Possible utopias: Strategies for raising awareness in the world in Politics of Enchantment

Abstract

This review aims to discuss how to (re)imagine futures and propose possible utopias by producing strategic forms of political communicability through the use of social media platforms (SMPs), spaces that have been captured and appropriated by the far right in contemporary times. Taking Paolo Demuru's Políticas do Encanto (Politics of Enchantment, 2024) as a reference point for such appropriation, we view the current context as symbolic and significant for the emergence and adherence of a far right that captures its followers through fascination and enchantment rather than rational, pragmatic, and scientifically based arguments. Based on solutions proposed by the semiotician, this review seeks to outline ways of acting politically through awareness, fascination, and even aesthetics, based on experiences that are not, however, carried away by immorality, lies, derision, and hatred, characteristics common in the uses and appropriations made by the far right in platformbased environments around the world. To “break the spell,” the author proposes three pillars that distance themselves from verbose or overly rational perspectives: raising awareness, imagining, and re enchanting — all of which are rooted in practical effects in everyday platformized life.