Transgression—the challenging of what can be said, of social conventions, and of what is perceived as morally and aesthetically legitimate—has become an essential strategy of the new right. The “meta political” rightward shift of the Overton window (the range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time) can be seen as a prelude to the establishment of an authoritarian society, and these changes have been reflected in popular culture too.

Can useful analyses of these trends be developed? How can progressive artists and critics understand this phenomenon and resist it? Must acts of transgression be renounced on aesthetic and strategic fronts? After all, breaks with social conventions and acts of provocation have always been part of progressive cultural traditions. How can transgressive acts with progressive motivations be distinguished from their reactionary counterparts? In the face of the right-wing hegemony emerging today, how can we understand provocative “play” with right-wing symbols—symbols that shaped parts of the electronic avant-garde in the 80s, whose traditions CTM are also engaged in? How can criticism of reactionary transgression be formulated without falling into hostile moralism, or is moral stability more important today than aesthetic provocation?