Predatism and Predocracy: A Conceptual Framework for Emergent Predator-Prey Politics

This paper introduces the theoretical constructs of predatism and predocracy to describe an emerging authoritarian ideology and its corresponding mode of governance. Predatism is defined as a convergent far-right ideology from the fusion of white nationalism, male supremacism, Christian nationalism, anti-democratic populism, and online conspiracy subcultures into an increasingly unified worldview. This consolidation is argued to be uniquely catalyzed by the contemporary digital ecosystem, in which the dynamics of moral contagion confer a systematic transmission advantage on predator-prey framings, accelerating the migration of disparate fringe conspiracy theories and hate ideologies into the political mainstream. Within this context, distinct grievances coalesce around a shared moral logic, in which the in-group views itself as the collective victim of status theft, justifying a predatory social dynamic which celebrates cruelty and domination as both a righteous self-defense and a seek-to-destroy offense. When this movement captures state institutions, it establishes a predocracy: a system characterized by visible cruelty as a tool of rule, the weaponization of law against opponents, systemic impunity for the in-group, and the spectacular reinforcement of hierarchy through routine public displays of domination. By distinguishing predatism from classical fascism, this paper argues that predocracy is a distinct 21st-century phenomenon driven by the affective mobilization of its online base, the gamification of state violence, and the consumption of out-group anguish as in-group catharsis.