To compensate for the lack of realism of the participatory models of the public sphere, this
paper proposes a more minimalist conceptualisation, which emphasises the ontological
necessity of representation and deference in the constitution of imagined communities. In
the contemporary public spheres, permeated with distrust, representation and deference
are becoming synonymous with deception and estrangement. Debunking institutional
mediations and political representation, both the “hacktivist” movement Anonymous and
the populist leadership of D. Trump yearn to erase any lingering traces of deference. In
doing so, I will argue, they endanger the democratic construction of a common world
between strangers and erode the pluralist structure of the public sphere.