Yesterday I was at a local party with some friends. It was a cool, alternative place which congregates hipsters and free-minded people. Except for one of my friends who clearly was uncomfortable in that environment. It had been a long time since I last saw him, so I provoked him asking if he had voted for Bolsonaro last year. I thought he would say no, because, although I know he is a conservative person, he is not insane. So, pardon me if I say that I was shocked when he answered yes.
My question brought up a whole discussion about science, violence, conservativism, marijuanna, “flatearthism” and so on… For months I have been thinking about Bolsonaro’s phenomena in Brazil, which relates to Trump’s phenomena in the US and so many others surfing on this far-right wave. However, I will leave here an excellent text about this that explains theoretically what is going on based on history and political philosophy, because to explain this is not my point today.
The goal of this text is to discuss anoche problem that this kind of phenomena brought to us: the increase of violence in all senses.
In the last couple of weeks, we had two cases of shooting that caught our attention: one in two mosques in New Zealand and the other one in a school in the city of Suzano , São Paulo. Not coincidentally, what connects them is that the people behind the shootings are supporters of both: Trump (in New Zealand’s case) and Bolsonaro (in Brazil’s case).
I want to be clear that I don’t believe that neither Trump or Bolsonaro wants things like this to happen. They probably get upset with innocent people being killed. But, their discourse, what they stand for, resonates and incentives people who are already disturbed. If your own President believes that violence is the answer to all the problems, why shouldn’t you choose violence too?
The idea that “violente begets violence” is common sense. We’ve learned that from Karate Kid. However, if you google the name “Bolsonaro” you will find a lot of his, so called, controversies . A recent one was about celebrating the last military regime’s anniversary. On March 31st, Brazil remembers its last coup d’etat. It was a brutal, violent period in our history, but for Bolsonarotoday. it was just a period with a few “little problems” . All of the sudden, people began to question if we could really call this regime a dictatorship.
(By the way, during my “conversation” with my friend last night, he said it wasn’t really a dictatorship neither we had a coup d’etat. I am rolling my eyes right now).
Unfortunately, inspired by the tragedy in Suzano, a lot of rumors and real cases of violence popped around the country. It is frightening to see that we are spinning towards an era of hate, stupidity, and lack of hope. As a professor, myself, I feel sorry about my students and, also, afraid for my life and safety since I tend to speak my mind every time that I stand in front of them.
I just hope that we, as human beings, learn from this and that we are able to change the course of history one more time, just like we did in 1985 in Brazil. I pray for better days.
(Readers be advised that this piece of text contains personal opinion).
Por: Tassiana Moura de Oliveira