kel smith

The Algorithm and AI have killed my writing practice When I started writing this blog back in 2021, I had a clear intention to share ways in which I had worked to deconstruct and opt out of some of the harmful practices of the status quo under capitalism. I started with education, because that was… Read more: The Algorithm and AI have killed my writing practice

There is a common tendency to treat post-capitalism as something that arrives after or later. It is framed as a future stage; something that follows crisis, collapse, or transition. Capitalism is understood as the present condition; post-capitalism as what replaces it. This framing assumes a linear trajectory. One system gives way to another, and history… Read more: Post-capitalism is not what comes after

Rest is commonly understood as the absence of work: a period of withdrawal, inactivity, or disengagement intended to restore energy. Within contemporary work culture, this form of rest typically appears as recovery from exhaustion—time taken after periods of sustained effort in order to return to baseline functioning. This definition is insufficient. If rest is defined… Read more: Redefining Rest

In a world that tries to serve us absolute truths, it’s important to embrace multiplicity. It is true that atrocities are committed by our governments, and we should not turn a blind eye to the damage done in the name of our freedomANDOur brains and bodies are not meant to hold the sheer volume of… Read more: Multiplicity and the Current State of Things

What do we actually mean when we talk about liberation? Too often the word gets used to describe something closer to personal advancement. A person or a group gains power. Someone gets a seat at the table. A barrier breaks and new people are allowed to participate in systems that were once closed to them.… Read more: Liberation Is Collective

Selling your labour under capitalism is one type of work, but it flavours how we think about and experience all other types of work. When I spend a day doing physical work that I can see and understand — planting, repairing, cooking, building, sharing — I am tired, but not estranged. The effort makes sense.… Read more: Work is not the problem.

When I talk about anti-capitalism, or my anti-capitalist practice, I think it’s important to ground the term. I am not hopeful that we will see an exit from the capitalist system. When I talk about designing for what’s next, I don’t mean that we will move from capitalism into something inherently anti-capitalist. I find that… Read more: Post-Capitalism as a Practice

The phrase “design for decay” first appeared in a substack conversation offered by Anarcasper in response to my unending questions about building new structures inside of the capitalist system. The phrase stuck with me because it named something I had been circling without articulating. Not collapse. Not apocalypse. But erosion. A recognition that whatever comes… Read more: Design for Decay

What does it currently mean to make content for the internet? I’ve been a content creator for over two decades before it was labeled. Since a time before LiveJournal and MySpace, before social media existed in any context, I’ve been blogging and “camgirl”ing since the mid 1990s. Before we wrote for the algorithm, we wrote… Read more: Feeding the Spectacle