GameStop checks all boxes of 'populism' as it has been defined by political scientists Jan-Werner Müller and Cas Mudde, namely as a revolt of "the good people" against "the corrupt elites". (I am less sure whether it would also check the boxes of populism as defined by Laclau/Mouffe).
As you pointed out, Felix, it's "hard to say" what the politics of GameStop are beyond such a diagnosis. Its orchestration on Reddit involved white suprematists [ https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/31/market-is-rigged-in-favour-of-rich-as-gamestop-fiasco-reveals ], and it is heavily being pushed in right-extremist Telegram channels. One also shouldn't forget that it's the creation of a speculative bubble like Bitcoin, albeit a more nihilistic one, and maybe also a (IMHO naive and misguided) assumption that stock ownership is 'good' capitalism while short selling is toxic capitalism. -F -- blog: *https://pod.thing.org/people/13a6057015b90136f896525400cd8561 <https://pod.thing.org/people/13a6057015b90136f896525400cd8561>* bio: http://floriancramer.nl On Tue, Feb 2, 2021 at 1:16 PM Felix Stalder <[email protected]> wrote: > > I find the GameStop saga endlessly fascinating, on so many levels. > > For one, it's a fitting continuation of the year of American discontent, > that started with #BLM, continued with #StopTheSteal, and reached now > Wall Street with #Gamestop. Politically, these movements are, of course, > very different. The first reacting to deep historical, systemic > injustice and violence, the second bought into a political lie and the > third one, well, that's hard to say. > > But all three express, in their own way, a belief, shared by large > segments of the population, that "the system" -- the institutions of > policing, democracy and the financial system -- are fundamental rigged > against them, and that they have to do something against it, even at > considerable personal risk. If you followed all three over the year, > even only superficially, you got a crash course in institutional > critique on an epic scale. > > Here's pretty good segment from hill.tv, a relatively respectable > Washington outlet, that makes pretty much this argument: > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTT4it_f7Jc&feature=youtu.be > > In terms of GameStop, I think a good starting point is to assume that > there are predominantly bad-faith actors involved, that everything > expressed is part of an agenda, that may, or may not, be in line with > what is expressed. Additionally, we are in an environment that is fully > artificial, made up of ultimately arbitrary, but consequential rules. If > you are a deeply immersed gamer, or belief that we are living in a > virtual simulation, as people like Musk apparently do, then you are > right at home. > > That doesn't mean that this is not political. It's a lot of things at > the same time. An insider-game between billionaires, a populist revolt, > a get-rich-quick-scheme, total market failure, and the free-markets > fully functioning. It's ultra cynical and naive, deeply individualistic, > and full of expressions of solidarity. It's deadly serious and hugely > entertaining. It's all about money and the recognition, after a decade > of quantitative easing and crypto bubbles, that money is somehow > meaningless. It expresses itself in spreadsheets and memes, and, no > doubt, soon also in congressional hearings. > > While I don't expect this one event to have immediate, dramatic > consequences, I expect this to simmer on for a long time and light other > fires, in unexpected places. > > > > # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission > # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, > # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets > # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l > # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected] > # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
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