How Social Media Affords Populist Politics: Remarks on Liminality Based on the Brazilian Case

Abstract

In the past decade or so, populism and social media have been outstanding issues both in academia and the public sphere. At this point, evidence from multiple countries suggest that perceived parallels between the dynamics of social media and the mechanics of populist discourse may be more than just incidental, relating to a shared structural field. This article suggests one possible path towards making sense of how the dynamics of social media and the mechanics of populist mobilization have co-produced each other in the last decade or so. Navigating the interface between anthropology and linguistics, it takes key aspects of Victor Turner’s notion of liminality to suggest some of the ways in which social media’s anti-structural affordances may help lay a foundation for the contemporary flourishing of populist discourse: markers of social structure are suspended; communitas is formed; the culture core is addressed; mimesis and anti-structural inversions are performed; subjects become influenceable. I elaborate on this claim based on Brazilian materials, drawn from online ethnography on pro-Bolsonaro WhatsApp groups and other platforms such as Twitter and Facebook since 2018.

Cultural Affordances and Social Media

“…Several studies suggest that the features of social media platforms play an important role in terms of maintaining traditional cultural values as well as forming new ones [14,43,50,54,55,57,62]. Exemplifying the first case, Holmes, Balnaves, and Wang [36] argue that WeChat leads Chinese society "towards traditional Chinese values" rather than "Western-style democracy" (p.9).…”

A literacia e seus desafios

“…A mesma revista também publicou um artigo reconhecendo os sérios riscos institucionais resultantes das ações do governo federal (BARBERIA; GÓMEZ, 2020; ver também OSBORN; 2020). E um artigo publicado em uma famosa revista mundial de saúde foi intitulado "Governando a COVID-19 sem governo no Brasil: Ignorância, autoritarismo neoliberal e o colapso da liderança da saúde pública" (Governing COVID-19 without Segundo vários estudiosos, todas estas medidas (ou ausência de medidas) ilustram o "caos como método" para manter a lealdade dos seguidores e disseminar a desinformação (e.g., CESARINO, 2020;MEYER;BUSTAMANTE, 2020;NOBRE, 2019;SILVA, 2020). Outros estudiosos insistem no fato de que faz parte de uma estratégia "necropolítica", uma "necropotência" como definida pelo filósofo e teórico político camaronês Achille Mbembe (2006), ele mesmo inspirado pela noção de "biopotência" de Foucault (1976).…”

July/August 2020 Print Issue: Vote

“…Gestalt-based color and image association, heavy reliance on audio and visual language, and reverse mimesis of the enemy (same form with inverted content) enticed audiences toward visceral belonging to one group, and equally visceral repulsion toward the other. This grammar, I have suggested, was itself replicated subconsciously, by mobilizing people through both negative and positive affect, emerging socialities, and deeply embodied personal and group identities (Cesarino 2019;2020b). Politics and entertainment, fact and fiction, collapsed into a campaign where voters were called on by their peers to join in a life-and-death struggle to protect the country from a common enemy or to help Bolsonaro win what felt like a highly competitive FIFA World Cup final.…”