Yes the concept is from Lauren Berlant, who is quite distinguished in her field, affect theory. She has a feminist viewpoint and tends to be blame neoliberalism for of everything awful, but for that genre - which is not usually my cup of tea. Anyway, I think she has written some interesting pieces.

I found interesting this paper which cites Berlant's concept of cruel optimism: "Disinformation as the weaponization of cruel optimism: A critical intervention in misinformation studies".

It discusses the state of disinformation studies with example such why academic interventions have failed to "correct" e.g. people who believe in QAnon.

Open access link below: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S175545862...