The Genocidal Neuro-Architecture: Why Israel Has No Right to Exist
Updated and expanded: A definitive neuro-materialist breakdown of the colonial state, the "Fascist Trap," and the biological necessity of resistance.
A Note for New Readers: This is the definitive, expanded version of a piece I briefly published last week. It 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].
Some people believe Netanyahu is dead, and some say he’s fled. 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. Even now, almost a week later, the Israeli media is releasing more videos trying to prove he is alive and well, and still people are comparing it with other images, pointing out what they identify as proof that it is just another AI image.
While the internet obsesses over the fate of one man, I think it is an important time to remind people that the death of Netanyahu does not change anything in Israel. It does not stop the atrocities from continuing or usher in the possibility of a new era; no matter how much liberals would like to believe.
Liberalism, which focuses on abstract individualism and idealism, offers an easy escape from any kind of social accountability or obligation to the rest of society. This ideology, this worldview, convinces people that showing up every few years to vote for “the other side” (regardless of the fact that the overwhelming majority of the policies of these politicians don’t actually benefit them), and spending the rest of the time in between virtue signaling, is somehow ‘all that we can do.’ By accepting this ‘logic,’ the cognitive load of the Liberal is lessened, and they have more energy to philosophize at brunch and enjoy their… um… whatever the hell they eat at brunch. It is a biological defense mechanism to preserve cognitive power weaponized by the Coercive Class Character of Context that capitalism creates.
Liberals will assert that the genocide in Gaza is all “because of Netanyahu.” They will say that this war with Iran that the US and Israel just started is an unfortunate outcome of the wrong individual coming into power; and this is where I have to make a very important point to liberals directly: if he is gone, and nothing changes, what does that tell you? If you are honest with yourself you would have to admit that there is some bigger problem that the Palestinian people face than the cartoonishly evil machinations of one man. It is a structural issue.
Affective Socialization Theory (AST) empirically demonstrates how the idea of a change in the figurehead of the colonial state changing the systematic, overarching policy of the colonial state of genocidal violence is fundamentally flawed. The Neuro-sociological architecture of the colonial state rests upon a contradiction of the settler-colonial goal of greater regional dominion over the land and resources, and the survival of the way of life, and indeed the very life of, the indigenous people that the colonial state inherently dispossesses.
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 and maintain its culturally-engineered subjective goals, the state must artificially engineer catastrophic Material Strain (MAT) against the colonized population. By systematically destroying housing, hospitals, and food networks, the colonial state intentionally pushes the indigenous population into a survival mode, what AST would call the “Red Zone;” it is the point of learned helplessness where the nervous system prioritizes conserving energy (shutting down), based on a learned sense that their attempts to influence the world around them and their circumstances, which reinforces as a neural pathway over time.
If this were the end of the analysis though, there would be no hope; the compounding nature of the effects of the neuro-architecture of the settler-colonial state would ensure continuous reproduction of their dominance, eventually guaranteeing all of the oppressed people would be infected with this enforced learned helplessness; and this does seem to be the hopeful aim of the settler state, but it is not the only effect their subjugation of the indigenous people creates.
The much more inspiring psychological phenomenon that occurs as a result of this systemic oppression, one that’s occurrence has historically shown to be correlational to the severity and consistency of the oppression, is what AST calls the “Amygdala Override. Marx conceptualized this dialectically when he wrote in the Communist Manifesto that the capitalist class produces their own gravediggers and since then it has become known as the “Gravedigger Hypothesis.” While Marx provided the initial conceptualization through using the scientific analysis of historical and dialectical materialism, AST is attempting to operationalize this into an empirically testable, falsifiable scientific proof using advancements in the modern field of neuroscience, forming the “Neuro-Gravedigger Hypothesis.” This hypothesis looks to identify the predictable, reproducible (or consistently shown) point at which the nervous system decides that compliance to the enforced authority is no longer the best survival strategy; that resisting this authority, even actively working against it, is necessary for survival.
The Fascist Trap and the Yellow Zone
This is where we have to really ask ourselves, are the Israeli citizens really just this “evil?” How can we even attempt to rationalize the fact that language like “no Palestinians are innocent” has become normalized under the genocidal colonial regime with no self awareness? Well, a study released in 2024 showed that the majority of Israelis believe the Palestinian people harbor genocidal intent towards them, but why? AST identifies the answer 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 (seemingly infinite US military and economic support) 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 fatal dialectical contradiction of this entire system is thus laid out: the colonial state claims its primary goal is to keep its citizens safe, yet its policies neurobiologically guarantee their perpetual insecurity.
You cannot bomb and starve a population indefinitely without eventually hitting the biological tripwire of the Amygdala Override. The extreme violence the state inflicts on the indigenous population ensures the eventual, explosive violent resistance of the oppressed; not as a matter of ideology, but as a biological mandate for survival. The state then uses the very resistance it neurologically engineered to keep its own citizens terrified, justifying endless militarization. The colonial architecture does not provide a safe haven; it is a neuro-biological prison for everyone involved. To maintain the occupation, the state must keep its own people locked in the hyper-vigilant Yellow Zone, constantly hijacking their capacity for empathy, collective reasoning, and genuine peace. The state neurologically devolves its own population, turning them into biological agents of the empire, while ensuring they will never actually be safe from the Amygdala Override they are forcing upon their neighbors.
The Reproduction of the Genocidal Psyche
This brings us to the compounding variable: 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 provides a scientific model with hard math showing that you cannot debate a consolidated neural pathway. You cannot negotiate with a state architecture that is biologically wired for Predatory AE. The total dismantling of the settler-colonial state apparatus is not political extremism, or even anywhere remotely similar to the systemic erasure of culture the colonial state engages in; it is a neuro-political necessity based on scientific evidence of the compounding nature of the inherent genocidal conclusion of the subjective goals of the colonial state which reproduces itself throughout the generations through Affective Socialization. To protect the human nervous system (which then in turn, protects human life from human predation) and build a future rooted in Collective Agency, the coercive architecture of colonialism must be entirely dismantled.
Although it may seem insurmountable; Though it may seem like such a hard task that you feel your nervous system begging you to drift back into accepting capitalist reformism, liberal idealism, or the idea that one man is the sole reason for the violence a settler-colonial state commits; I urge you to consider the fact that shifting your mental framing of how to view this problem to the level of your own local community could be what allows for that neurobiological resistance you feel to subside, and for a new empowering, purposeful phase of your life can begin. I don’t just say this rhetorically; I am telling you that based on the convergence of research in sociology, psychology, and now even more recently neurobiology, the act of taking part in community organizations that lower your Material Strain (MAT), decrease Hegemonic Volatility (HV), and provide an enabling Class Character of Context (CCC) will rewire your brain with the tools necessary to be a true revolutionary. When we establish these community organizations simultaneously across the country, we create the neuro-affective possibility of societal level Collective Agency Expectancy (CAE). This newfound, societal-wide, collective understanding that we have the ability to all work together to completely change our structure of our socio-economic reality to one that truly grants agency and democracy equitably for all; this is what will enable the revolution. It will enable fast, decisive political action which that can only come from a population neurologically prepared to exercise that agency to not just vote once and hope that the one of the two parties will represent their interests, but to participate in a continuous dialectical process of democratic planning, implementation, and revising. Taking part of these deliberate, empirically backed, scientific methods to bring about Collective Agency Expectancy is how we can build the power to truly dismantle the neuro-architecture of settler-colonialism and begin building a truly equitable world.
Check out the full AST framework on my website here: Affective Socialization Theory
References
Institute for Strategic Dialogue. (2025, July 24). ‘No innocents’: The collective blame of Palestinians online. https://www.isdglobal.org/digital-dispatch/no-innocents-the-collective-blame-of-palestinians-online/
Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, & International Program in Conflict Resolution and Mediation at Tel Aviv University. (2024, September 12). Palestinian-Israeli pulse: A joint poll. https://www.pcpsr.org/sites/default/files/Summary%20Report_%20English_Joint%20Poll%2012%20Sept%202024.pdf
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