Enjoying the Fall : The Normalisation of the Far-Right as an Algorithmically-Mediated Fantasy of Ontological (In) Security
Kisić-Merino, Pasko LU
(2025)
- Abstract
- Over the past decade, the far-right has become normalised globally. The tolerance and wilful welcoming of these once-shunned ideologies challenge the weakened modern liberal order and signify its limitations as modernity’s symbolic authority. This phenomenon involves an unprecedented ontology in which far-right fantasies of “stolen” ethnocultural wholeness and supremacy propagate through social media governed by anti-democratic, neoliberal imperatives of attention hoarding. Fantasies of self-continuity amidst “permanent crises” – ontological security – are diffused via social media, whose algorithmic governance of our everyday shapes our identities and experience of the political. This problem points to the pressing need to explore the... (More)
- Over the past decade, the far-right has become normalised globally. The tolerance and wilful welcoming of these once-shunned ideologies challenge the weakened modern liberal order and signify its limitations as modernity’s symbolic authority. This phenomenon involves an unprecedented ontology in which far-right fantasies of “stolen” ethnocultural wholeness and supremacy propagate through social media governed by anti-democratic, neoliberal imperatives of attention hoarding. Fantasies of self-continuity amidst “permanent crises” – ontological security – are diffused via social media, whose algorithmic governance of our everyday shapes our identities and experience of the political. This problem points to the pressing need to explore the psycho-political and techno-mediatic dimensions of far-right normalisation.
This thesis provides a novel perspective by mobilising Lacanian ontological security to investigate the role of these dimensions in normalising the far-right. First, examining the link between White supremacy and deglobalisation discourses, I find that these pushbacks against liberal democracy become affectively influential in justifying violence against essentialised others. Second, social and traditional media enable the emotional governance of far-right actors, generating feelings of ontological (in)security that position them as legitimate interlocutors. Third, I examine how mainstream right-wing politicians partake in transgressive enjoyment with the far-right against “threatening” others. I find that far-right normalisation is inextricable from the reformation of identities, in which previously held liberal beliefs recede due to the anxiety of becoming politically undesired. Finally, I analyse far-right normalisation as a fantasy of ontological security produced by social media. I find that, in commodifying political antagonisms between liberals and the far-right, these platforms reinforce neoliberalism while gradually eroding the modern liberal order. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/25e8011d-8767-497c-bacc-bcc117201bb4
- author
- Kisić-Merino, Pasko
LU
- supervisor
- publishing date
- 2025
- type
- Thesis
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- far-right normalisation, far-right, ontological security, Lacan, hybrid media, political psychology, Sweden, United States
- publisher
- Karlstad universitet
- ISBN
- 978-91-7867-544-9
- 978-91-7867-545-6
- DOI
- 10.59217/ygdq9007
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- 25e8011d-8767-497c-bacc-bcc117201bb4
- date added to LUP
- 2026-01-08 13:25:28
- date last changed
- 2026-01-13 03:23:29
@phdthesis{25e8011d-8767-497c-bacc-bcc117201bb4,
abstract = {{Over the past decade, the far-right has become normalised globally. The tolerance and wilful welcoming of these once-shunned ideologies challenge the weakened modern liberal order and signify its limitations as modernity’s symbolic authority. This phenomenon involves an unprecedented ontology in which far-right fantasies of “stolen” ethnocultural wholeness and supremacy propagate through social media governed by anti-democratic, neoliberal imperatives of attention hoarding. Fantasies of self-continuity amidst “permanent crises” – ontological security – are diffused via social media, whose algorithmic governance of our everyday shapes our identities and experience of the political. This problem points to the pressing need to explore the psycho-political and techno-mediatic dimensions of far-right normalisation.<br/><br/>This thesis provides a novel perspective by mobilising Lacanian ontological security to investigate the role of these dimensions in normalising the far-right. First, examining the link between White supremacy and deglobalisation discourses, I find that these pushbacks against liberal democracy become affectively influential in justifying violence against essentialised others. Second, social and traditional media enable the emotional governance of far-right actors, generating feelings of ontological (in)security that position them as legitimate interlocutors. Third, I examine how mainstream right-wing politicians partake in transgressive enjoyment with the far-right against “threatening” others. I find that far-right normalisation is inextricable from the reformation of identities, in which previously held liberal beliefs recede due to the anxiety of becoming politically undesired. Finally, I analyse far-right normalisation as a fantasy of ontological security produced by social media. I find that, in commodifying political antagonisms between liberals and the far-right, these platforms reinforce neoliberalism while gradually eroding the modern liberal order.}},
author = {{Kisić-Merino, Pasko}},
isbn = {{978-91-7867-544-9}},
keywords = {{far-right normalisation; far-right; ontological security; Lacan; hybrid media; political psychology; Sweden; United States}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Karlstad universitet}},
title = {{Enjoying the Fall : The Normalisation of the Far-Right as an Algorithmically-Mediated Fantasy of Ontological (In) Security}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.59217/ygdq9007}},
doi = {{10.59217/ygdq9007}},
year = {{2025}},
}