a do-group. We believe that those who do, decide. We find it too easy just to point a finger at what is going wrong. That gets us nowhere. We build the alternative, to investigate how it can be done and to show that it can. We work like hackers: we see through systems, make them our own and share what we build, openly and verifiably. We ground our work in evidence, not gut feeling.
That is how we work on both legs of the X. Tearing down and building at the same time.
Get involved
There is no shortage of reports, analyses and theories. Often we know what is going wrong, and we know how it could be different. What is missing is the capacity to get to work.
The good part: you don’t have to wait for systemic change. You can live in the future already. Join us, come to one of our gatherings, help build. Because in the end every change comes down to people. The more people take part, the bigger that future becomes.