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Eve Tushnet's avatar

This is interesting, & given the mention of marshes, I'd love to read Scott on the Maroons & similar groups. I will say, though, that "paranoia" is both a) very easy to manipulate, and b) inimical to the compromises that make neighborhood possible. Like, the more people view every pinprick as a crisis, the more every local dispute becomes an existential threat, and soon you have people throwing bricks through windows of places that host drag brunches, etc.

Lol I'll also say that praising righteous paranoia seems likely to feed the thing where people convince themselves that they're actually a targeted minority, so anything they do to other people is just self-defense.... There's an inherent conflict, maybe, between taking the "barbarian" self-protective viewpoint and continuing to try to live in community with that motley crew known as "the neighbors."

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Randall Hayes's avatar

Cory Doctorow channels Robert Heinlein (and Ursula LeGuin) in a novel about exactly this.

https://craphound.com/category/walkaway/

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