Clarification:
I know he’s Big Brother’s lackey, but lately I’ve been really lacking communication, apparently I’ve fallen for this hook.
I haven’t been able to find any real-life communication for years now, but I’ve been increasingly reluctant to risk communicating while Big Brother is watching. There are good alternatives to Discord?
It really depends on the channel, but sadly, mostly no. I am in one cool one that is part of the tildes network, and I am in lots of ones on libera, but they are less active than they were 20 years ago. There are still many people on there, and it is a good vibe. Especially if you want to chat about programming or FOSS stuff.
If you try it and like it, it is worthwhile to configure a always-on connection that you can detach and reattach to - which is how discord and everything modern works. IRC being old means it is an extra thing to do, bit well worth it! Some people never go that route though.