Taking in the phenomena of QAnon, twitch streaming, and memes it argues that the dichotomy between culture and political praxis is a false one.

In examining their thoughts and drawing parallels with Fisher's Capitalist Realism, The Memeing of Mark Fisher aims to render the Frankfurt School as an incisive theoretical toolbox for the post-Covid digital age. In the aftermath, this book revisits the main Frankfurt School theorists, Adorno, Horkheimer, Benjamin and Marcuse, who worked in the shadow of World War Two, during the rise of the culture industry. This depression was brought about not just by Covid isolation, but by the digital economy, fueled by social media and the meme. We witnessed a depression, not economically speaking, but in the psychological sense: A clinical depression of and by society itself. Spring 2020 to 2021 was the year that did not take place.

Mark Fisher | Acid Communism (Unfinished Introduction): Īlpha City: How London Was Captured by the Super-Rich by Rowland Atkinson: Įmail us with feedback, questions, suggestions at other shows:ĪTTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.The Frankfurt School meets Fisher in this critique of capitalism incorporating memes, mental illness and psychedelia into a proposed counterculture. The Memeing of Mark Fisher: How the Frankfurt School Foresaw Capitalist Realism and What to do About it: Ĭan the Left Learn to Meme?: Adorno, Video Gaming, and Stranger Things: Matt McManus, Professor of Politics at Whitman College' We may not have all the answers, but all of us should be very grateful Watson is on hand to help us ask the right kinds of questions. In the powerful final chapter, Watson rethinks the potential of Frankfurt school critical theory to provide answers, and sketches an inspiring vision of what the acid-left can be. In his new book-part tribute to Fisher, part cultural analysis, part reflections on the Frankfurt school-Watson shows the enduring power of a dialectical approach to capitalist realism and exposes the many ways post-modern neoliberal culture has successfully neutered liberating aesthetics. 'Watson is fast becoming one of the most impressive left analysts of our strange digital era helping to fill the void left by Mark Fisher's tragic passing. Ikoi and Liam chat with author Mike Watson about the late great Mark Fisher, the addictive pace of the internet, slow meme movements and the need for reflection, spirituality, mortality, Qanon and Pizzagate, a fair society vs archetypal heroic stories, leftist well-being, selling dirty bath water, being a digital flaneur, the dialectical image, acid communism, helping other people for the sake of it and much much more!

The memeing of mark fisher