Idiot is usually a term of derision. In this article, we reconsider the common meaning as designating a stupid person and return to an earlier etymology as signifying a private and independent individual. In ancient Greece, being idiotic meant engaging in the contemplative process of becoming an individual. At times, this pursuit of individuation differentiated such individuals as their acts occurred in public and were seen as absurd, out-of-the-ordinary, and, frankly, idiotic, as most now know the term. With the widespread use of social media and digital video, these once private or semi-public acts of individuation often become explicitly public acts for others to see, critique, and mimic. Social media has made it possible for these explorations of self to circulate where their emotional intensities resonate with or are rejected by viewers, are captured for profit by media corporations, and leveraged by their producers into media careers. This article describes this affective economy of idiotic videos in the Russian language and how the history of one internet video illustrates the circulation, capture, and self-capitalization attendant with neoliberalism. Key Termsvideo, affect, capture, neoliberalism, idiot, Russia 2 Networked IdiotsCalling something idiotic is incendiary. In common use, the term is synonymous with being stupid or unskilled. In this article, we take a different approach to "idiots" by returning to its original ancient Greek etymology as describing unique, private citizens (Curtis, 2013). The idiot is an independently minded individual whose naive confidence enables explorations of the socially liminal, without concerns to "save face" by avoiding embarrassment (Goffman, 1955). Recently, media scholars have redeemed the term and linked it to the circulation of emotional intensities in online affective economies (Hands, 2014;Goriunova, 2013;Horeck and Kendall, 2014). From this theoretical perspective, we analyze one Russian-language internet video and follow what happens to its producer as he becomes famous and the video as it enters into the networked public sphere. In this article, we link theories of affect with an example of idiot video to describe economic capture and neoliberal subjectification.Here we describe the theory of the idiot specific to the Russian context, show how the idiot links to theories of affect, and elaborate upon the relationships between digital media, and in particular internet video, and affect. Before describing our methods, we connect the theory of affect, and the public idiot to the concept to neoliberal subjectivity.Our case study of Victor Goncharenko's Ide video follows to illustrate how affect circulates across and is captured by media platforms. In the process, Goncharenko transforms from a reluctant, private citizen to a public neoliberal subject.Idiot has a specific meaning in the Russian context. The "idiot" in Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Idiot (1869), Prince Myshkin, embodies kindness, honesty, and unselfishness. This character is humb...