EVENTS

Politicians have always mocked their opponents. What is new is the infrastructure. On YouTube channels financed by government-aligned influencer networks, ridicule is no longer improvised—it is engineered.

MORES researcher Gabriella Szabó will discuss how cringe functions as a deliberate mode of political attack, using Hungary's 2024 election campaigns as a case study, at an online colloquium on 27 March, 12–1PM CET.

The session is part of a series of academic discussions on emotions and democracy and is co-organised by MORES with its sister projects PROTEMO, PLEDGE, and CIDAPE, and will be held online. (More information below.)

According to Szabó's research, cringe is not simply embarrassment at someone else’s expense. It is a sequence: vicarious embarrassment signals a norm violation, contempt delivers a moral verdict, and laughter converts the discomfort into something users can share online. The result is hostility that feels like entertainment.

Szabó's case study focuses on the Patrióta–Trombi Roast channel in Hungary during the 2024 European Parliament and municipal election campaigns. The channel is financed by Megafon—a state-aligned incubator for pro-government content creators. The channel, she argues, is not an outlier. It is an example of how political attack and influencer culture have been deliberately fused.

Programme

Read more and access the meeting link here.

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More Information

Contact MORES at [email protected].

Contact the colloquium organisers at [email protected] and [email protected]