RADICALIZATION IN GAMING COMMUNITIES IN BRAZIL

HOW BOLSONARISM MANAGED TO INFILTRATE THE GAMER UNIVERSE.

Abstract

The research problem of this article is the political radicalization carried out by the far right among gamers, people who do not share the ideologies of this political spectrum. We hypothesize that, in Brazil, this process has occurred and was appropriated by Bolsonarism through the use of radicalization techniques targeting voters among gamers, a group that presents itself as apolitical. We seek to understand the radicalization process conducted by the far right and to propose an explanation of how Bolsonaro appropriated this procedure to reach the gamer community. This is an exploratory analysis of the radicalization process that affects people belonging to the gamer community and the implications of such a process for democracy, with a special focus on Brazil. We adopt as a premise the existence of transnational networks among far-right groups, such that what has already been identified in the United States may be of great utility for understanding the national process.