Following the regional elections in Andalusia, there has been much talk again about the far-right's attempts to seize power. One of the tactics to achieve this – not only in Spain but also in other countries like the United States or our neighbor France – consists of trying to dominate the media, the more massive the better, with the aim of influencing society's beliefs or the collective imagination. This tactic is part of the “cultural war,” which seeks to impose a hegemonic way of thinking. Societies are plural, and the free expression of differences in political, ideological, religious positions, etc., is a symptom of democratic health. It is revealing, however, that lately it is the anti-democratic right that invokes freedom of expression as a weapon in this “war,” while when it is in power, what it does is eliminate all dissident discourse.In France, a scandal occurred a few weeks ago in the cultural sphere that is still causing a great deal of uproar. The circumstance that caused it seems trivial: the Algerian writer of French expression Boualem Sansal (a candidate for the Nobel Prize for years), who had been imprisoned for months for political reasons in his country and was released thanks to international pressure, decided to change publishers. So far, everything suggests that this is a personal and not at all reprehensible decision, but the problem is that the publishing house Grasset, which will publish his next book —a chronicle of his stay in prison, with the ambition of a bestseller”— is in the hands of the Bolloré group. The founder and owner of this holding company, which includes several well-known periodicals and television channels such as Canal+, is the millionaire Vincent Bolloré, who has openly declared himself in favor of leading a "civilizing project" based on the ideals of the far-right and the most rancid Catholicism.
The decision of the Algerian writer and the subsequent forced dismissal of one of Grasset's most prestigious editors led more than two hundred and fifty writers who publish with this publishing house to react, some as well-known as Virginie Despentes, Vanessa Springora (author of El consentiment, which was an important link in the French #MeToo) or the philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy (so popular he is known by his initials, BHL). All these intellectuals, of very different political and literary positions, have proclaimed that they will no longer publish anything more with the Grasset publishing house. Faced with the legal hurdles they have to leave, they also advocate for the inclusion of a "conscience clause" in editorial contracts, which allows the author to break it if the publishing house deviates towards positions they consider incompatible with their own.More recently, and taking advantage of the media buzz surrounding the inauguration of the Cannes Film Festival, a manifesto signed by more than six hundred professionals from the film industry has been made public, warning against the upcoming acquisition of the UGC film production and distribution group of companies by the Bolloré group. These audiovisual industry workers (actors, directors, screenwriters, producers...) warn that, if this acquisition occurs, Bolloré will gain control over a large part of the content produced in Europe (Studio Canal+ is already the most important European film production studio). Finally, on May 18, more than a thousand people created a Coalition of artistic, cultural, and scientific resistances (CRACS) with the slogan “We do not want this world” (the one that the extreme right wants to impose).
The philosopher Sandra Laugier published an article in Le Monde in which she compares these French cases with others happening in the United States, such as the contract termination —or the pressures in this regard— of presenters of such popular late shows as Stephen Colbert or Jimmy Kimmel, who have openly shown themselves critical of the policies of the Trump administration. But Laugier's vision is optimistic: according to her, "popular culture" (as it manifests itself in films, music, series...), more than "high culture," is capable of an act of resistance against this wave of cultural conservatism. Films and series have already made visible – and, therefore, contributed to their production – social changes such as the greater presence of women or individuals from minority groups in narratives that until recently were almost exclusively starred by a single type of person: a white, heterosexual, virile man, etc. Beyond the problematic distinction between two types of culture, this hopeful perspective on “popular culture” does not take into account, however, that this apparent modernity is often superficial and ends up reducing characters and situations to schemes as fixed as those in previous narratives. In any case, however, perhaps it is worth running the risk of simplification if, really, these films, music videos, or series contribute, as Laugier proposes, to building a “grammar of resistance” against the right-wing's attempts to also colonize culture.
