Mediatization, polarization, and intolerance (between environments, media, and circulation)

Individuals, collectives, and polarization in the unstable situation caused by mediatization and... 249 there are media issues to attend to, but the answer does not come only by giving attention to social networks. A third answer that can be offered is that there are political reasons that explain the polarization. And of course, there are. But these are reasons that exceed the logic of tradi- tional politics, based on loyalty to political parties and the sta- bility of institutions. They have to be others, based on general or transversal principles , capable of articulating diverse groups . Because contemporary polarizations often articulate sectors with different interests, such as identity (gender), ecological, or environmental. To move in this direction, we will return to political theory. But we will do it from a specific angle: examining more than ideologies to democratic principles, those that supposedly we all share, such as freedom, equality, and fraternity. At a time when death certificates have been drawn up for great stories (LYOTARD, 1986 [1979]) and history in its teleological sense (HUYSSEN, 2014 [1995]), we need to put into play other argu- ments to interpret what are the causes that enable the extensive processes of social polarization. 5. Can equality and freedom amalgamate contemporary polarizations? Contemporary polarization builds specific poles that unfold in space and time. The poles are media and social spaces, hybrid, that work in two stages. On the one hand, they organize and reorganize all the time according to the development of events. In this way, they allow the articulation of tactical and fleeting adhesion strate- gies. They are “soft spaces” because they are large containers for groups that do not require any affiliation or the obligations that all institutions traditionally require. Anyone can feel repre- sented by any of them, anyone can say publicly, at some point, that they adhere to one of them or attack the opposite, but the conditions of belonging are soft enough to participate at will, dedicating the time available to participate. What’s more: one can enter and leave these spaces day by day, moment by mo-