Abstract
Critical assessments of the recent resurgence of right-wing nationalism have rightly highlighted the role of social media in these troubling times, yet they are constrained by an overemphasis on celebrity leaders defined as populists. This article departs from a leader-centric analysis and the liberal frame that still largely informs assessment of political action, to foreground “fun” as a salient aspect of right-wing mobilization. Building on ethnographic fieldwork among the Hindu nationalists in India, I argue that fun is a metapractice that shapes the interlinked practices of fact-checking, abuse, assembly, and aggression among online volunteers for the right-wing movement. Furthermore, fun remains crucial for an experience of absolute autonomy among online users in ideological battles. Providing the daily drip feed for exclusion, fun as a metapractice bears a formal similarity to objectivity in its performative effects of distance and deniability.
Item Type: | Journal article |
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Form of publication: | Publisher's Version |
Keywords: | online nationalism; fun; media practice; Hindu nationalism; India; extreme speech |
Faculties: | Cultural Studies |
Subjects: | 300 Social sciences > 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology |
URN: | urn:nbn:de:bvb:19-epub-69633-9 |
ISSN: | 1932-8036 |
Language: | English |
Item ID: | 69633 |
Date Deposited: | 12. Nov 2019, 06:39 |
Last Modified: | 04. Nov 2020, 13:51 |