Brazilian fascism and anti-Semitism
Fascismo e antissemitismo à brasileira
Fascismo y antisemitismo brasileños
Guilherme Prado Roitberg[1]
Mariana Bergo Damaso Silva[2]
Edson Guilherme de Souza[3]
Luiz Roberto Gomes[4]
Abstract
The article addresses the theme of
fascism in contemporary times, based on the elements of anti-Semitism described
by Adorno and Horkheimer in 1947 and through the empirical evidence that
currently marks the adhesion of Brazilian society to authoritarian and
extremist movements. Theoretical discussion and the analysis of empirical
situations allow us to affirm the existance of a Brazilian fascism, with very
peculiar forms of adherence and expression. The issue of fake news is taken as
an object of analysis of a process that has been increasingly worrying, both in
terms of the significant number of people, who contribute decisively to its
dissemination, and in terms of the composition of the resistance forces
established by society. in the face of the danger that such news represents to
democracy, to the formation of society, to the future of humanity and the
planet, as a whole.
Keywords: Brazil; Fascism; Anti-Semitism; Authoritarianism;
Democracy; Critical Theory.
Resumo
O
artigo aborda o tema do fascimo na contemporaneidade, a partir dos elementos do
antissemitismo descritos por Adorno e Horkheimer em 1947 e por meio das
evidências empíricas que marcam atualmente a adesão da sociedade brasileira à
movimentos autoritários e extremistas. A discussão teórica e a análise de
situações empíricas nos permitem afirmar, que existe um fascismo à brasileira,
com formas de adesão e expressão bastante peculiares. A questão das fake news
é tomada como objeto de análise de um processo que tem sido cada vez mais
preocupante, tanto em termos do número significativo de pessoas, que contribuem
decisivamente para sua disseminação, como em termos de composição das forças de
resistência estabelecidas pelas sociedade civil, em face do perígo que tais
notíciais representam à democracia, à formação da sociedade, ao futuro da
humanidade e do planeta, como um todo.
Palavras-chave:
Fascismo; Antissemitismo; Autoritarismo; Teoria Crítica.
Resumen
El
artículo aborda el tema del fascim en la contemporaneidad, desde los elementos
del antisemitismo descritos por Adorno y Horkheimer en 1947 y a través de la
evidencia empírica que actualmente marca la adhesión de la sociedad brasileña a
movimientos autoritarios y extremistas. La discusión teórica y el análisis de
situaciones empíricas nos permiten afirmar que existe un fascismo al estilo
brasileño, con formas de adhesión y expresión muy peculiares. El tema de fake
news se toma como objeto de análisis de un proceso que ha sido cada vez más
preocupante, tanto por el importante número de personas que contribuyen de
manera decisiva a su difusión, como por la composición de las fuerzas de
resistencia instauradas. por la sociedad sociedad civil, ante el peligro que
representan tales noticias para la democracia, para la formación de la
sociedad, para el futuro de la humanidad y del planeta en su conjunto.
Palabras
clave: Fascismo; Antisemitismo; Autoritarismo; Teoría Crítica.
Introduction
Investigating the genesis of fascism and anti-Semitism
in Brazil is an arduous and fundamental task in order to understand
contemporary society. As demonstrated by Bernardo (2015), the challenge is to
approach the theme not from the outside, but from the inside, unveiling its
social and political crossroads and the paradoxical paths in which its ideology
continues. Therefore, it is necessary to decipher the silences of
historiography and censorship by institutions, which impose a series of limits
on researchers who recommend examining the subject from a theoretical-critical
perspective.
We
do not intend to trace here a factual history of fascism and anti-Semitism in
Brazil, nor to consider the two concepts in a single and homogeneous way. Both
fascism and anti-Semitism have fundamental differences and distinct historical
origins, widely explored by historiography. When investigating the antecedents
of fascism in Italy, Hobsbawm (2008) pointed out that Benito Mussolini
(1883-1945) and his camicie nere did not consider themselves anti-Semitic until
1938, to the point that the Italian army had refused to deliver captured Jews
to Germany's death camps. However, in the course of the historical process,
fascism and anti-Semitism ended up influencing each other from the
transformations and appropriations of authoritarian movements in different
countries. The peak of this confluence occurred in the 1930s, led by German Nazifascism, as shown by Adorno and Horkheimer (2006).
The confluence between fascism and anti-Semitism
occurred through racist theories of social evolution which, with the acceptance
of the academic community (Friedlander, 1995: 18-19) and the approval of the
scientific authorities, naturalized social competition and capitalist
exploitation. This theoretical structure developed since the end of the 19th
century promulgated, in the name of progress and reason, the cruelest
prejudices against racialized groups in different countries in the Western
world. From the “science of racial improvement” or eugenics, European
intellectuals associated the progress of certain human groups with the process
of biological evolution, transposing the notions of Darwinism to the
political-social terrain (BETHENCOURT, 2018).
According to Adorno and Horkheimer (2006), fascists
did not consider Jews as a minority, but rather as an anti-race. Based
on this logic, the discourse called for racial purification, through extermination,
and the movement found fertile ground both among so-called fascists and among
potential fascists around the world. According to Adorno: “What was not seen as
a human being, and yet, is a human being, becomes a thing, so that you can no
longer refute the manic look by any impulse” (ADORNO, 1993, p.91). Here is one
of the explanatory keys to the holocaust.
Specifically in Brazil, what aspects of fascism and
anti-Semitism could raise elements of reflection and discussion, in the current
context of reconfiguration of conservatism and authoritarianism in the world?
That is the purpose of this article.
Fascism
and anti-Semitism in Brazil
Founded by Plínio Salgado (1895-1975) in October 1932,
months before Adolf Hitler's rise to Germany in January 1933, Ação Integralista
Brasileira (AIB)[5]
was the largest and most organized fascist movement in Latin America. His
“doctrinal eclecticism” associated elements of original fascism and hegemonic
theories of European fascism, which influenced Brazilian authors such as
Alberto Torres (1865-1917), Euclides da Cunha (1866-1909) and Oliveira Viana
(1883-1951). Despite not being organically linked to European Nazi-fascist
regimes, several integralist militants agreed with their racist,
anti-communist, authoritarian, nationalist and anti-Semitic ideals (Trindade,
2016), with emphasis on Gustavo Barroso (1888-1959) leader of AIB and first
director of the Museu Histórico
Nacional (1922-1930), considered the greatest theorist of anti-Semitism in
Brazil (Maio, 1992). Even with the formal extinction of the movement in 1937 by
the dictatorship of Estado Novo (1937-1945)[6],
some of its leaders assumed prominent positions during the period of the
Brazilian civil-military dictatorship (1964-1985), of which: Raimundo Padilha
(1899-1988), leader of the Aliança Renovadora Nacional (ARENA)[7]
and Alfredo Buzaid (1914-1991), justice minister of
the Médici government (1969-1974). According to the militants themselves, the
military was “implementing many of the integralist ideas that could not be
applied in the 1930s” (TRINDADE, 2016, p. 21).
The historiographic survey undertaken by Carneiro
(2012: 79-80) indicated that research on anti-Semitism in Brazil began in the
1970s and intensified in the 1990s with the opening of police and diplomatic
archives, such as the Arquivo Histórico do Itamaraty (RJ)[8]
and the collection of the Departamento de Ordem Política e Social (DEOPS)[9],
under the custody of the Public Archives of the State of São Paulo. Such
documents unveiled the existence of an anti-Semitic policy in the Vargas
government (1930-1945) and in the Dutra government (1946-1950), as well as the
persistence of myths, denials, censorship and historical misrepresentations on
the subject. According to Carneiro:
In
addition to the abundant documentation to be investigated, the researchers face
adverse reactions from family members of diplomats (proven anti-Semites) who
insist on maintaining laudatory biographies about their ancestors, as in the
case of Oswaldo Aranha, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Vargas government
(1937-1944), and Jorge Latour, Brazil's Chargé d'Affaires
in Warsaw and Rome (1936 and 1938), among others. Even today, in the middle of
the 21st century, different segments of Brazilian society continue to worship
false heroes, omitting information or silencing facts that, in a way,
configured a negative profile to the character venerated as a hero (CARNEIRO,
2012, p. 80, free translation).
The critical perspective proposed by Carneiro (2012)
allows us to see that the official speech before the League of Nations,
which portrayed President Getúlio Vargas as the savior of the nation, and
Brazil as a cordial, humanistic country, receptive to ethnicities and
religions, is nothing more than a historical misrepresentation. In opposite lines,
the newly discovered sources prove the anti-Semitic praxis of the
Brazilian State, which during the years 1937 to 1948 kept secret circulars in
order to prevent the granting of visas to thousands of Jewish refugees and
concentration camp survivors. More than anti-communism, the deportation of Olga
Benário Prestes (1908-1942) to the Third Reich in
1936 comprises “an act of collaboration with Nazi Germany and an expression of
Brazilian political anti-Semitism” (CARNEIRO, 2012, p. 82- 84).
In the text The Meaning of Working Through the Past,
Adorno (2008) warned of the survival of fascism in democratic societies and the
threat posed by the control of the past. Far from being the result of neglect
or chance, the act of erasing memories would be a rational, deliberate and
planned act. The historical distortion based on the denial or easing of
barbarism and the blaming of the victims constitutes one of the great
challenges that are presented to researchers committed to the freedom of
information and expression. As Carneiro (2012) pointed out, the digitization of
the collections and their availability for public consultation consist of
fundamental actions for the strengthening of democracy in the resistance
against barbarism and its attacks against memory.
Although the terms fascism and conservatism
are used in a generic and often inaccurate way in the context of the rise of
the so-called conservative wave in post-redemocratization
Brazil (ALMEIDA, 2019), the specialized literature denotes the permanence of
both a mentality and Fascist practices in the country under the aegis of Bolsonarism. Asleep since the context of political
openness, this mentality surfaced in the street demonstrations of the year
2013, in the 2014 elections, in the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff
(b.1947) in 2016 and deepened after the election of Jair Messias Bolsonaro
(b.1955) in 2018. Vazquez (2019) characterized this process as a revival of protofascism based on anti-corruption discourse,
nationalism, anti-communism, militarism and criminalization of social
movements. Captained by the middle class and attracting several sectors of the
working class, this movement guaranteed the election of an authoritarian
candidate with a history of offenses and threats to quilombola[10]
movements, workers, women, indigenous people and the LGBT community.
With a strengthened and radicalized base, Bolsonarism embodied a conservative project in the country
since the end of the military dictatorship (1964-1985), channeling the
reactionary discourse of the so-called bible, bullet, and ox benches[11]
and other fractions of the extreme right (VAZQUEZ, 2019). Authors such as Boito
Jr. (2020) characterize both the government and its support movement as
neo-fascists, considering the possibility of the constitution of fascist
governments within bourgeois democracies without the need for the establishment
of dictatorships. In the case of Bolsonaro, "a predominantly neo-fascist
government, based on a neo-fascist movement" at the head of a
deteriorating bourgeois democracy and situated on the periphery of
international capitalism. The neofacist
designation is also used in the works of Mendes and Carnut
(2020) and Cavalcante (2020), while Silva et.al (2019) conceptualizes Bolsonarism as a fusion between liberalism and fascism in
charge of a post-democratic state that, in the context of the Covid-19
pandemic, has assumed its necroliberal propensity to
exterminate the poorest (SILVA et.al, 2019).
Based on research carried out by anthropologist
Adriana Dias from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) and data collected by
the NGO Safernet, which demonstrated an exponential
growth of neo-Nazi cells in Brazil with the advent of Bolsonarism,
the report associates the empowerment of extremist groups with demonstrations
of hatred against minorities by members of the government. In addition, it
explains the nazification process of Brazilian
society, with a strong xenophobic, racist, fascist and anti-Semitic appeal.
This situation worsened with the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, a context in
which the xenophobic speeches about the “Chinese virus” and the “international
communist conspiracy” taken over by the Bolsonaro clan and by the former
minister of education Abraham Weintraub (b.1971) were followed by a new
worldwide anti-Semitic wave, which accuses the Jews of being the creators of
the coronavirus (BRENER; GOLDENBAUM; BRAIA, 2020).
According to Barrucho
(2020), the constant appearance of the Israeli flag in militant profiles on
social networks and in pro-Bolsonaro demonstrations divided the Brazilian
Jewish community, which led to the Israeli Confederation of Brazil (Conib), the
Instituto Brasil- Israel (IBI) and the Jews
for Democracy group to reaffirm their commitment to democracy and to
repudiate the movements that attack the institutions. Criticized by
anti-Semitic Bolsonarists on the Stormfront.org
forum (ALESSI; HOFMEISTER, 2019), the rapprochement between Bolsonaro and
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (b.1949) represents a nod to the
United States of America and the pro-Israel neo-Pentecostal electorate, but it
does not disguise the various anti-Semitic demonstrations by the Brazilian
government. Published on January 16, 2020, the statement by the then secretary
of culture Roberto Alvim (b.1973), who plagiarized excerpts from a speech by
the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945) to the sound of a
composition by the anti-Semitic Richard Wagner (1813-1883) - Adolf Hitler's
favorite composer - left no doubt about the presence of supporters of the
extreme right-wing totalitarian regimes, not only on the support base, but also
within government cadres (ALESSI; HOFMEISTER, 2020).
As demonstrated by Bernardo (2015), the history of
fascism is not finished, because “fascism is still a suspended reality”. His
stay in the form of paramilitary groups and the 334 neo-Nazi cells scattered
throughout Brazil (ALESSI; HOFMEISTER, 2020) denounce that it “was militarily
destroyed without being politically and ideologically depleted” (BERNARDO, 2015,
p. 8). Likewise, the upsurge in anti-Semitic demonstrations during the
Bolsonaro government denotes not only the relevance of the issue, but also the
seriousness of the problem, mainly because it constitutes a serious threat to
democracy and human rights. As Adorno (2008) warned us, fascism survives not
because its supporters resist accepting his death, but because the disposition
for his practices remains alive.
The
elements of adherence to fascism in Brazil
To think about the practices of adherence to fascism
in the current global context of deepening and metamorphosis of the dynamics of
mercantilization, and in a country like Brazil,
marked by profound inequalities, resulting from its peripheral position
occupied in the world economic dynamics, requires an understanding of the
mechanisms of adherence to an extermination policy, which determines the
socialization processes present in our daily lives. According to Maar (2007),
one of the constitutive marks of Brazil is the denial of recognition of
humanity and of access to the conditions that make such humanity available to
the majority of the population. Under the myth of racial democracy,
dehumanization becomes the mode of operation of social totality. In this way,
the main characteristic of fascism is evident, capable of involving even those
who would not, in theory, be the direct target of extermination, but who will
also have their lives totally affected by the consequences of fascism.
From the logic presented by Adorno and Horkheimer
(2006), it is understood that fascism seeks to eliminate the elements that
would otherwise prevent the progression of the system. This means that what
cannot be adapted, or which points to the possibility of difference, is
transformed into a sign of persecution. In other words, the object of hatred is
always what represents the diverse, that is, alterity as a possibility and
opposition. In this sense, some parallels can be drawn to demonstrate the
maintenance of the logic of fascism between German anti-Semitism and the policy
of precarity in life in Brazil. The Jew, among other characteristics, personify
in the anti-Semitic imagery the figure of the foreigner who occupies a place to
which he does not belong. Thus, the threat represented by him is evidenced in
an affirmative way, that is, eliminating the Jew means also eliminating the
threat (ADORNO; HORKHEIMER, 2006). In turn, in Brazil, what attracts hatred and
becomes the target of fascist policies is the precarious working class, as well
as everything that, instead of making their condition invisible or naturalizing
it, marks their existence, such as, for example, the discourse and performance
of progressive movements and parties (LOWY, 2015). If in the relationship with
the Jew, his extermination was intended to restore a position that, according
to the anti-Semitic discourse, was not legitimate for him, the threat posed by
the precarity of living conditions, does not mobilize the revolt against social
inequality as a response, but on the contrary, hatred against what evidences
it.
Such fascism has as its reason and practice the daily
repression and ideological mobilization to maintain the naturalization of
exploitation, in a way that, along with the determination of the way of
organizing the productive forces and the dynamics of extermination associated
with them, adherence practices are reproduced, thus deepening the truth of
dehumanization that is generalized from the focus on the group chosen for the
extermination. One of the characteristics that follows, from the progression of
fascist rationality beyond anti-Semitism, is that it reaches and shapes
positions that should be exercised in opposite ways, but that are equal,
constituting a social whole in which “good and evil know the same fate” (ADORNO;
HORKHEIMER, 2006, p. 170).
In this sense, the impossibility of affirming the
difference, which marks fascism, is also present in the inability to
characterize correctly what the opposition should be built on, and just as it
happens with the supporters of anti-Semitism, the progressive sector falsifies
its enemy, restricting the opponent to confrontations and clashes that only
reach the ramifications of the main power structure. Such a framework of
plastering the capacity for opposition reveals itself in the mark of
contemporary fascist movements: its articulation (BRAY, 2019). This outlines
practices and discourses that are not explicity
proclaiming racial supremacy, allowing the phenomenon to manifest itself in a
more popular and widespread manner.
Thus,
understanding the persistence of fascism has to do with the elaboration of the
dynamics of adhesion that constitute the basis that is characteristic of it.
Likewise, illuminating the scenario of authoritarianism in Brazil today,
spearheaded by the election of Jair Bolsonaro to the presidency of the
republic, requires a return to understanding the episodes that forged his rise
and victory at the polls. Here, it is considered that such episodes have the
popular demonstrations of June 2013 as a landmark, an event that is established
as a central point to articulate an understanding about the recent political
scenario in the country. Thus, in addition to the various analyzes about the
meaning of such a moment and the institutional factors that constitute it (NOBRE,
2020), it is important to identify the elements that were present in the
mobilizations that occurred at that moment.
The protests that took over the country, in June of
that year, have as an important characteristic the fact that they were not
organized primarily by parties or social movements, but that they emerged from
diverse and non-centralized demands (NOBRE, 2020; REBUÁ, 2019). With such a
landmark as a reference, the need for understanding both the previous events
and circumstances and their subsequent developments emerges as a perspective of
analysis. Regarding the previous conditions, it is worth noting that, as Nobre
(2020) points out, that Brazil was not yet in a period of recession, on the
contrary, the country had the lowest unemployment rate since the beginning of
the historical series in 2002. With regard to developments, what happened was
the evidence of the failure of a democratic model that was no longer able to
operate conciliation and that was not able to absorb the demands that took
shape at that moment.
Considering such aspects, what is noticeable at the
beginning is the increasing mobilization capacity already present among the
population. It can be said that, given the policies of income distribution and
investment in public services carried out by previous governments, there was a
kind of strengthening of the public sphere, expanding the spaces for popular
participation, which allowed the disposition for the claim, although there was
no scenario of fragility and attack on the material conditions of existence,
which would come to pass in the following years. On the other hand, when
considering the unfolding of the events, there is the presence of a double
exhaustion of the conciliation policy adopted until then (NOBRE, 2020),
manifested both by popular demands, raised in the face of threats of
withdrawals of conquests, and on the part of the middle class, discontented,
given the threat identified by the increase in purchasing power also from the
lower classes.[12]
It can be seen, therefore, that the stability
experienced during the period of redemocratization of
the country has its fragility exposed in 2013, which results from the collapse
that was fundamental to allow the election of Bolsonaro and the conditions for
his maintenance in power. The inability to absorb popular demands, given the
failure of the democratic project in progress, and accompanied, also as a
result of this failure, by the demobilization of progressive political sectors,
generated a climate of frustration that ended up being captured by the
authoritarian populism that builds thus, the bases for the accomplishment of
his government (ZAMORA, 2020). In a process settled by resentment (KEHL, 2013),
the energies mobilized in 2013 and frustrated in the fulfillment of their
demands are captured in the projection of the enemy image in certain groups
identified as responsible for the problems that triggered these yearnings of
revolt.
The permanence of the principle of self-preservation
that sustains the weakened ego of those predisposed to fascism, promotes adherence
to the idea, for example, that individuals are responsible for their own
marginalized condition and should not be objects of public policy. However, the
reason why it is characteristic of the targets of fascism to be figures devoid
of economic power is precisely the fact that these are the ones who authorize
criticisms of the hegemonic economic and political system, and which could
allow “making individuals aware of the irrational character of their compulsion
to social adaptation” (ALVES JUNIOR, 2020, p. 29). For this reason, they must
be perceived not in their historical determinations, but as enemies to be
pursued and exterminated.
The basic aspect of authoritarianism, the blurred and
threatening figure of the other, arising from a structural characteristic that
prevents processes of identification and differentiation, leaves space for
propaganda to be that which promotes social coherence (ALVES JUNIOR, 2020). In
the absence of conditions for training, in a space emptied of the subject's
experience, propaganda virtually becomes the substance of the same thing, as
happened with the figure of the Jews in Nazi Germany. As indicated by Adorno
(2019), the inversion present in the fact that social organization imposes
itself as a threat to the lives of the individuals that constitute it, allows
us to identify that radical right-wing movements transform propaganda into the
very substance of politics, replacing the debate and guidance through the truth
by distortion and consented lies. This must be defended by those who have
nothing to gain from such a system other than the perverse satisfaction in
survival conditioned by adherence to the calculation of extermination as a
rule, the culmination of which is reached in fascism.
Thus, as the control mechanism to prevent the practice
of otherness and opposition from being constituted, fascism depends on an
apparatus not only for extermination, but also for ideological mobilization,
which maintains its functioning (ADORNO; HORKHEIMER, 2006). This is the
dynamics of the so-called fake news, that is, the mass circulation, and
preferably over the internet, of false information conveyed as true, and of
content that is sometimes absurd and ludicrous.
Expression
of fascism and anti-Semitism: the problem of fake news
Since 2016, the effects of fake news have been
discussed in democracies, mainly regarding their role in the dissemination of
false information and influence on the results of elections and plebiscites (ALLCOTT;
GENTZKOW, 2017; DELMAZO; VALENTE, 2018). The content of fake news is generally
made up of absurd ideas and opinions, with no connection to real events, to
which the subjects remain obstinately attached, even after their untruth has
been demonstrated. Many studies resort to the explanation that such behavior is
due to cognitive gaps or lack of knowledge (GELFERT, 2018; BAKIR; MCSTAY, 2018;
OSMUNDSEN et al., 2020). Others focus on the functioning of social networks,
algorithms and fake accounts that spread fake news, aiming to justify a way of
detecting these messages and contain their spread (SHAO et al., 2018; LAZER et
al., 2018; BAKIR; MCSTAY, 2018).
Many articles discuss the definition of fake news (RECUERO;
GRUZD, 2019; OSMUNDSEN et al., 2020). Although there is no consensus, it is
agreed that fake news is a deliberate attempt to present false or unrealistic
content as if it were true, in an attempt to imitate the news format for the
purpose of misinformation (TANDOC Jr.; WEI LIM; LING, 2018; GELFERT, 2018).
Since the traditional news media approached social networks, adhering to their
format, it has become easier to imitate them (LAZER et al., 2018; ALLCOTT;
GENTZKOW, 2017). However, some fake news are videos and audios that are
different from the reportage format, which does not prevent them from being passed
and passed on in private messages, making their detection difficult - such as
what happens in WhatsApp. There is almost no mention of these cases in the
literature, however, they are indications of the great adherence to such news.
There is still uncertainty as to whether the term should be applied to those
cases where the error on the reported facts is accidental. Although such
carelessness can cause problems, what is at issue here is the internal and
external dynamics of individuals that promote the production and reproduction
of fake news, based on these errors and personal opinions.
Adorno (2005) writes that a distinction is believed to
exist between “normal opinion”, which would be based on facts, and
“pathological opinion”, alienated from the facts, and that normal opinions
would prevail over pathological ones. However, these last ones - deformed by
prejudices, unfounded beliefs and superstitions - have found their way through
history. Its persistence can be demonstrated by adherence to fake news. Adorno
(2005, p. 119) comments that, despite its element of unreality, “the objective
world is approaching the image persecution mania rendersof
it” - see the surveillance of social networks on private life -, which impels
us to take pathological opinion and fake news as a true moment of reality.
According to Adorno (2005), society does not fulfill
the conditions that would make sense of the expression of opinion. In 2020, the
Fake News Inquiry at the Supreme Federal Court[13]
sparked the discussion on the topic in Brazil. It is an open investigation to
ascertain the existence of false news defaming the Supreme Court. In June,
after a plea for unconstitutionality and censorship, a trial was held that
decided to continue the investigation. The argument is to disarm the
“disinformation machine” planned to discredit democratic institutions, with the
purpose of instituting chaos and resorting to totalitarian solutions (AMORIM,
2020). The deans said that expressions of hatred, threats to life, defamation
of institutions and requests for the establishment of dictatorial regimes -
found in fake news against the Supreme Court - are actions that are unworthy of
the constitutional protection of freedom of expression. Indeed, for Adorno
(2015), this concept presupposes a free society composed of emancipated
individuals. Free expression would presume an identity between individual
consciousness and a rational universal interest; but such an identity is
hindered. The current organization produces and reproduces conditions that lead
to the subjects' regression and non-freedom.
In the progress of knowledge, the idea of truth ends
up being attenuated as a union of opinions taken as true (ADORNO, 2005). With
increasing relativism and individualism, theoretical thinking is deprived of
the power to analyze reality; it comes close to "[...] a chaos of
undirected, accidental ideas and forces, the blindness of which drives the
social totality toward its downfall" (ADORNO, 2005, p. 115). Metaphysical
attempts to see a rationality in this whole risk being megalomaniacal in its
arbitrariness without self-reflection. On the other hand, positivism attributes
truth to existence without judging it, delivering reality to a mythical
destination; with that, what is left for the subject is to bow "[...] in a
humiliating way in the face of domination" (ADORNO, 1993, p.85). The truth
requires imagination tensioned with receptivity to facts; it does not mean
bowing to facts, nor creating facts out of oneself (ADORNO; HORKHEIMER, 2006).
Opinion is a subjective, individual and provisional
statement, which can be confirmed only later. When unveiling reality, the
subject must reflect on the opinion issued, avoiding its hypostasis. However,
when it becomes public, it is protected from such revision by narcissism - the
tendency to take its own self as an object of love, in a repressed way (ADORNO,
2005). Affirming opinion, making values and ideas public, has been
associated, throughout history, with nobility and authority, with the ability
to say what you think; something typical of the ruling classes. Thus, the
opinion is invested with affection and any attack on it is perceived as
personal injury. This results in stubbornness and attachment to false
statements. To defend against narcissistic injury, the individual makes
rationalizations, that is, uses rationalist and logical mechanisms to defend irrationalities.
In this, one invents false conceptual systems to defend his point of view and
the absurdity is protected by schematic walls. This kind of subjective
isolation is now reinforced by the functioning of social networks, which
automatically present users with content with which one has already
demonstrated affinity, keeping them from confronting contrary ideas (MARIANI, 2018;
SHAO et al., 2018; BAKIR; MCSTAY, 2018; RECUERO; GRUZD, 2019). Adorno (2015)
argues that this is a characteristic of fascist propaganda, to reinforce
existing prejudices and beliefs. The acolytes are attracted because they
verbalize opinions that they did not yet have the courage to express, but with
which, in their heart, they already agreed.
The proliferation of opinions speaks of the
objectivity that has become more difficult to see at first sight. The
persistent irrationality of society - which is rational only in its means, not
in its ends - makes the fate of the individual opaque, endowing it with a
mythic character (ADORNO, 2005). Pathological opinions are necessary to
tolerate domination, which continues as a principle of society: everyone must
have a little bit of persecution delusion (ADORNO; HORKHEIMER, 2006). However,
this kind of madness reinforces integration with totalitarian systems. By
clinging to ideas that have a logic, even if illusory, one avoids recognizing
the contradictions of reality and it remains unquestioned. Rationalizations are
of psychological use in guiding individuals in the world. Their impotence in
the face of the whole social apparatus would constitute an unbearable pain if
it were perceived. The compensation for this is the self-confidence acquired by
being part of a “select group” that “knows the truth” and has well-professed
ideas. Fake news creates these collectives that come together around a common
idea, pitting themselves against those outside that disagree with their
theories (DELMAZO; VALENTE, 2018; OSMUNDSEN et al., 2020). But, in this,
individuals regress to "[...] the infantile narcissistic prejudice that
only 'I' am good and allelse is inferior and
bad" (ADORNO, 2005, p. 111).
A characteristic form of these opinions is nationalism
(ADORNO, 2005). In socialization, individual narcissism is repressed;
self-praise and vanity are undesirable. The way out is the collective
narcissism provided by the idea of the nation. However, the taboo imposed on
individual narcissism hinders its elaboration and lends a harmful power to
nationalism. In its regression to its infantile state, each country is
exaggeratedly felt as better than all the others, as supremely good.
Nationalism is a false identification; false because it steals individuality (ADORNO;
HORKHEIMER, 2006). The person thrown into the mass pursues stereotyped
collective ideals, which are not authentically theirs. This takes the
individual effort of reflection out of the way (ADORNO, 2015). Nationalism
means surrendering to that mythical destiny, which identifies society and
nature, the proper reduction of totalitarian movements. In this sense, fake
news that defends patriotism comes close to the propaganda of fascist movements
- and, notably, Recuero and Gruzd
(2019) found that accounts identified as “patriots” on social networks were
major spreaders of fake news. An element found in these news - and which is a
characteristic of fascism - is the construction of imaginary enemies. Fantasies
of the Jew, the Communist, the Chinese are built, obeying that manichaean fixation, in which other nations seem
threatening and are persecuted.
The following sequence of fake news exemplifies the
exacerbated nationalism that seeks imaginary enemies. The news website Brasil 247 published, on March 23, 2020, the article
entitled Xi Jinping says that the time has come for China to lead the world[14],
based on a report from the G1 website[15].
The original video reports the conference of the Chinese Communist Party, in
which the presidency of the country is decided. The aforementioned “leadership”
seems to be linked to the search for a greater presence in the world
political-economic scenario. The disclosure on the Brasil
247 website, however, soon went through a correction: the publication of the
video in G1 was from 2017. Nevertheless, the title of the report triggered
conspiracy theories that spread and resulted in publications such as that of
the Jornal da Cidade
Online website, linking the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 to the Chinese plan
to achieve the goals of “world leadership”. The end of the text leaves this
possibility open: “Xi Jinping [...] seems to be working with the firm intention
of implementing the strategy announced that day. It remains to be seen whether
Coronavirus is part of this strategy...”[16].
This supposed opening is characteristic of fascist propaganda: people are given
the freedom to draw their own conclusions, which is somewhat illusory, as they
are driven by insinuations to a prefabricated conclusion (ADORNO, 2015). The
trick makes them feel part of a group that shares a secret[17].
Despite its contradiction, opinion is a step towards
knowledge. Every thought goes beyond the facts, but "[...] this difference
between thought and its factual confirmation harbors the potential for delusion
as well as for the truth" (ADORNO, 2005, p. 108). Confirmation can only be
done through complex mediations, making it difficult to distinguish
well-founded thoughts from mere opinions. Overcoming arbitrariness can only be
achieved in relation to the object. “Thinking is no mere subjective activity
but [...] essentially the dialectical process between subject and object in
which both poles first mutually determine each other. [...] Opinion is above
all consciousness that does not yet have its object” (ADORNO, 2005, p. 109-110).
Concepts must find their confirmation in reality, for the thought that takes
itself only as an object operates in a vacuum and becomes stupid. Some of this
is in the opinion that develops entrenched in itself, based on an internal
logic that dispenses with confrontation with reality - confrontation that would
force its transformation. Insisting on opinion tends to the inability to stop,
to reflect, which can be called "pathological projection".
“In a sense, to perceive is to project” (ADORNO;
HORKHEIMER, 2006, p. 154). The projection mechanism is spontaneous, inherent to
knowledge and accompanies humanity in its phylogenesis and ontogenesis. The
projection was used as a means of survival; in the face of danger, man
attributed characteristics to the object, even without fully knowing it, in
order to protect himself. Individually, its improvement is the basis for the
distinction between interior and exterior. When reflecting the object, the
subject defines it as a unit based on what he receives and projects from it;
retroactively, the self is formed as something different from the object.
Therefore, the pathological is not the projection itself, but the absence of
its elaboration. Without recognizing the object, the individual does not
recognize himself, does not differentiate what is proper from the object and
what is projection. Without this tension, the conscience weakens and the
subject attributes to the external world everything found in himself. But he is
formed by the hostile objectivity of thoughtless praxis, irrational means and
domination. In the face of these threats, the projection acts as an archaic
weapon of self-preservation: the individual acquires paranoid traits, opposes
everything and believes that his unhappiness and his lack of meaning are
external and independent of him. With the regression to childish narcissism, he
sees himself as good and sees perdition in the world - and he cannot stop,
because “the idea that does not find firm support in reality insists and
becomes fixed” (ADORNO; HORKHEIMER, 2006, p. 157). In creating the world from
what he projects from it, the paranoid sews everything in a mythical fabric. In
these conditions, the individual is susceptible to fascist propagandas, which
devise plots that justify the discharge of frustrations in minorities (ADORNO,
2015).
However, individuals with paranoid tendencies are not
alone, as they share their constructions of obscure systems. Using formulas to
justify misfortune and to prophesy catastrophes, they believe they are
salvation. As an example, a theory circulates on the internet that the election
of Jair Bolsonaro in 2018, which had 57,796,986[18]
votes, was manipulated by "dark forces". The evidence used is the
coincidence of the first digits of the count with the Jewish year of 2018:
5779. This idea also highlights the ambivalence of Bolsonarism
towards the Jewish community, as the answers are sometimes positive, sometimes
negative (BRENER; GOLDENBAUM; BRAIA, 2020). By forcing absurd logic as a
justification for paranoia, the incitement attracts minds accustomed to closed
schemes of science and religion. Paranoia is widespread, transformed into
movement. A pseudoscience or pseudo religion is built with hierarchical
organizations, whose leaders choose for individuals, in their desperate
self-preservation, where to project the terror that the systems themselves
excited. For Adorno (2015, p. 144), “the prevailing conditions in our society
tend to transform [...] moderate madness into a commodity, which the patient
can easily sell, if he finds out that many others have an affinity with his own
disease”. This excerpt was written in 1946, but it is surprising how close it
is to what social networks engender about the proliferation of fake news:
countless users take advantage of the attraction they exert and, selling their
pages to advertisers, profit from its spread (SHAO et al., 2018; TANDOC Jr.;
WEI LIM; LING, 2018; GELFERT, 2018; BAKIR; MCSTAY, 2018; ALLCOTT; GENTZKOW,
2017; DELMAZO; VALENTE, 2018).
Conclusions
Finally, we intended to clarify with the analyzes that
followed in this article, that fascism is present in Brazil and has its own
characteristics of adhesion and expression. In theoretical terms, the way of
operating adherence to fascism continues to be guided by the appearance
necessary for the conformity of will and thought, which is repeated incessantly
by the way of capturing judgment. Anti-Semitic propaganda, which worked on the
basis of not elaborating ideas and arguments, but of manipulating unconscious
mechanisms (ADORNO, 2015), now operates without even dispensing forms of
manipulation.
The picture with the empirical elements that we
present shows “the psychic dispositions of individuals socialized under
capitalism that make them vulnerable to forces and anti-democratic movements” (ZAMORRA,
2020, p.23), constituting the conditions for the emergence of the potentially fascist
individual, susceptible to policies that reinforce domination. The psychic
conflict to which the socialized are subjected in this mode of organization
results from the need to survive in increasingly insecure conditions and in the
face of which they are powerless and weakened. In turn, the dominant social
structure, which determines the production of mobilization and adhesion, offers
different appearances that, however, are unified in a single mode of operation.
It follows that, beyond any difference, what continues to remain a reality is
extermination, and, therefore, fascism as the dominant policy.
What is expressed in fake news, and which is found in
fascist propaganda, is nothing less than destruction itself (ADORNO, 2015). The
insistence on catastrophes is not just a coincidence, “the gaze fixed on
misfortune has something of fascination” (ADORNO; HORKHEIMER, 2006, p. 190).
The individual is excited by the idea of ruin, without being able to
differentiate the destruction of the other from the destruction of himself,
corroborating self-sacrifice as a principle of the current civilization, which
makes the human being a means and annihilates him. Those persecuted by fascism
are those who show possibilities of overcoming present conditions, the
unnecessary attachment to the dictates of the system to which individuals
identify themselves - as an example, the borderless homeland of the Jews.
Domination endures because the dominated have had to learn to hate their
aspirations and project them distortedly over those who remind them of what has
been abandoned. Thus, the followers of such ideas are also victims.
As Adorno (1993, p. 19) indicates, only the “[...]
gaze that turns to the horrible, resists it and before it sustains, with
implacable awareness of negativity, the possibility of something better”, can
overcome the enchantment of established powers. Thought must resist arbitrary
opinion and projection, refusing itself when it realizes it is wrong, not
agreeing with itself and insisting on this error (ADORNO, 2005). Humanity is
only hopeful if overcoming the “self-affirmation immune to reflection” (ADORNO;
HORKHEIMER, 2006, p. 164). The inability to wait for something other than what
exists is the basis for fascism's paranoid reaction, by forcing an anguished
reconciliation between the individual and society, which actually leads to the
destruction of the former.
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Approved on:
October/ 2021.
[1] Doctoral student in Education
- Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar). Visiting researcher - University
of Groningen (RUG, Holanda). Master in Education and graduated in History -
Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Email: guilhermeroitberg@gmail.com.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0338-2270.
[2] Doctoral student in Education - Universidade Federal
de São Carlos (UFSCar). Master in Education – Universidade Federal de São
Carlos (UFSCar). Graduated in Psychology - Universidade Federal de São João del
Rei (UFSJ). Email: marianabergo.d@gmail.com.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2819-9141.
[3] Master’s degree student in
Education -
Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar). Graduated in Psychology -
Universidade Federal de São João del Rei (UFSJ). Email: edsonsouza@estudante.ufscar.br.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6687-6721.
[4] Doctor in Philosophy of Education – Unicamp. Post- doctorate in Educational Sciences - Goethe Universität (Frankfurt am Main). Associate Professor of the Education Department and Graduate Program in Education - Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar). Leader of the Research Group: Critical Theory and Ethical- Political Formation (UFSCar-CNPq). E-mail: luizrgomes@ufscar.br. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8867-7897.
[5] Brazilian Integralist
Action was an integralist/fascist political party in Brazil.
[6] New
State was a dictatorial period in Brazil during the rule of President Getúlio
Vargas, initiated by a new constitution issued in November 1937. Vargas himself
wrote it with the assistance of his minister of justice, Francisco Campos.
[7] The National Renewal
Alliance was a conservative political party that existed in Brazil between 1966
and 1979. It was the official party of the military that ruled Brazil from 1964
to 1985.
[8]
The collection of the Itamaraty Historical Archive is
composed of documents produced, received and accumulated by the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Brazil and the agencies that preceded it (Secretariat for
Foreign Affairs and War of the Kingdom of Portugal (1736-1822) and Secretariat
for Foreign Affairs of Empire of Brazil (1822-1889)).
[9] Created on December
30, 1924, it was an organ of the Brazilian government used mainly during the Estado
Novo and later in the Military Dictatorship. It had the function of
ensuring and disciplining military order in the country and was instituted on
April 17, 1928 by law No. 2034, which tried to reorganize the State Police.
[10] They are the descendants and
remnants of communities formed by fugitive enslaved people (the quilombos),
between the 16th century and the year 1888 (when slavery was abolished), in
Brazil. Currently quilombola communities are present throughout the Brazilian
territory, and there is a rich culture, based on black ancestry.
[11] The BBB Bench is a term used to
refer to the bullet bench ("da bala"), rural bench ("do
boi") and the evangelical bench ("da bíblia") in the National
Congress of Brazil.
[12] The MPL (Movimento Passe Livre),
which means Free Fare Movement is a Brazilian social movement that advocates
the adoption of free fares in mass transit. On June 6, 2013 it took to the
streets the mobilization against the increase in bus, subway and train fares in
São Paulo, an act repeated on the following day. “Não é pelos 20 centavos”
(It is not for 20 cents) were common sayings on the demonstrators' posters,
referring to the increase in ticket prices in São Paulo, which would rise to R$
3.20 (ODILLA, 2018).
[13] Available
at: https://portal.stf.jus.br/noticias/verNoticiaDetalhe.asp?idConteudo=445860&ori=1
and https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/brasil-53003097. Access on August 23, 2020.
[14] Available
at:
https://www.brasil247.com/mundo/presidente-da-china-diz-que-chegou-a-hora-de-o-pais-pais-liderar-o-mundo.
Acessed: March 25, 2021.
[15] Available
at:
https://g1.globo.com/globonews/jornal-globonews-edicao-das-10/video/presidente-da-china-diz-que-chegou-a-hora-do-pais-pais-liderar-o-mundo-6225514.ghtml.
Acessed: March 25, 2021.
[16] Available
at:
https://www.jornaldacidadeonline.com.br/noticias/19488/em-2017-xi-jinping-conclamou-os-comunistas-chineses-chegou-a-hora-da-china-liderar-o-mundo-veja-o-video.
Acessed: March 25, 2021.
[17] The following address discusses
other fake news related to the case, available at:
https://poligrafo.sapo.pt/fact-check/coronavirus-xi-jinping-diz-que-chegou-a-hora-de-a-china-
lead-the-world. Access on 08/25/2020.
[18] In the video entitled “5779 URNAS
DE BOLSONARO VS CALENDARIO JUDAICO”, this theory is commented, available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tdVB39EuRU. Accessed on 08/29/2020.