This article has been prepared within the framework of the XX Trobada of JEUPV and is the result of collective reflection about the need to “dispute the desire to win the future.” This has been, in fact, the motto chosen for the sessions of this course.The French philosopher said, Louis Althusserthat materialism consists, essentially, of “not telling stories.” Today, the libertarian extreme right is advancing positions in the face of the incomprehension of a good part of the ‘transformative left’. A left that, not infrequently, has chosen the easy path and has agreed to simplify its analyzes and brand those who defend these positions as bad, stupid or crazy.. Not so long ago, a familiar face of the old new politics said that those who had voted for Ayuso charging the SMI they were not Einstein. Beyond the contempt displayed, it is interesting to observe, once again, how we assume that those workers who vote against their “objective interests” do so out of stupidity. Or by any of its derivatives or euphemisms: ignorance, lack of culture or manipulation.
Undoubtedly, the ideological struggle has acquired new forms and the media manipulation that we face is one of the main challenges of today. The hegemonic editorial line builds a reactionary common sense and the proliferation of fake news and hoaxes have served not only to spread false information, but to generate a media ecosystem in which it is impossible for us to distinguish truth from lies and facts from opinions. The objective, then, is not only for us to believe their lies, but to abolish the experience of truth. Thus, we enter a scenario in which the subject’s relationship with reality becomes more problematic, given that humans need anchors, that is, categories and certainties, to inhabit the world.
The creation and dissemination of fake news It is, evidently, a conscious bet by the libertarian extreme right, which uses the circular, unlimited and constantly accelerating movement of communication capitalism for its purposes. But this alone does not explain the success of hoaxes. If false information proliferates, it is also because there is an emotional predisposition for this to happen. In a society marked by disbelief, ignorance about who makes many of the decisions that affect us, fear of the future, present precariousness and stress due to acceleration, hoaxes offer (false) certainties to the subject and contribute to a a certain identity withdrawal as a self-defense tool. In the absence of certainty, lies and conspiracies grow when it comes to interpreting our relationship with the world.
It is necessary, therefore, to dispute and defend the truth, but this is not enough. It is not enough to “reveal the truth” through praxis to carry out great social transformations. This vision, in addition to being self-complacent, also expresses a certain messianism that, pretending to be avant-garde, ends up coming between the Party and the masses.
The extreme right grows, beyond capitalist interests, because it manages to affect and challenge some popular sectors disenchanted with what there is and worried about what there may be. Ideology is not, then, a “veil” or a false consciousness but rather, again following Althusser, “a representation of the imaginary relations of individuals to their real conditions of existence.”
The libertarian extreme right achieves, through its speech, that fear transforms into hatred of the Other, which becomes conceived as a threat that stands between the subject and his enjoyment. Or put another way: the ideology of the libertarian extreme right, which is hegemonic to a greater or lesser degree throughout the West, causes us to relate to each other through distrust, suspicion and to believe that rights and freedoms are a zero-sum game. We then find violent reactions from those who want to deprive others of the rights for which they fight. These are not people who are bad by nature but rather individuals who attack the Other thinking that in this way they are defending themselves.
In relation to this, we can speak, following Germanof a “foreign function” that, in fact, is occupied by different figures beyond migrated or racialized people. Certainly, xenophobia and racism are specific forms of oppression that must be addressed politically from their particularity; To claim otherwise would be a display of idealism. However, for the libertarian extreme right, the otherness that this “foreign function” expresses goes beyond these sectors and also reaches feminist women, independentists, communists…For the extreme right, all those people are foreigners. or organizations that question or put at risk (real or imaginary) their ways of enjoying and inhabiting the world. This “foreign function” is sometimes even occupied by supranational organizations and entities of a liberal nature. Paradoxically, (or not so much) the only limit to the hatred of the current extreme right is capitalism itself, which shows its subordination to this system. It also gives us clues about how to articulate an anti-fascist and anti-capitalist political praxis. In this sense, the question we must ask ourselves today, as always, is none other than what to do.
In my opinion, it is a political obligation to stop the loss of categories that allow us to know the truth, because the ‘Trumpist right’ cannot be defeated with a ‘Trumpist left’. Fighting the extreme right with its ways reinforces its positions although apparently specific victories are obtained. We must also question ourselves about the desires and drives that we have as a community and take responsibility for the discomfort of our time, which is none other than that generated by this system. The extreme right, as we know, proposes curing the disease by killing the patient. Fortunately, Alemán recalled, the crime is not yet perfect. We have time to build political alternatives that convince us rationally but that also challenge the subject based on their emotions. Our future depends on it.
#farright #desire
