Anti-lockdown alliances cohere around mixed images of the future, not shared promises.

Evidence

In the wake of capitalism’s current crisis, the novel coronavirus pandemic, peculiar alliances have been fashioned through the uncanny speculative politics I examined in chapters 5 and 6. For instance, the anti-lockdown demonstrations that rocked the world’s cities during the pandemic’s second wave saw neonationalists and QAnon conspiracists marching alongside rainbow-flag-carrying identitarians, yoga enthusiasts, and even “pro-Enlightenment” libertarians. My intention has been to show that these groups are molded neither through a shared belief in a consistent promise (such as the nostalgic return to an idealized past) nor through an appeal to an image of a “new order.” A bizarre tapestry of images of the future—blending together outlandish conspiracy and Enlightenment rationality—orients these actions. It offers respite in a world where promises of a better future are all but silenced. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 360

Categorization

• QUESTION: This claim that these groups are NOT united by a shared utopian image challenges a common reading of populism — worth checking how well the historical chapter 5-6 evidence actually supports ‘neither nostalgic return nor new order’.
• ADDENDUM: Directly relevant to the reader’s thesis on financialized populism as speculative betting rather than interest-voting — QAnon/neonationalist alliances as collective wagers under uncertainty.