A Note for New Readers: This article uses the Affective Socialization Theory (AST) framework, a neuro-materialist science I am developing to explain how our environment physically shapes our behavior. You will see variables like Material Strain (MAT) and Hegemonic Mood Climate (HMC) used throughout. If you are new to the theory, you can find the full glossary and research at [Here].
Apparently, Benjamin Netanyahu might not be with us anymore. Recently, an AI-generated video showing Netanyahu with six fingers circulated online, sparking sensationalist rumors that the footage was released to cover up his death or incapacitation.
While the internet obsesses over the fate of one man, I need liberals to pay very close attention to what this actually means: absolutely nothing. Liberalism routinely makes the fatal mistake of pathologizing individual leaders while completely ignoring the structural architecture that produces them. The liberal narrative dictates that if it weren’t for Netanyahu, the genocide in Gaza wouldn’t have happened, and the regional escalation with Iran would be resolved. But Affective Socialization Theory (AST) provides the empirical proof that removing a leader does not dismantle a colonial architecture. The violence we are witnessing is not the choice of a single individual; it is the biologically inevitable output of a settler-colonial project designed to dispossess an entire population of their land and resources.
The Structural Necessity of Violence
A state built on the active dispossession of another people is neuro-affectively incapable of peace. It cannot peacefully co-exist with its neighbors, and it certainly cannot co-exist with the people it is actively displacing. To maintain the theft of land, the colonial state must enforce a hyper-coercive Class Character of Context (CCC).
To secure its borders, the state must artificially engineer catastrophic Material Strain (MAT) against the colonized population. By systematically destroying housing, hospitals, and food networks, the state intentionally pushes the colonized population past the critical MAT threshold, where the nervous system is either forced into a state of resistance, or into the Dorsal Vagal “Red Zone” of total survival shutdown. This is not an accidental casualty of war; it is the deliberate environmental engineering of human biology to ensure that collective agency remains physically impossible.
The Fascist Trap and the Yellow Zone
But what about the citizens of the colonial state? How does an entire population normalize this level of violence? AST identifies this as the “Fascist Trap.”
To justify its endless militarization, the settler-colonial state must keep its own population in a chronic state of fear. By generating extreme Hegemonic Volatility (HV) (the constant, unpredictable threat of conflict), the state locks its citizens in the sympathetic “Yellow Zone.” When a nervous system is chronically activated in threat-detection mode, it naturally craves any structure it can find to give it that stability even if that means justifying state violence and dehumanizing others. The state utilizes the spoils of imperialism (massive US military and economic funding) to act as an “imperial cushion,” lowering the objective material strain for the settler, but tying that security entirely to the subjugation of the Palestinian people.
The Reproduction of the Genocidal Psyche
This brings us to the most disturbing element: the generational reproduction of the genocidal psyche. The Hegemonic Mood Climate (HMC) of a colonial state acts as a massive, continuous Socialization Exposure Dose (SED’) for its children.
We have all seen the videos of Israeli children in schools cheerfully singing about erasing Gaza or expressing a desire to take all the land. This is not a matter of “bad ideas” or simple bigotry; this is the physical Affective Consolidation of the human nervous system. From infancy, these children are wired with a Predatory Agency Expectancy (AE). They are biologically taught that their only path to agency, safety, and survival is through the destruction of another population. During the onset of metacognition, these experiences act as “Affective Anchors,” hardening a baseline personality built on colonial violence that can only be changed by intensive, targeted re-socialization; which is not available
Why the Colonial State Has No “Right to Exist”
When we state that Israel, as a settler-colonial project, has no “right to exist,” it seems like liberals just start pearl-clutching with no further analysis; but under the AST framework, we are making a rigorous, scientific claim about neuro-developmental toxicity.
A state apparatus that requires the active genocide of one population to maintain the “security” of another is an engine of Affective Devolution. It forces humanity to operate collectively in the predatory Yellow Zone, actively preventing the formation of a macro-level Green Zone where true collective learning and cooperation can occur.
It is vital to distinguish that this is not a religious conflict, but a structural one. Even Palestinian Jews find themselves marginalized by an architecture that demands absolute ethnic hierarchy to function. If a single state existed where every person (regardless of origin or religion) shared equal democratic rights, secure housing, and material stability, the Material Strain (MAT) would plummet, allowing Collective Agency Expectancy (AE) to flourish. However, the current state apparatus exists specifically to prevent that stability, as its very survival depends on the permanent maintenance of inequality.
Combatting Liberalism
We must combat the liberal fallacy that demands “non-violence” while ignoring the crushing structural violence of the status quo. The liberal believes we can simply vote out the bad actors or debate the colonial state into a peaceful two-state compromise.
Affective Socialization Theory proves that you cannot debate a consolidated neural pathway. You cannot negotiate with a state architecture that is biologically wired for Predatory AE. The structural containment and total dismantling of the settler-colonial apparatus is not an act of malice; it is a neuro-political necessity. To protect the human nervous system and build a future rooted in Collective Agency, the coercive architecture of colonialism must be entirely dismantled.
Dive into the full AST framework on my website here: Affective Socialization Theory
References
Tamargo, A. (2026). Affective Socialization Theory: A unified model of behavior (Part 1: Neural wiring & the recursive system). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18514658
