L10: Fascism in the age of the networked image

How does fascism differ between 1930s and today?

• New fascist aesthetics of AI slop is not ‘monumental’ and does not focus on the ‘crowd’ (like in 1930s), instead its slop, humorous and networked

How is fascism similar between 1930s and today?

The fascist aesthetic connects to war

3 definitions of fascism

• Henrietta Roland-Holst → imperialism

• Roger Paxton → revolution 

• Enzo Traverso → tech advancement + romantic conservative 

3 definitions: Roland Holst 

1928 

Former activist/Marxist

With its never-ending conquest of new territory, imperialism is mainly the desire of an insatiable predator; fascism, on the other hand, is focused on generating this predatory desire in all the people, making wars of conquest inevitable.

Fascism is inextricably linked to imperialism, as a war of conquest turned inwards

3 definitions: Paxton

2004

Political theorist

Fascism is a genuinely revolutionary, trans-class form of anti-liberal, and in the last analysis, anti-conservative nationalism.

Emphasis on revolution (acceleration) form of fascism

3 definitions: Traverso

2018

Historian

In fascism the romantic impulse coexists with a cult of technological modernity that was illustrated by the Futurist celebration of speed and, in a more syncretic way, by Joseph Goebbels's 'steel romanticism'.

Fascism has both the technological advancement element with also romantic conservative elements so it is then a paradox between them

Aesthetics of fascism in the 20s-30s

• Aesthetics embrace technological modernity with romantic elements

  • Esprit de corps, romantic militarism

• Susan Sontag: ‘rendering of movement in grandiose and rigid patterns’ combined with a ‘celebration of the primitive’

• The largeness of the crowd is important and monumentalism: less obvious in AI generated slop + fascism of today

Aesthetics of fascism in the 30s-40s

• Albert Speer’s design: monumental combined modernity (high rises), with the primitive (traditional towns)

The problem

the contemporary extreme right or fascism does not seem to have anything to do with this type of aesthetics

Aesthetics of fascism today

Contemporary right adopts different aesthetics

• Interesting conceptions of the nation as a women —> combining new AI technologies with traditional gender roles

  • Milei AI image: no monumentalism

  • PVV ai image: unsettling element (Rosenbaum)

Ricky Crano 

• ‘The network itself… has become the rallying point for the circulation of fascistic

• The images are connected by a broader network: intent is to circulate

• Hawley: trolling and the political right | trolling for a purpose

George Hawley on the hart of trolling and the extreme right

"The Alt-Right successfully injected itself into the national conversation when it mastered the art of trolling. An Internet troll is someone who fosters discord online, provoking strong emotional reactions from readers and often changing the topic of conversation. Trolling does not always have an obvious political purpose; a troll may be looking for nothing but a moment of nihilistic amusement. Trolling can take the form of insulting someone's appearance or deliberately giving bad advice about a technological problem, for example. But the Alt-Right trolls for a purpose."

Trump’s Chipocalypse image

• Images are not designed to be monumental, but networked

• Lieutenant Kilgore: Vietnam war —> young junior son lifer tasked to find/bring in/kill a wall successful general —> as he travels up jungle river, he goes back in time

  • “I love the smell of Napalm in the morning air”

  • Calvary hat (1880s); moments of violence in US history

  • Film intended to critique war

• Focusing on traditional values + the unsettling: turn towards war 

Walter Benjamin on the aesthetics of fascism 

• Fascism ‘culminates one point; that one point is war ’

The algorithmic gaze

• extension of the male gaze, a concept coined by film critic Laura Mulvey to encapsulate the ways visual media often present women as passive objects of male desire

• could then be extrapolated to describe how Al can use its inbuilt biases to perpetuate and amplify the objectification of the feminine image

• Ai is trained to make deeply misogynistic/racist image

What is fascinating about these images according to Rosenbaum?

"These images are fascinating, precisely because of the impossible nature of the anatomy and the interactions of people on the posts. The absurdist displays of male gaze, the generative chimera formed as a monument to an unattainable ideal These images are kitsch, they are grotesque, and that sense of the grotesque pulls viewers in."

Research method: valuable because shows how quickly you can enter a filter bubble —> instead of seeing how much engagement —> what kind of engagement these images get (partly ai generated, partly human)

Fascist network 

The network itself has become the rallying point for the circulation of fascistic affects, while the objects of its publicity campaigns have become more nebulous, shifting and diffuse

• Fascist affects circulated in a network now compared to before | we are consumers and producers, participatory in media

  • Affects: badly sensations/emotions

    • Where we see/feel fascist elements

• We can still see these leaders creating idealized images of leaders but also play with ridiculousness  (meme, AI)

  • Need for the network to circulate through a network

The main hypothesis

"In the twenty-first century, the network itself - particularly with the new image paradigms propelled by massively popular mobile apps Instagram and TikTok1 - has become the rallying point (or more accurately, a distribution of rallying points) for the circulation of fascistic affects, while the objects of its publicity campaigns have become more nebulous, shifting and diffuse."

nodes in the network

"Each influencer, each star, each node in the social network is an 'intersection [...] of the identical reactions of countless people' (Horkheimer and Adorno 2002: 196). As was achieved by fascisms past, there is in all this participation an immense mobilisation and circulation of positive affect. The aesthetic or visual-cultural regime of capitalist social media catalyses a certain joy in seeing and being seen."

joy of following reading: Network Fascism & The Ethos of Following Definition

Fascist desires and affects circulate through digital communications ecosystems, particularly apps like Instagram and TikTok. Rather than relying on a single authoritarian figure, the network itself becomes the rallying point

joy of following reading: Network Fascism & The Ethos of Following mechanism

This is fostered through the art and ethos of following rules, routines, protocols, and accounts. This digital experience is accompanied by a "joyful passion" that Sontag termed the "joy of followers," suggesting fascist movements thrive on pleasure and affiliation

Joy of following reading: Passive Joy and Surveillance Capitalism

	Affective Diagnosis: The joys associated with network belonging are deemed passive, partial, and indirect (Spinoza/Deleuze), failing to achieve true "greater perfection".
	Economic Link: This passive joy supplies the affective infrastructure for surveillance capitalism. The platform's hidden mining and sale of user data—a "counter-following"—complicates this pleasure, leading to "sad joy"

Joy of following reading: Micropolitics and Dispositif Analysis

	Methodology: The analysis employs a micropolitical (or molecular) perspective, focusing on pre-individual affects, powers, and the standardized sensory habits of digitally networked life, such as taps, swipes, and dances.
	Standardization: This approach scrutinizes the "highly developed, engineered setup" (dispositif) created by monopoly capital (e.g., Alphabet, Meta). These monopolistic firms acc

Joy of following: Aesthetics of the Network Image

	Aesthetic Link to Fascism: Historical and contemporary fascisms share a ubiquitous aesthetic that merges art with life and bodies with information. Curated influencer profiles embody life-as-art-as-commodity, where success requires exhibiting the "will of the platform".
	Verticality: The aesthetic is characterized by the dominance of the vertical (portrait-style) image. This vertical frame often crops out the environment (milieu), stripping action of its situation and rendering the active body primarily as "information

I need a husband reading: AI Slop and Chimeric Creations

	AI Slop: Term for the proliferation of low-quality images and text made using generative AI. These posts are driven by a monetization strategy focused on gaining popularity and engagement.
	Impossible Beauty: "I need husband" posts feature women designed to conform to narrow, Eurocentric beauty standards (flawless pale skin, large eyes). However, the proportions are "dialed up to such levels" that the resulting figures are literally impossib

I need a husband reading: The Algorithmic Gaze and Misogyny

	Algorithmic Gaze: This concept is an extension of the male gaze (Mulvey), describing how AI systems perpetuate and amplify the objectification of women to "absurd extremes". The AI, trained on biased internet data, attempts to manufacture beauty optimized for engagement but risks "losing the concept of humanity itself".
	Triangulation of the Gaze: The act of looking is algorithmically replicated through three viewpoints: the generative model (camera's eye), the account holders (male characters' gaze), and the audience (likes, shares, comments). Misogyny is intrinsically tied

I need a husband reading: Fascism, Kitsch, and Idealization

	Kitsch Connection: AI slop is characterized as kitsch because it is "mechanical and operates by formulas," generating simulated reality for profit. Kitsch exists opposite the Avant-garde, but fascism is argued to be both.
	Fascist Ideal: The exaggerated idealization of form links AI slop to historical fascist fascinations with neoclassical sculpture and the Übermensch (Nietzsche). The idealized bodies generated by AI are viewed as computational expressions of a fascist ideal, distributing "acceptable" bodies and ideals algorithmically

I need a husband reading: The Alt-Right Pipeline

Observation: An ethnographic study demonstrated that interacting with "I need a husband" posts triggered the alt-right pipeline in the Facebook algorithm, leading the account to be served increasing levels of extreme content, including racism and religious propaganda.

Phases of Radicalization: The pipeline moves through three steps: 1) Normalization (desensitization via saturated content and humor/memes, often starting with misogyny); 2) Acclimation (habituation to Western supremacy and traditional Christian values); and 3) Dehumanization (relying on an "us versus them" mentality, observed when the timeline showed images of soldiers with their feet on praying Palestinians)