Not True, but Right. Falsity and Inaccuracy as Political Visual Strategy

Emanuele Arielli’s paper examines how falsified, AI-generated, or misattributed images function not as failures of reference but as tools of symbolic consolidation. In contemporary far-right and nationalist propaganda, stock photos, memes, and recycled or synthetic imagery are used to construct visual archetypes that embed themselves in collective imagination beyond factual accuracy. Rather than treating such images merely as deceptive or epistemically flawed, the article introduces the concept of emblematic evidence: images that, despite being false or decontextualized, are perceived as legitimate referents for ideological narratives. They give visual form to beliefs already assumed to be true—less images pointing to truth than truths seeking images. In this sense, they ritualize belief, turning images into markers of ideological belonging rather than referential proof. This reversal reflects a broader epistemic shift from verification to affective identification. By detaching images from their indexical referents, they circulate more freely as mythic condensations of polarized worldviews. Crucially, their falsity is often performatively displayed: epistemic inaccuracy becomes not a flaw but a feature, reinforcing political identity by signaling distance from mainstream regimes of truth.