Post-2020 protest shifted attitudes while leaving policy gains ephemeral.

Evidence

This is not simply about securing a sense of continuity with the preceding period of postpolitics, which first split politics from policy, a gulf that hyperpolitics widens rather than bridges. From 2020 onward, millions marched against police violence, COVID policy, and climate inaction, making strident demands of their governments. In terms of turnout, these new movements could be impressive, and many of them effected remarkable changes in public opinion. Racial attitudes, for instance, have altered strikingly over the past decade, and genuflections to climate action are ubiquitous. A return to class themes is visible in productions such as the novels of Eribon’s protégé Edouard Louis, Piketty’s wildly popular economic history, and the Western enthusiasm for the Korean film Parasite, albeit in an individualistic, culturalist register. — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics, 221

Categorization

• SEED: The observation that class themes return “in an individualistic, culturalist register” (Edouard Louis, Piketty, Parasite) is a rich essay angle: why does class reappear in culture precisely as class politics disappears?