Huehue constitutionalism

Abstract

The article describes the characteristics of the disruptive behavior of Brazilian users in multiplayer online games (MOGs), which has come to be termed—including in the literature—as huehue. It then argues that the main features pointed out—spamming, trolling, and griefing—could also be perceived to some extent in the behavior of players acting in Brazilian high politics. The persona behind this disruptive subjectivity, so characteristic of Brazilian culture, could be called “griefer” (in Portuguese: zoeiro). “Huehue constitutionalism” or “griefer constitutionalism” would be a type of dysfunctional constitutional environment, markedly Brazilian, characterized by the fact that, in the political game, subjects who perform constitutional functions feel free to act, raising the levels of disruptive behavior to unprecedented levels (huehueing), so that while benefiting from constitutional rules to act freely, they abuse and corrupt the democratic stability proper to constitutional order. Although more serious in terms of dysfunctionality than the so-called “constitutional rot,” huehue constitutionalism would foreshadow a moment of constitutional crisis and would be sufficient to thwart any attempt at experimenting with popular collaborative constitutionalism using digital tools.