BETWEEN PENAL POPULISM AND DIGITAL POPULISM: masculinist discourses and the Red Pill community on brazilian YouTube

Abstract

This article examines the intersection between penal populism, on the rise in Brazil, and digital populism, a phenomenon with global reach, taking as its central analytical axis the notion of socially implanted authoritarianism (Pinheiro, 1991) and as its empirical basis the discourses (re)produced by masculinist influencers from the Red Pill community on Brazilian YouTube. The article adopts a post-structuralist approach to understand the formation of these discourses, their main contradictions and forms of circulation, and to perceive how they contribute to the constitution of penal populism, understood as a movement that supports punitive criminal policies based on narratives of fear, resentment, and insecurity. At the same time, it explores how these narratives articulate with socially implanted authoritarianism in Brazil, on the one hand, and rising digital populism, characterized by affective mobilization and the viralization of content through digital platforms, on the other. By linking the growth of penal populism in Brazil with the global expansion of digital populism, the article shows how masculinist influencers use YouTube to shape discourses of social control, retributive justice, and the reinforcement of a hierarchical and exclusionary masculinity.

KEYWORDS
Punitivism; Digital populism; Masculinities; Misogyny; Neoliberalism