Bullets and Boomerangs

Abstract

AbstractThrough digital ethnography of the mass uprising against Myanmar's early-2021 military coup, this article considers appeals to “the international community,” in which activists maneuver the simultaneous potential and peril of global entreaties, deploying a double-move of contradictory thrusts. To continue stoking the possibility of international intervention, activists reiterate demands while intensifying their affective content; conversely, they use anticipated failure of those appeals to “boomerang” them back to local publics—making the international a present-but-effaced addressee. They engage in the jouissance of abandonment, coordinate (potentially violent) tactics, shame their enemies, and engage in political debate on the objectives of their ongoing struggle. By retaining the key mediatory role vis-à-vis Myanmar publics, activists enact an alternative relationship with the international, one that invites intervention but is not dependent on it.