Tech-fascism, Political Spectacle and the Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere

with Joseph Vogl

June 11, 2026, 7 PM | IKM, Großer Seminarraum E0101, 1030 Wien#lecture

What does it mean when the principles of digitally generated attention leave the online space, when ragebaiting finds its way into culture as a curatorial strategy? How does the mode of communication change when platforms translate maximum uproar into (cultural) capital? How can aesthetic strategies of transgression—still capable of subversion two decades ago, but by now often ossified into a nostalgic genre and, at their worst, serving as vehicles for fascist agenda-setting—be politically rethought? What critical tools would such a reappraisal require? And what might a counterpublic look like at a moment when every gesture of dissent risks being absorbed as clickbait, while even the refusal to participate in contentless political spectacle can be recoded and marketed as “cancellation”?

 

We are all dependent on private platforms, run by “broligarchics,” that have brought about a new “structural transformation of the public sphere.” We would like to discuss with everyone in need for an actual debate—not least to examine the material conditions underpinning this structural transformation and to trace its entanglement with to global fascization: the erosion of the rule of law, the dismantling of democratic institutions, pervasive surveillance and repression, and the continuing realities of militarized accumulation and extractive exploitation. Building on his study “Capital and Resentment” (2022) and in light of current events, the ICGP invites you to discuss these issues with Joseph Vogl and other guests. In order to meaningfully discuss what “broligarchs” like Peter Thiel—who effectively shape, own, and govern the infrastructures of public communication —stand for, we need different formats, different discursive spaces—spaces that operate independently of spectacle, open up substantive forms of engagement, and in which the possibilities for genuine counter-speech rather than scripting its terms in advance.

 

Rather than supplying the attention economy that underpins the current rightward drift and reproduces its media logic, the ICGP will host the kickoff of a series of events on tech-fascism, political spectacle, and structural changes in the public sphere.

 

Organization: Evelyn Annuß

 

Joseph Vogl was a professor of modern German literature, literary and cultural studies, and media at Humboldt University in Berlin until 2023 and is a regular visiting professor at Princeton University in the United States. His most recent publications include “The Spectre of Capital” (2010), “The Sovereignty Effect” (2015), “The Plumb Line of Stories” (2020; co-authored with Alexander Kluge), “Capital and Resentment: A Brief Theory of the Present” (2021), and “Meteor: An Essay on the Suspended” (2025).