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To say that historical conditions made personal life possible, and with it the self-consciousness that allowed psychoanalysis to emerge, is to tell half the story: one also has to consider that the erotic impulse, ever pressing for satisfaction, had something to do with making the history that encouraged its expression.

— Ellen Willis

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Individuals bearing witness do not change history; only movements that understand their social world can do that.

Individuals bearing witness cannot do the work of social movements, but they can break a corrosive and demoralizing silence.

In practice, attempts to sort out good erotica from bad porn inevitably comes down to "What turns me on is erotic; what turns you on is pornographic."

Today, anxiety is a first principle of social life, and the right knows how to exploit it. Capital foments the insecurity that impels people to submit to its demands.

By definition, the conventional wisdom of the day is widely accepted, continually reiterated and regarded not as ideology but as reality itself. Rebelling against "reality," even when its limitations are clearly perceived, is always difficult.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Ellen Willis (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.