Humor is a Danger to Our Democracy, Australian Political Scientists Claim
Humor is a Danger to Our Democracy, Australian Political Scientists Claim Humor, Ridicule, and the Far Right: Mainstreaming Exclusion Through Online Animation IGOR CHUDOV Dear Readers: I am sorry for sprinkling humor and sarcasm throughout my Substack posts. My apologies! Had I known that social scientists Jordan McSwiney and Kurt Sengul found the use of humor and ridicule to be an insidious attack on our democracy , I would certainly avoid even a trace of sarcasm or humor in my articles! https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/15274764231213816 According to the authors, the evil far-right forces invented a novel, innovative, and subversive discursive technique called humor . It is broadly accepted that contemporary far-right actors, be they parties, movements, or activists, are savvy media performers ( Wodak 2021 ) who employ a range of innovative communication strategies to exploit the highly mediatized and hybridized political landscape. A particular focus in recent ti