Sons and True Sons

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.

Produced by Donaufestival, Krems 2024 in collaboration with STRP Festival 2024, Eindhoven