Fascism and the Omnipresence of Communication

Author

Regletto Aldrich D. Imbong

College of Social Sciences, University of the Philippines Cebu

Abstract

This paper will investigate the intersection between fascism and social media communication. Drawing from Christian Fuchs’s on of digital fascism and placing it in dialogue with other Marxist literature, the paper will argue that the state retains a centering role in the organization of fascism as against the post-organizational position which highlights its ambivalent, fluid, and decentered character. The paper will further argue that the propagandistic character of fascism requires it to instrumentalize technical specifications of communications technologies. What (digital) fascism instrumentalizes today is what will be developed as the omnipresence of communication, primarily supported by the complexities of today’s internet powered social media. The paper will examine fascism as it has taken place in the Duterte-Marcos Jr. fascist continuity in the Philippines. The paper will conclude by proposing a kind of antifascism that goes beyond the ecosystems of the social media,
reiterating both technical as well as socio political transformations required to overcome fascism.

Link to the article:

https://www.kritike.org/journal/issue_34/imbong_march2024.pdf