Contribution short abstract:

Based on ethnographic fieldwork on the protest movement against the Corona measures and their further developments in Germany, this presentation focuses on the internal and external discourse on the question of co-optation of the movement and the related question of an alternative future.

Contribution long abstract:

Based on ethnographic fieldwork on the protest movement against the Corona measures and their further developments in Germany, this presentation focuses on the internal and external discourse on the question of co-optation of the movement and the related question of an alternative future. The ubiquitous self-description of those who locate themselves in the protest movement as “ awakened” is linked to a feeling of being able to recognize what is really going on behind the surface and to expose deceptions, manipulations and propaganda. This is accompanied by a widespread mistrust and omnipresent suspicion of co-optation, which leads to mutual suspicions and accusations even within the movement. The way in which an alternative future is imagined depends very much on the diagnosis of the problems. This presentation will explore the oscillation between personalizing conspiracy theories and structural analyses of power and the ironic tipping points within the protest movement that reveal the limits of a search for a radical future