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By placing Homo sapiens center stage, the Anthropocene also deepens a stark and inaccurate distinction between humanity and the planet that sustains us. The idea of “nature” as something separate from humankind is a figment of the Western imagination. We should be wary of language that further separates us from the broader constellation of life to which we belong.
Opinion | Scientists Just Gave Humanity an Overdue Reality Check. The World Will Be Better for It. - The New York Times
Stephen Lezak
This fantasy is fast becoming a reality. In late 2022, social media was inundated with iridescent, smoothed-out, slimmed-down versions of friends, family members, and online acquaintances who had succumbed to the “magic avatar” craze. They had uploaded ten photos of themselves to the app Lensa, and, in return for supplying this precious data, had received these avatar versions of themselves: sleeker, CGI-like (and, often, whiter and more overtly sexualized than the photos the simulations were based upon).
Twitter’s default cynical mode, in this sense, much like Fisher’s personal depression, was not just an issue of social etiquette or individual ego, but of capitalism’s tandem deflation of political consciousness and agency.
Mark Fisher and Russell Brand (Again): With a Note on Talking to the Brick Wall
xenogothic
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