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Ковидный ресентимент в социальных сетях: репертуар мотивированных суждений
The article is devoted to the study of the phenomenon of denial of Covid-19 and resistance to the policy of states associated with this disease. Denial is seen as a motivated judgment charged with emotions and consistent with explanatory ideas, as well as a manifestation of institutional distrust, a form of social resentment that echoes the 90s, the breakdown of old social contracts. The study is based on a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the texts of discussions in social networks (two publics in VKontakte). The goal was to identify the structure of views of covid deniers who are in opposition to the policies of states to counter the epidemic, and their contextualization. We describe the views, their legitimation, and the practices of resistance of the participants. The structure of the article consists of a description of the phenomenon of covid-dissidence and covidoskepticism based on publications and research by other authors, placed in a theoretical context that seems relevant to us; then a detailed rationale and description of our methodology and the results of the quantitative and qualitative part of the data analysis are presented. The study has shown that in a situation of critical uncertainty, covid-dissidents interpret what happened as the result of deliberate actions of the state or "world state", forming cause-and-effect relationships to maintain an internally consistent understanding of the world. From the very beginning of the pandemic, the communities studied were ready to incorporate new information into their frame of reference. They are characterized by the perception of the spread of the coronavirus in a spirit of denial, resistance and struggle. The conceptual tool of motivated reasoning revealed a repertoire of rationales that Covid-dissidents use — threats from malicious forces to weaken/destroy part of the population, enslave it with vaccines, digitalization, quarantine measures. The Covid-dissidents attribute to themselves a position of superiority based on an understanding of the secret mechanisms of what is happening, to secret forces — enslaving intentions, to the main population — passivity leading to degeneration. Rhetorical rationale resources include institutional, moral, religious, human rights, demographic, digitalization, and quasi-medical arguments. Emotional coherence is associated with mobilizing emotions of anxiety, fear, threats, humiliation, distrust, resentment, and restrained aggression. The position of the respondents is associated with a feeling of injustice in the distribution of rights and obligations between the state and citizens, due to the breakdown of the social contract.