Total Refusal

Drawing on our research on the connection between the game world and the digital manosphere, media guerilla Total Refusal explores the connections between toxic masculinity, meritocracy, and the Storming of the US-Capitol in 2021. Sons and True Sons illuminates how the narrative of the video game "Tom Clancy's: The Division 2" (Ubisoft, 2019) inadvertently anticipated the events on January 6h 2021, as well as an examination of Steve Bannon's strategic engagement with male gamers. The parallels between the game's depiction of the civilian militia (“True Sons”) taking control of the Capitol in a digital Washington, D.C., and paramilitary crypto fascist groups (“Proud Boys” or "Oath Keepers") are indeed remarkable. Inspired by these uncanny similarities, the live gaming lecture, re-stormes and de-stormes the Capitol, exploring the narrative decay of liberal democracy on the example of mass media culture while further blurring the border between hypermasculinist self-empowerment both inside and outside gaming spaces.

Drawing upon their research into the connection between the game world and the digital manosphere, media guerrilla Total Refusal explores the entanglements of toxic masculinity, meritocracy, and the storming of the US Capitol in 2021. Sons and True Sons illuminates how the narrative of the video game Tom Clancy’s: The Division 2 inadvertently anticipated the events on January 6, 2021, and the strategic engagement of Donald Trump’s former advisor Steve Bannon with male gamers.

The parallels between the depiction of the civilian militia (True Sons) taking control over the digital seat of Congress and the advent of paramilitary crypto fascist groups like the Proud Boys or Oath Keepers are indeed remarkable. Inspired by these uncanny similarities, the live gaming lecture overwrites the game version of the Capitol storm, unmasking the narrative decay of liberal democracy and the hyper-masculinist self-empowerment inside and outside of gaming spaces.