Thread by @docrussjackson

'The capitalist ideology of class mobility remains, but COVID makes the idea that it's the INDIVIDUAL’s fault they're not doing better economically less convincing - the pandemic makes it clear that objective conditions are responsible for an individual’s economic misfortune'.

"Given that many people now spend most of their days on the internet to meet their social needs, the culture industry, which bombards us with ads whenever we are online, has an even stronger and more intrusive presence in our lives than Adorno could have imagined."

"Today’s culture industry... has now more opportunities to mutilate our critical thinking, atrophy our imagination, & silence our critical voice, so we cannot imagine anything beyond what the culture industry impels us to want & buy."

'The internet savvy extremist right try to catch new followers & capture people’s minds precisely with the technology that contributes towards stifling critical thought, & that its psychologically oriented propaganda tricks work with the same tricks as advertising'.

Thinkers informed by psychoanalytic theory, like Adorno & Lacan, talk about 'castration anxiety' - not *literal castration*, but fear of losing what is most valued in capitalist society (power, status, wealth, health etc). COVID has heightened 'castration anxiety'.

The coronavirus pandemic has activated mass anxiety, & it is anxiety which activates our defence mechanisms (that help us to cope with our anxieties), & perhaps the core defence mechanisms we use to deal with 'castration anxiety' is #denial - denial of facts, truth & reality.

The core defence strategy the extremist right offered its (potential) followers in its psychologically oriented tricks utilising the heightened castration anxieties
in capitalism provoked through the #COVID19 pandemic has been #denial.

Extremist right leaders Trump, Bolsonaro, & Hofer recommended or enforced policies that denied the pandemic’s severity eg in policies recommending no masks, not getting vaccinated, lifting lockdowns, going to work, allowing large gatherings, disregarding social distancing etc.

Although these behaviours and policies likely contributed to worsening the pandemic, they have assisted extremist right leaders in capturing (new) followers, because they allowed their followers to quell heightened castration anxieties on bodily, interpersonal & economic levels.

These policies allowed them to reverse reality, in which the heightened threat of 'castration' through the coronavirus turned into something, as Trump put it, one ‘does not need to fear’.

The recommendation to not wear masks/get vaccinated, which denies the reality that the virus spreads & how one might be protected from it, allows one to cope with the threat of an actual attack on the body, & that one might get sick and thus become 'castrated' on a bodily level.

The recommendations to disregard the lockdown, social distancing & travel bans, & allow large gatherings, deny how they increase likelihood of infection, but they allow those plagued with interpersonal castration anxieties & fears of isolation to cope with such anxieties & fears.

Return to work’ strategies denies the reality that this heightens the risk of escalating the pandemic, but it allows subjects of all classes, who are struggling with economic castration anxieties, to cope with such anxieties, turning them into potential extremist right followers.

Extremist right denial strategies turn into effective psychologically oriented tricks, which allow the extremist right to recruit new followers & strengthen
its base - and these 'castration anxieties' are connected to much deeper fears around people’s subjectivities.

I could go on, but if you're interested in these ideas, & want to know more bout the well-documented psychological tricks of fascists & the extreme right, read the full article, 'Castration anxiety, COVID-19 and the extremist right', downlaodable here:

ingentaconnect.com/content/bup/gd…