Abstract
ABSTRACT This paper develops a scalar view of affect, with a focus on the intense animosity often found in digital encounters. It argues that affect is an important dimension of sense-making and sustains this standpoint both theoretically and empirically, by resorting to a linguistic-anthropological understanding of scale and by analyzing the hectic transit of texts in viral phenomena on the Internet. As a case in point, it analyses a long-lasting interaction carried out in the comments section of a YouTube music video. Its analytical interest lies in the semiotic-discursive construction of belligerent-gratifying exchanges. Upon scrutinizing how hatred operates (meta)pragmatically and what kind of sociocultural affective repertoire it mobilizes, the analysis detects a specific communicative mode. Interactants engage in a recursive semantic battle characterized by irreflexive loops in which stereotypical and totalizing scales function as weapons for mutual annihilation. Such a process, in spite of its locality, resonates in different social strata, as in the contemporary political communication in many parts of the world.
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