Acid Fascism

Summary

The global resurgence of a radical right masculinist consciousness combines nostalgia for hierarchical manhood with immersion in digital networks. Tracing this ultra-masculinity to fascist psychedelic experimentation in the sixties counterculture, specifically the Lyman Family, the author argues that Acid Fascism offers a new way to understand an emerging desire for an experimental reactionary manhood. Alt-right subjectivity requires a theoretical approach to technological acceleration that accommodates shifting nostalgic and paranoid masculine sensibilities.

Study at a glance

Abstract

What comes after the New Man? An urgent dilemma for twenty-first-century anti-fascism is the global resurgence of a radical right masculinist consciousness that is at once nostalgic for strictly codified and hierarchical symbols of manhood while culturally immersed in accelerative, amorphous, and acentric digital networks. I trace this precarious and unsettled ultra-masculinity back to the material context of fascist psychedelic experimentation with consciousness in the sixties counterculture, through the example of the Lyman Family, to contend that Acid Fascism provides a new and important way to think about an emerging desire for an experimental—rather than utopian—reactionary manhood. Alt-right subjectivity requires a theoretical approach toward technological acceleration that is at ease with morphing affective complexions of nostalgic and paranoid masculine sensibility.

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