Post-Symbolic Coloniality: The Metasimulacrum of Otherness in Digital Culture

This article develops the concept of the metasimulacrum of otherness to analyze the structural transformations of difference in digital culture. Unlike traditional representations of otherness, the metasimulacrum reorganizes the very conditions of perception, producing otherness as a managed, aestheticized, and commodified flow. Digital platforms no longer marginalize or suppress difference; they integrate it into the architecture of engagement, neutralizing its disruptive force through algorithmic formatting. Otherness becomes a preformatted stimulus—clickable, reproducible, and emotionally manageable—without preserving its political or subjective density. This dynamic is situated within a broader framework of post-symbolic coloniality, where visibility itself becomes a mechanism of control rather than liberation. The analysis traces how platforms engineer conditions in which alterity appears safe, consumable, and endlessly circulated, while any radical rupture is filtered out. The article critiques liberal hopes of visibility as empowerment, arguing that digital spectacularization of otherness demands a radical rethinking of ethical relations. It proposes an ethics of refusal—respecting the Other’s right to opacity and withdrawal from the economies of attention. Ultimately, the metasimulacrum of otherness reveals how difference is preserved not to challenge, but to stabilize the algorithmic logic of contemporary platform capitalism.