We are living in polarised and extreme times. What would have seemed like the delusions of a paranoid fantasist in 2015 (anti-government riots in the streets of Melbourne with violent symbology reminiscent of the French revolution; assaults on the US capital spearheaded by buffalo-headed shaman; the popularisation of esoteric anti-paedophile conspiracy theories originating from a message board notorious for its links to paedophilia to name but a few) are now a lived reality.
Underpinning much of these worrying events has been the failure of online civil discourse and a rise of radical movements and networks fixated on issues of divisive culture war. The social media technology once envisioned by Silicon Valley futurists to unify the divided house of humanity by promoting understanding, and tolerance has had the opposite effect.
Today we see a resurgence of digital tribalism, a glorification of disingenuous engagement online and humiliating those of a different perspective. Everywhere we see simplistic and belligerent narratives of ‘us versus them’ over more nuanced explanations that might impart a greater sense of shared humanity and common purpose.
So what happened?
How we arrived at this polarized moment is complex and doesn’t lend itself monocausal explanations. We have a conflict-oriented media ecosystem supercharged by the power of clickbait, identity-politics and base-pandering. Despite a greater level of connectivity than at any point in human history, the alienating conditions of contemporary life have left us with increasing feelings of social isolation and atomisation.
One piece of the puzzle in the atrophying of civil engagement that I have identified in recent research is the role of ‘fighting identities’. To possess a fighting identity is to define oneself in part by the ongoing conflicts one wages, and is differentiated from fighting for identity, which I would argue is much more common historically. People have spilled oceans of blood defending the boundaries of their various cultural, religious, national and familial selves since time immemorial.
'A response would need to recognise the numerous causes of alienation, and address many of the deep social, political and economic contradictions and injustices that have led us to this moment.'
But a fighting identity is not about a defence of an imagined pre-existing self. It does not seek an ultimate peace or security, for the means of destruction is the end itself and without the continuation of a struggle the fighting identity has no sense of self or purpose. The appeal of a fighting identity today is in