1968/2020, 9). They are the result of the negative dialectic of neoliberal capitalism and the new imperialism.
The commodification of everything, entrepreneurialism, privatisation, deregulation, financialisation, globalisation, deindustrialisation, outsourcing, precarisation, and the new individualism have backfired. These are developments that have extended and intensified inequalities and crisis tendencies, which created a fruitful ground for new nationalism, right-wing extremism, and new fascism.
How can nationalism and right-wing authoritarianism be counteracted? Adorno stresses that one should point out that authoritarianism’s consequences mean disasters for everyone, including war: one should “warn the potential followers of rightwing extremism about its own consequences, to convey to them that this politics will lead its own followers to their doom too” (Adorno 1968/2020, 17).
Adorno also mentions that reason and facts should be used to counter “fake news” and”post-truth”. Anti-fascism and anti-nationalism should not “fight lies with lies”, but “counteract it with the full force of reason, with the genuinely unideological truth” (Adorno 1968/2020, 49–50).
Horkheimer and Adorno (2002, 60) speak about the “ambiguity of laughter”:
If laughter up to now has been a sign of violence, an outbreak of blind, obdurate nature, it nevertheless contains the opposite element, in that through laughter blind nature becomes aware of itself as such and thus abjures its destructive violence.
Authoritarianism online and offline is emotional and irrational, which is why authoritarians often do not listen to rational arguments. Making fun of right-wing authoritarianism should be part of its deconstruction.
Contemporary digital technologies such as social media should be used for advancing the anti-fascist strategies that Adorno had in mind, namely reminders about authoritarian capitalism’s consequences, rational arguments opposing it, and satire that deconstructs its logic.
Adorno’s theory allows us to understand why neoliberalism has backfired and turned into authoritarian capitalism. These changes are mediated by and expressed in digital means of communication. The struggle for defending and extending the democratic public sphere is key to resisting authoritarian capitalism.
Chapter Four | Adorno and the Media in Digital Capitalism
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Conclusion