TOTW: Wither Theory?
TOTW: On the creation of an anarchist culture
Topic of the Week - The our culture of systematic hierarchy and exploitation has permeated every aspect of our way of life to the point where one feel as though they must tread water or drown in it. The infrastructure of this machine of slavery and death is now actively implementing a new greater totalized state of centralization and control. Even within individuals these prisons are being built and rebuilt. On every level the society arounds us seeks to make us expandable pieces in its own mechanized self-perpetuation to the point where every other lifeway is foreclosed upon or recuperated into its function so that not only is going along with the program always easier feeling, but we are rapidly approaching a either such diffused spectacular culture that there are shrinkly few ways not to be a patriot or a brutal and violent reconstruction of the settler-colonial white supremacist core of the empire, at expense of all others. Each of these paths does little to mitigate the problems that spawned them. In this increasing state of normalized exceptions anarchists are pulled into the universalization of this process through the recuperation of their subcultures and the rejection of the now carved out hollow paths of subcultural divergence.
ToTW: Work! What is it and do we have to do it!?
TOTW: The Debate
Debates have been been a fixture in the world of ideas ever since the second person to have an idea. It's been mostly downhill since then.
TOTW: Has Anarchist Muay Thai Gone Too Far? Some Questions for the movement
Guest Topic of the Week entry chosen by thecollective from Anathema Volume 11 Issue 1 Summer 2025 - Has Anarchist Muay Thai Gone Too Far? Some Questions for the movement
A quick note: Anarchist martial arts culture is a new phenomenon in the United States. It is generally a welcome one in the author’s view. Here’s a few questions the author is pondering.
TOTW: Doing It Ourselves
"If you wish to make a molotov cocktail from scratch, you must first invent the universe" - Carl Sagan, Seattle '99
Anarchists have been known to attempt to sever their dependence on dominant structures. For some this is a massive effort, like a revolution against global capital or insurrection to wear away at industry itself. For others this is more meaningful on the local scale, like cracking a squat or starting a community garden.
Today let's focus on the smaller end of that spectrum. Let's talk about doing it all ourselves!
TOTW: Recuperation and Social Signaling
Been reading and listening to people (notably Naomi Klein in Doppleganger but some youtubers as well) talk about how there is a growing tendency for valuable words and concepts to be coopted by our enemies or at least our non-friends. Fake news, The Other/othering, woke, and mutual aid are just a few of the ideas that have been (or are being) made into signifiers for people who we strongly disagree with.
Two part question then:
TotW: Fear and its Discontents
How do we, how do you, deal with fear?
I want to do things that I am scared to do. By this I mean many things. I want to do things that scare me for personal growth, because dealing with fear makes me more capable and also more interesting to myself. I want to do things that scare me because I think that those things are challenges to the fucked up society that I live in. I want to do things that scare me because confronting fear with other people is a bonding exercise.
TOTW: Hierarchy Is Just Fear in a Suit
Emergent temporary leadership beats hierarchy