Pasolini's warnings on media fascism and consumer society remain urgent

In a long-form essay on Artribune, Marcello Faletra argues that Pier Paolo Pasolini's critiques of mass media, consumerism, and creeping fascism are more relevant than ever in the age of AI and digital spectacle. Drawing on Pasolini's 1968 essay 'Giornalisti, opinioni e TV' and his 1975 'L'articolo delle lucciole', Faletra connects Pasolini's concept of 'media fascism'—a subtle, corruption-based authoritarianism replacing overt violence—to contemporary phenomena like algorithmic manipulation, celebrity worship, and the erosion of class consciousness. The essay references Erik Gandini's 2009 documentary 'Videocracy' to illustrate how Italian television normalized competition and depoliticized private life. Faletra highlights Pasolini's nostalgia for 'poor and true people' who fought against their masters without wanting to become them, contrasting this with today's masses who cheer for their exploiters. The piece warns of a 'media Darwinism' that eliminates the possibility of imagining a just society, echoing Freud's 'group psychology' and the concept of 'psychic infections'. Faletra, a writer and artist, concludes that counter-reforms are as slow and silent as tumors, and by the time the fraud is understood, it may be too late.