Chaos and Conviviality

On this episode of Chaos and Conviviality, Dip and Scooter discuss the Chaos and Conviviality’s open call for submissions.

See time stamps below:

• 0:40: Call for submissions
• 9:25: Discussing the theme
• 14:00: Honorarium details
• 15:10: Building the C&C universe/community
• 16:15: Tips for submitting
• 20:40: Our dreams for this issue

Please see the call for submissions here. If you have questions, you can reach us at [email protected].

On this episode of Chaos and Conviviality, Dip and Scooter discuss the looming threat of El Niño and the need to build communal climate resilience.

See time stamps below:

• 1:20: Defining El Niño and discussing recent updates
• 4:00: Should we be scared?
• 8:20: All the (climate) solutions are already here
• 11:10: Discussing Dip’s the essay
• 15:10: What about the AMOC collapse?
• 17:25: Dip shares some inspiring community responses
• 24:55: What folks often miss when calling for communal climate resilience

This conversation is adapted from an essay linked here. 

Highlighted show notes (for full references/links, see the essay):

• El Nino set to return as early as May, impacting global weather patterns, UN weather agency says
• The Solutions are Already Here: Strategies of Ecological Revolution from Below
• A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster 
• Super El Niño: What it could mean for US weather, global heat and daily life
• World enters era of ‘global water bankruptcy’

On this episode of Chaos and Conviviality, Dip and Scooter discuss the re-emerging wave of “bad internet bills” across the United States and the world. Dip explores what organizing against these restrictive internet policies might look like.

See time stamps below:

00:00: Introduction to Bad Internet Bills

25:50: The need for popular power in fighting these bills

30:00: Hot Take: Concern around social media addiction is a moral panic

43:15: Technology being used to manipulate genuine social grievances is not new

54:05: How to relate to tech in a helpful/positive direction

1:18:53: With popular power, what could a strategy to push bad on these bills look like?

1:23:00: The importance of genuine accountability in building popular power

This conversation is adapted from an essay linked here. 

Highlighted show notes (for full references/links, see the essay):

• Bad Internet Bills
• Blood in My Eye by George Jackson
• Seeing like a State by James C. Scott
• Low Tech Magazine
• Egoism and Cooperation

On this episode of Chaos and Conviviality, Dip and Scooter discuss current proposals to put data centers in space, an idea which would seem to be a win-win for communities and data center developers. They analyze the push to adopt "artificial development," what it means for our communities, and how to fight back.

See time stamps below:

• 16:17: Are there any benefits of AI?
• 24:20: Indigeneity and space
• 27:38: Data centers in space: good for communities?
• 34:00: What might organizing in space look like?
• 55:35: AI bubble?

Highlighted show notes (for full show notes, see the webpage):

• Meet Project Suncatcher, Google’s plan to put AI data centers in space
• In Kenya’s slums, they’re doing our digital dirty work
• How Elon Musk’s Sci-Fi Hyperloop Failed
• Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052-2072, by Eman Abdelhadi and M. E. O'Brien
• Circular Vendor Financing in the AI Sector (includes graphic mentioned in conversation)
• Building the Structure of the New Society Within the Shell of the Old 

On this episode of Chaos and Conviviality, Dip details GamerGate 1.0, and 2.0 and discusses the the linkages between "core gamer" culture and fascism. Dip shares some suggestions on how to combat right-wing influence in gaming through a four-point framework: build, fight, empower, and inspire. This framework, paired with values that see the importance in ending domination, oppression, and other forms of social hierarchy, have the chance to both create better art and steward better communities around that art. 

See time stamps below:

10:00: GamerGate 1.0 and 2.0

29:25: Getting past "nostalgia" in gaming

45:10: A framework to move gaming forward

Highlighted show notes (for full references/links, see the podcast webpage):

• They Fought for Diversity in Gaming. Then the Abuse Began
• How The Games Industry Failed Black Women
• 'Blood, Sweat, And Pixels': For Designers Of Video Games, It's Always Crunch Time
• The Combahee River Collective Statement

On this episode of Chaos and Conviviality, Dip analyzes the US government’s move from a mostly “rules-based”, “rational” “management” posture in international policy to something more forceful, using the Trump admin’s “peace plans” for Palestine, Sudan, Western Sahara, and Ukraine, alongside the strong-arming of Venezuela. Dip concludes that liberalism vs. fascism is not a battle between the forces of “good” and “evil”; it is reactionary, statist infighting. Dip wraps up by offering guidance on how our movements can move forward. 

See time stamps below:

1:55: Host intros

3:20: Overview

4:00 Palestine

10:00: Sudan 

15:45: Western Sahara

21:45: Ukraine

27:10 : Venezuela 

29:40: Analysis

39:15: The role of spectacle in fascism   

42:20: What does this mean for us?

50:15: Deliberation

52:00: Stigmergy

57:00: Enmeshment

58:45: Why these three things? and reading recommendations 

1:05:10: What else?

1:10:45: Dip takes us home

This conversation is adapted from an essay linked here. 

Highlighted show notes (for full references/links, see the essay):

• Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown
• Stigmergic Revolution
• Intimate Direct Democracy by Modibo Kadalie
• Move Like Mycorrhizae   

On this episode of Chaos and Conviviality, Dip analyzes Zohran Mamdani's NYC mayoral win and the counter-insurgent nature of 'reform' strategies. Dip ends by  proposing a bottom-up engagement that centers popular power.

See time stamps below:

12:30: Distinction between progressives and radicals

19:00: Radical reasoning is abductive

21:30: What do we do?

28:35: How do we relate to electoralism generatively?

32:50: Defining politics and power

38:50: Money as power via federations of cooperatives

44:50: The role of community assemblies

51:40: Highlighting the importance of addressing people's material needs

55:05: Summarizing Dip's proposed anti-electoralist electoral strategy

58:05: Discussing remaining questions to be answered

This conversation is adapted from an essay linked here. 

Highlighted show notes (for full references/links, see the essay):

• Socialists in City Hall? A New Look at Sewer Socialism in Wisconsin
• Contra Contra: What does it mean to actually want power?
• Dual Power: A Strategy To Build Socialism In Our Time
• Systemic Consensing
• STAR voting
• On the Origins of the Professional-Managerial Class: An Interview with Barbara Ehrenreich
• Race, Class, and Empire: Reading J. Sakai’s ‘Settlers’