Diagonalism and the Crisis of Liberalism Series

A Hero’s Journey? Ideological Entrepreneurs and Reactionary Digital Politics

This is the first talk in a series that looks at how the disruptive affordances and practices of global digital culture relate to political reconfigurations symptomatic of a broader crisis of liberalism. Tonight, Alan Finlayson will explain what “reactionary digital politics” is, how it is shaped by “ideological entrepreneurs,” and how this is reconfiguring our understanding of what it is to be political.

On digital platforms a distinct form of reactionary political ideology has crystallised around hostility to “liberal” egalitarianism, denunciations of contemporary culture and calls for a return to “natural” hierarchies. It draws on long-standing themes in reactionary, conservative and far-right politics but reshapes and reorganises them in particular ways, inviting followers to experience themselves as a particular kind of heroic political saviour.

In this talk, Professor Alan Finlayson will explain what “reactionary digital politics” is, how it is shaped by “ideological entrepreneurs” (selling political ideas through a promise to reveal “secrets” and expose “the truth” of “what’s really going on”), and how this is reconfiguring our understanding of what it is to be political. Online, Finlayson will argue, we are invited to experience politics not as how citizens bargain over interests but as a personal “hero’s journey” which promises to transform our individual wellbeing.

About the speakers

Alan Finlayson is a British political theorist and political scientist. He is Professor of Political and Social Theory at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, having previously taught in the Department of Political and Cultural Studies at Swansea University, and the Department of Politics and International Relations at Queen’s University Belfast. He is a leading advocate of rhetorical political analysis and of its importance for the study of British politics.

Marc Tuters (moderator) is assistant professor New Media Culture at the department of Media Studies, University of Amsterdam. He writes on radical subcultures online and is affiliated with the Digital Method Initiative.