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
TOTW: Heroes, celebrities, and leaders
[ANews ed. - Thanks to anonymous for this guest Topic of the Week submission]
Topic of the Week - TOTW: Heroes, celebrities, and leaders; do we really NEED to kill them?
Is there a properly anarchist way to be or follow a hierarchical authority?
TOTW: Meeting Them Where They're At
- In 1962, Marxist-Leninist group Workers World Party kicked off a decade of anti-war protests which spread to the rest of the English-speaking world.
- Throughout the 1980s, anti-apartheid protests snowballed into a global movement to free the Communist political prisoner Nelson Mandela.
- At the end of the 1990s, communist student groups and NGOs convened to oppose the WTO.
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TotW: Messiness
Anarchists, in my experience, are a mess. And believe it or not, this isn’t a condemnation. Rather, we have much to gain by not shying away from it.
Take chances, make mistakes, get messy! — Ms. Frizzle