TRUMPISM, BIG TECH, AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF CONTEMPORARY FASCISM. The instrumentalization of individuals into digital soldiers

Abstract

Trumpism incorporates and disseminates so-called corporate warrior ethics, forging a new social subject which operates under a logic akin to fascism. During his first term, Donald Trump enacted the federal Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act (CLOUD Act, 2018), which compels US-based technology companies to provide data to federal authorities, regardless of where it is stored. Data extracted by Big Tech (entities that are simultaneously civil and military) fuels programmable digital architectures that underpin the (geo)politics of the Big State and antidemocratic digital platforms, propagating a militarization of subjects according to a doctrine of “total information”. Similar to the cognitive preparation for the rise of “entrepreneurs of the self” under the aegis of competitiveness, the alliance between Big State and Big Tech instrumentalizes social media users as soldiers in a war against “manufactured enemies”. A distinctive feature of contemporary fascism is that these digital soldiers believe they are acting in self-defense, rather than as members of a diffuse army within digital networks designed to instrumentalize subjects.

Keywords: Warrior ethics; Big State; Big Tech; Digital Soldiers.

Silvana Cristina da Silva holds a Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Ph.D. in Geography from the State University of Campinas (Unicamp). Completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Sociology at the École Normale Supérieure de Paris. Professor and researcher in the Department of Geography and the Graduate Program in Geography at the Institute of Society Sciences and Regional Development, Federal Fluminense University (UFF), Campos dos Goytacazes campus. Coordinator of the Territory and Cities Research Group (TeCidades).

Márcio Cataia is a geographer with a PhD in Geography from the University of São Paulo (Brazil) and postdoctoral experience at the Université Paris 3 – Institut des Hautes Études de l’Amérique Latine (IHEAL). He is a Professor of Economic Geography and Political Geography at the Institute of Geosciences of the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp, Brazil), and a research fellow at the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). He also coordinates the Research Group on the Political Economy of Territory.