Anonymity, Affect, and Humor: Rethinking Political Agency in Latin America’s Digital Sphere

Abstract

Objective: This article critically examines the configuration of anonymous digital political agency in Latin America with the objective of proposing a post-representational theoretical model that integrates three constitutive dimensions of contemporary symbolic power: anonymous performativity, affective circulation, and humorous counter-conduct. Specifically, the study situates itself at the intersection of political theory, digital sociology, and affect studies to address how anonymity, irony, and emotional resonance operate as mechanisms of political legitimacy and symbolic authority in networked environments.

Methods: The study adopts a qualitative and theoretical-analytical design, combining critical discourse analysis with a genealogical and performative reading of digital practices. To this end, it integrates insights from three major theoretical lineages. First, the theory of performativity (Butler, 1990; 2004) provides an understanding of political agency as an iterative process that materializes through acts of enunciation rather than through stable identities. Second, affect theory (Ahmed, 2004; Berlant, 2011; Papacharissi, 2015) informs the analysis of how emotions, rather than deliberation, sustain collective cohesion and symbolic legitimacy within online publics. Third, the sociology of symbolic power (Bourdieu, 1986) grounds the study’s approach to authority as a relational and circulatory dynamic, produced through recognition and resonance rather than institutional structure. The methodology applies these frameworks to Latin American digital cultures, employing situated epistemology (Walsh, 2012; Mignolo, 2000) to account for the political creativity born from conditions of precariousness, informality, and subaltern communication. For instance, empirical illustration is drawn from a close reading of the Dibujitos phenomenon in Peru, an anonymous online community that evolved from ironic self-parody into a form of participatory political expression. Through a textual and cultural analysis of their digital artifacts and practices, the study interprets how humor, anonymity, and affect converge into an alternative mode of political participation.

Results: The findings reveal that anonymity in digital political practices does not signify the absence of agency but the reconfiguration of its visibility. Anonymous performativity operates as a political technology that redistributes power by dissolving the primacy of identity and replacing it with the efficacy of symbolic intervention. In Latin American contexts marked by institutional fragility and distrust of formal representation, anonymity emerges as both a protective and productive force, enabling participation without exposure. Within these dynamics, affective circulation functions as the infrastructure of political legitimacy. Emotional resonance, rather than rational consensus, becomes the primary medium through which recognition and cohesion are achieved. The intensity of shared affects replaces traditional notions of political representation, forming ephemeral yet potent collectives bound by empathy, irony, and shared humor. Furthermore, the research identifies humor as a central mechanism of counter-conduct in digital political expression. Drawing on the notion of the carnivalesque (Bakhtin, 1984) and the concept of counter-conduct (Foucault, 2007), humor operates as a subversive tactic that destabilizes hierarchies and exposes the performative nature of authority. In the Dibujitos case, parody and absurdity function as strategies of disobedience that challenge institutional discourse through laughter rather than confrontation. The creation of fictitious institutions, such as the mock university “Sideral Carrión,” exemplifies how irony transforms bureaucratic symbols into sites of collective critique. The humor embedded in these practices not only dismantles solemnity but also produces legitimacy through play, reaffirming the capacity of the popular imagination to generate political meaning from precariousness. The analysis also demonstrates that symbolic power in digital environments is structured by the interaction of technical, affective, and memetic capitals. Authority is no longer anchored in charisma or legality, but in the ability to generate attention, resonance, and replication. The interplay between anonymity and visibility creates a paradoxical regime where invisibility becomes a form of sovereignty over one’s own representation. This “politics of opacity” resists the neoliberal imperative of transparency, which has transformed visibility into a moral duty and surveillance into a norm. In this sense, Latin American digital cultures exemplify how opacity can be reclaimed as an ethical and political stance, allowing for collective agency within the constraints of the surveillance economy. Notably, the Dibujitos movement embodies this new configuration of power. Originating as a form of shitposting and parody directed at the public figure Jesús Andrés Luján Carrión, known as La Beba, the community evolved from online mockery into a collective practice of symbolic resistance. Their anonymous humor became a mode of political commentary that bridged popular culture and civic engagement. As their presence expanded, members began interacting with elected officials and producing satirical reinterpretations of institutional authority. The movement’s trajectory illustrates how anonymous collectives can achieve symbolic power without institutional mediation, transforming ridicule into charisma and parody into participatory critique.

Conclusion: This study concludes that the contemporary reconfiguration of political agency in Latin America is inseparable from the interrelation between anonymity, affect, and humor. These dimensions articulate a post-representational regime of power, where action precedes representation and legitimacy derives from the resonance of collective expression rather than from identifiable actors. In detail, the proposed model elucidates three interdependent dimensions of digital agency: performative, affective, and humorous. The performative dimension highlights that political power is enacted in the moment of doing, not in the possession of authority. The affective dimension emphasizes that emotion operates as the connective tissue of political life, transforming empathy and resonance into forms of legitimacy. The humorous dimension, finally, reveals how parody functions as a critical technology that subverts the language of power while preserving the freedom of anonymity. Consequently, by articulating these dimensions, the article contributes to contemporary political theory by reframing the notion of agency under conditions of hyperconnectivity and surveillance. The post-representational model offers a situated framework for understanding how symbolic power circulates in digital environments, especially within contexts of structural inequality and epistemic dependence. It argues that Latin American digital cultures transform precariousness into creativity, opacity into sovereignty, and humor into critique. Rather than conceiving anonymity as withdrawal, the study positions it as a productive site of resistance and collective invention. Ultimately, the findings suggest that democracy in the digital era must be reimagined as a politics of circulation, grounded in the shared affective and humorous practices that enable solidarity without visibility.