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kore OP wrote

One thing for me that is anxiety-inducing is the decoupling of humans and their endeavors and the rest of the Earth. This is similar to the forced desocialization described in the article, though I would like to coin the term of forced "deanimalization" of my self and my body. Being around and with animals, such as playing with dogs or watching ducks float on the water while they watch me sit on a rock reanimalizes or even just reanimates me and gives me a rare chance to exist in front of another animal without being caught up in appearances.

I encourage you to talk about what you're anxious about!

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Fossidarity wrote

I've read this zine about a year ago. It's very good but I felt that some parts near the end were a bit lacking.

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kore OP wrote

I find it to be a perennial shortcoming of critique pieces. If they offer paths forward they're often quite abstract.

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videl wrote

The idea of a dominant affect is useful I think

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celebratedrecluse wrote

Building from that, the idea of polylectic affects may help explain a variety of issues that plague increasingly stratified societies, as well as a clearly divisive "left" or otherwise radical communities.

Crimethinc has, since the transfer of publication power to the newer folks in around there, published a few articles that talk about how the subculturalization of "society" has made Thatcher's statement (there is no society) a self-fulfilling prophecy. Thus, the creation of "anarchist subculture" by people like the early Crimethinc writers/publishers has not fundamentally challenged capitalism, the state, or dominant cultural norms.

What I would argue is that different communities, and even individuals, hold identifiable emotional affects which can be discerned through narrative. Moreover, these affects are bound by situation, and express themselves through conflict. An "affectual polylectic" means the interaction of these affects through a multi-directional intertextual conversation.

For example, this can be very useful when trying to find ways to manage the failures of intersectionality among people who otherwise might be comrades. Ultimately, social conflict as a norm reproduces itself by managing affectual states, and thus communities, into conflict: often with the multifaceted faces of the media. However, if social conflict can be mobilized into concerted action against the norms, finding ways to break down the everyday conflict of the world, there is actual revolutionary potential (and of course, the danger of reaction always looms too).

If you ask me, we should find ways to engage more consciously with the narratives of people from different communities, using this lens of looking for affects which are dominant in a given population, and especially paying close attention to the ways in which these affects can interact negatively between both individuals and groups of people.

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celebratedrecluse wrote

yup, this is one of the most solid essays making the rounds again lately

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