Total Refusal

In this live gaming lecture, media guerrilla Total Refusal explores the connections between the game world and a broader misogynistic atmosphere in the digital realm, revealing the entanglements of toxic masculinity, a perverted notion of meritocracy, and the storming of the US Capitol in 2021.
Sons and True Sons illuminates how the narrative of the video game Tom Clancy’s: The Division 2 inadvertently anticipated the events of January 6, 2021, and the strategic engagement of Donald Trump’s former advisor Steve Bannon with male gamers.

The parallels between the depiction of the anti-democratic militia (True Sons) taking control over the digital seat of Congress and the actual advent of paramilitary crypto fascist groups like the Proud Boys or Oath Keepers are indeed remarkable. Total Refusal makes a subversive commentary on the Capitol storm, unmasking the narrative decay of liberal democracy against the backdrop of hyper-masculinist selfempowerment inside and outside of gaming spaces.

Credits 

Realized on behalf of the Danube Festival 2024 in Krems in cooperation with the STRP Festival 2024 in Eindhoven.

Project team: Susanna Flock, Robin Klengel, Leonhard Müllner and Michael Stumpf