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Applied Baudrillard: From the Virtual Economy of Metaverses, NFTs, and Deepfakes, to a New Nihilism and Hatred of Capitalism

Richard Smith Orcid Logo

Journal of Communication Inquiry

Swansea University Author: Richard Smith Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1177/01968599251378134

Abstract

Jean Baudrillard’s (1929-2007) theoretical writings are applied to an examination of today’s global virtual economy and society. New advances in virtual culture which flourished during and after the Covid-19 pandemic – esp., metaverses (immersive virtual worlds), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and deep...

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Published in: Journal of Communication Inquiry
ISSN: 0196-8599 1552-4612
Published: SAGE Publications 2025
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa70240
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last_indexed 2026-01-28T05:33:54Z
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spelling 2026-01-27T11:25:33.0094827 v2 70240 2025-08-29 Applied Baudrillard: From the Virtual Economy of Metaverses, NFTs, and Deepfakes, to a New Nihilism and Hatred of Capitalism c91a932b3bc4c9ab9297b67800c95e08 0000-0003-0318-8494 Richard Smith Richard Smith true false 2025-08-29 BGPS Jean Baudrillard’s (1929-2007) theoretical writings are applied to an examination of today’s global virtual economy and society. New advances in virtual culture which flourished during and after the Covid-19 pandemic – esp., metaverses (immersive virtual worlds), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and deepfakes (synthetic media) – are discussed to show the prescience of Baudrillard’s theory for how our global consumer society of the image is now defined by the problem of simulation. Baudrillard is shown to have theorised important trends and phenomenon in our contemporary global hyperculture that have hitherto been neglected: non-communication, anti-work, and anti-consumption are, among others, explained as developing phenomena because they are pathologies of a new nihilism, a hatred of capitalism, that is not realised through destruction, but through the simulation and deterrence that now defines contemporary global culture and society. Journal Article Journal of Communication Inquiry 0 SAGE Publications 0196-8599 1552-4612 Baudrillard, Nihilism, Deepfakes, Metaverses, NFTs 15 9 2025 2025-09-15 10.1177/01968599251378134 COLLEGE NANME Biosciences Geography and Physics School COLLEGE CODE BGPS Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) Swansea University 2026-01-27T11:25:33.0094827 2025-08-29T10:23:33.0485740 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography Richard Smith 0000-0003-0318-8494 1 70240__35179__56b2311db41e4b30872a2944324cd011.pdf 70240.VoR.pdf 2025-09-26T11:12:16.3245682 Output 285131 application/pdf Version of Record true © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License. true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
title Applied Baudrillard: From the Virtual Economy of Metaverses, NFTs, and Deepfakes, to a New Nihilism and Hatred of Capitalism
spellingShingle Applied Baudrillard: From the Virtual Economy of Metaverses, NFTs, and Deepfakes, to a New Nihilism and Hatred of Capitalism
Richard Smith
title_short Applied Baudrillard: From the Virtual Economy of Metaverses, NFTs, and Deepfakes, to a New Nihilism and Hatred of Capitalism
title_full Applied Baudrillard: From the Virtual Economy of Metaverses, NFTs, and Deepfakes, to a New Nihilism and Hatred of Capitalism
title_fullStr Applied Baudrillard: From the Virtual Economy of Metaverses, NFTs, and Deepfakes, to a New Nihilism and Hatred of Capitalism
title_full_unstemmed Applied Baudrillard: From the Virtual Economy of Metaverses, NFTs, and Deepfakes, to a New Nihilism and Hatred of Capitalism
title_sort Applied Baudrillard: From the Virtual Economy of Metaverses, NFTs, and Deepfakes, to a New Nihilism and Hatred of Capitalism
author_id_str_mv c91a932b3bc4c9ab9297b67800c95e08
author_id_fullname_str_mv c91a932b3bc4c9ab9297b67800c95e08_***_Richard Smith
author Richard Smith
author2 Richard Smith
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institution Swansea University
issn 0196-8599
1552-4612
doi_str_mv 10.1177/01968599251378134
publisher SAGE Publications
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hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
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department_str School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography
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description Jean Baudrillard’s (1929-2007) theoretical writings are applied to an examination of today’s global virtual economy and society. New advances in virtual culture which flourished during and after the Covid-19 pandemic – esp., metaverses (immersive virtual worlds), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and deepfakes (synthetic media) – are discussed to show the prescience of Baudrillard’s theory for how our global consumer society of the image is now defined by the problem of simulation. Baudrillard is shown to have theorised important trends and phenomenon in our contemporary global hyperculture that have hitherto been neglected: non-communication, anti-work, and anti-consumption are, among others, explained as developing phenomena because they are pathologies of a new nihilism, a hatred of capitalism, that is not realised through destruction, but through the simulation and deterrence that now defines contemporary global culture and society.
published_date 2025-09-15T05:36:37Z
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