Big Data, Fake News and Paranoia's logic: decline of ego and democracy crisis

ego's decline and democracy crisis

Abstract

The relationship between the crisis of democracies in several countries and the spread of so-called fake News will be discussed in this article based on the hypothesis that the emergence of a surveillance capitalism provides material bases - technological and economic - for the development of digital devices that produce the mobilization of subjects in a fragmented way, resulting in a weakening of the ego and in a regressed subjectivity, radicalizing the so-called semi-formation. The predominant exchange models of contents and exploration of subjective traits is close to what authors of Critical Theory identified as fascist propaganda. This is structured according to a logic of paranoia, and this concept allows for a critical understanding of the circuits of affection in social networks that support the dissemination of fake News. In conclusion, the text considers that the current crisis of democracy is rather related with this economic model than with the populist leaders who are its most conspicuous face and suggests some forms of resistance and urgent tasks in defense of more democratic forms of coexistence.