Column | The crazy stomp on the stage

In the last few decades, there was consensus that, given the nonsense that were said in the networks and in other areas, the best strategy was not to respond. Answer to people clearly malicious and intellectually dishonest, in their search furious for the fame, it was legitimarlas as partners and give them credit to what they said. And, thus, serve as a ladder to acquire more visibility. In Portuguese, the saying that expresses this idea is: “don't aplaudas to crazy to not dance”. The choice of Donald Trump, of other populist right-wing and now Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil has revealed that it was a mistake that will cost very expensive.

there is No perceived that, with the internet, the “crazy” already had a stage on which to dance —the social networks and Youtube, as well as the ability to multiply without being bothered with the WhatsApp. The false theories that they were inventing were read as if they were serious and reliable. The scenarios had changed place and “crazy” dancing without being confronted with facts or ideas to them to bother. The applause went on increasing, while the illustrated torcían the gesture or drew a smile of superior irony.

“crazy” not only danced, but zapatearon. Then began to assert their thoughts as “truths”. And unique truths. The next step was to conquer the power. Today, the “crazy” not only deal with the main scenarios, but have the atomic power to blow up the world, as Trump, or will end up with the Amazon, such as Bolsonaro.

If the election, Trump had already exposed this reality, the Bolsonaro is still more iconic. In the case of Trump, at least it could be argued that the american president was a successful business man, something very valued in the country of the “men made of themselves”, a phrase used to cover up inequalities which are decisive for the destiny of each one. In the case of Bolsonaro, despite the fact that it is presented and what is presented as “retired captain”, the president-elect has spent the last 28 years working as a professional politician with little or no importance to the major decisions of the Congress, opening up space in the news only as a figure of burlesque. He managed to be elected without, or even participate in the discussions of the second round —or exactly why— because it dominated the scenarios that mattered to win the election.

Bolsonaro, who is called “myth”, is now

But Bolsonaro is officially sworn in only in January, it is evident that the government of Michel Fear ended on the 28th of October, when the deputy won the election. Today, the brazilians will realize that what seemed to be a parallel universe, that only in exceptional situations is intersected with the real, has become what we can call reality. The man who rules Brazil, which his followers call a “myth”, it is a “now”.

What we know so far is that Bolsonaro worships to three male figures: Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, a soldier and a torturer of the dictatorship (1964-1985); Olavo de Carvalho, who is presented as a philosopher and became popular on the internet after being a columnist of great vehicles of communication, and Donald Trump. Ustra stands out as the ethical reference of Bolsonaro, Carvalho as his guru, intellectual, and Trump is your role model as a leader. For the moment, we have a trinity. And, at this point, Bolsonaro could interrumpirnos to affirm that God is above all, since God has gone to be an asset in the political economy that governs the Brazil current.

The trinity of Bolsonaro is composed by a torturer, a guru and... Trump

Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra I have already described at length. The brazilian justice system has been recognized as a torturer and, according to witnesses, would be responsible for at least 50 murders. As a torturer, he was able to apalizar to pregnant and taking children to see the body destroyed from their parents. Olavo de Carvalho has already said that he is against vaccination campaigns, in a country that sees them as diseases that were considered eradicated have come back to be a threat due to low vaccination coverage. Lives in the united States since 2005, and teaches philosophy courses in video transmitted over the internet. In a recent interview to the journalist Júlia Zaremba, in the Folha de S. Paulo when asked about the sexual education in the schools, Carvalho said:

“the more sex education there is, the more cochinadas are done in the schools. At the end of the day, you're teaching children to give the ass, suck cocks, to tighten the nipples to the other in public. They believe that sex education is good, but in reality is bad. The State does not get involved in the sexual education of anyone.”

The credibility, because it is not built with a reputation based on knowledge exposed to the debate, but with an emotional perception of “authenticity”

The language that the intellectual mentor of the new president of Brazil takes you to the formal press is the one that governs the internet. There is no basis for the assertion, there is not a single confirmed case that any child has been taught in school to “give the ass, suck cocks, to tighten the nipples to the other in public.” That, until now, does not exist as fact. But that doesn't matter. The statements need not be rooted in facts, you just need to say them. The truth has become autoverdad. And the credibility, because it is not built with a reputation of knowledge put to the test and exposed to the debate, but with the emotional perception of “authenticity” that consumes it.

it Is “true” because Olavo de Carvalho says that it is true that there has clearly been invented. And it is “true” because, individually, each a follower of Olavo de Carvalho has decided that it is true. And, from the 29th of October, the day following the second round of the presidential elections in Brazil, it is also true because Olavo de Carvalho is the intellectual reference of the future president of the (still) eighth economy in the world.

from their autoverdades, Olavo de Carvalho has recommended to the two ministers for the new government: Foreign Affairs, the diplomat Ernesto Araújo, and Education, the colombian established in Brazil Ricardo Vélez Rodríguez. In the same interview, Carvalho describes the process by which they got to accept their proposals:

“I put It in the Facebook, I think that I also put in the message area (the social network), Eduardo Bolsonaro. That was all. I know that Bolsonaro read what I write and see that he takes it quite seriously. And I feel very flattered. (...) I suggested those two names because it simply occurred to me at that time.”

The controversy election of the minister of Education made it explicit the way in which the new government has already begun to operate. The first recommended, Mozart Neves Ramos, director of the Institute Ayrton Senna, tackled the evangelicals because it would be “leftist”. Then, it was thought the prosecutor Guilherme Schelb, close to the evangelical leader Silas Malafaia and advocate of the project “School Without a Party” that seeks to censor content, and teachers. Coming out of the meeting with Bolsonaro, Schelb made the following statement to the press:

“children of 8 or 9 years old I can't put duties, as it is doing, to discuss about the genre, about what is group sex, how to have sex with two men, what is a blowjob. This is a discussion of gender, is a violation of the dignity of the child”.

As the autoverdad waiver the facts, Schelb no one will bother with the inconvenience of proving what he said. For example: in what schools and in many schools in the country, the children of 8 and 9 years old learn what is a blowjob or how to have sex with two men? Where are the duties in a child of 8 or 9 years has to describe a blowjob or how to have sex with two men?

society would have you believe that the classrooms are an orgy constant while hiding the real issues in the shadows

Would have to ask where this happens and in what proportion it happens in the country. And the prosecutor would have to respond. With tests verified. But there is no need to prove it. You just need to say it. Whatever. And so grows in the country the number of people who believe that the day-to-day in the classrooms of brazilian is an orgy constant, when the real problems —the low salary of the teachers and the proven poor quality of education in Brazil— they hide conveniently in the shadows.

Said another way: the problem invented becomes more and more real that the problem actually exists and that condemns millions of brazilians to the consequences of a education failed, limiting their access to the world and the chances of having a full life.

Finally, Bolsonaro followed the advice of his guru, Olavo de Carvalho: between the different beliefs of Vélez Rodríguez, the future minister of Education, is to defend the 31 of march of 1964, date of the coup that brought down a dictatorship for 21 years, “it is a day to remember and celebrate”. It also criticized the Truth Commission, which investigated the torture, the kidnappings and murders committed by agents of the State during the regime of exception: “The unhappy ‘Truth Commission’, which, in my opinion, was more a staging for the ‘omission of truth’, was the initiative more absurd that the petralhas (those who support the Workers Party) have tried to impose”. In the coming months, the brazilian society will discover how to be in the area of education is led by someone who distorts historical facts.

Velez Rodriguez was the second name that recommended by Olavo de Carvalho. The first was Ernesto Araújo. The beliefs of the future minister of Foreign Affairs already have become ridiculous international. In his blog, called Meta-policy 17 (number of elections Bolsonaro), created to support your future boss, Araújo affirms that climate change is a “left ideology”. It also accuses the Workers ' Party (PT) and to the left of “criminalize the desire of man for woman, Disney movies, the red meat” and “air conditioning”. Came to write the ST “you want to prevent children to be born”, because, to the left, “any baby is a risk to the planet because it will increase carbon emissions”.

The accumulation of falsehoods, Araújo missed a truth that is proven and documented about their candidate and now chief: during the last two decades, Bolsonaro has advocated the sterilisation of women and a rigid birth control as a means to combat poverty and crime. But who cares about facts when your followers will believe any lie he says is true?

The problem is that none of the written statements of the future minister of Foreign Affairs are a joke. On the contrary. They are very serious. First, because Bolsonaro and part of their environment manipulated by those same lies. Second, because the followers of the president-elect believe that they are true. Third, because we can already generate consequences. Brazil has given up on ever being the venue of the next Summit of the Climate, the COP25, in 2019, a distinction that the brazilian Government had asked for, and, two months ago, president Michel Fear commemorated. Bolsonaro asserted that he had participated in that decision and had recommended that his future minister, Ernesto Araújo, who will avoid that will take place in Brazil the event of the most important climate.

Is in progress the sixth mass extinction in the path of the planet, the first caused by the human

The leadership in the discussion of the climate crisis is the only one that Brazil could compete by having in its territory most of the largest rainforest on the planet, strategic for the control of global warming. The country is also the most biodiverse in the world. Between 1970 and 2014, humanity destroyed 60% of all the mammals, birds, fish and reptiles on the planet. Since humans emerged on Earth, have either already disappeared, half of the plants. The south american continent is one of the most rapidly losing biodiversity. Is in progress the sixth mass extinction in the path of the planet, the first caused by humans.

Until the election of Bolsonaro, Brazil exercised the role of protagonist in the debate on the climate and biodiversity on the world stage. These are the two greatest challenges of the present, because they affect all the other areas, even —and with force— the agro-industry. Currently, in Katowice, Poland, is performing the COP24. Thanks to the statements of Bolsonaro and Araújo, Brazil is bad news. As it was at the end of November, during the Summit of the World's Biodiversity.

When he accepted the invitation to be the future minister of Foreign Affairs, Araújo opened a Twitter account. As your boss, wants to talk directly with their fans. Recently, he wrote a text in which he argued that his appointment would represent a “popular mandate” in the ministry. Their belief supposedly represent the will of the people on the outside. Araujo tries to follow the same path as his godfather, Olavo de Carvalho. Speaking directly to his followers, and discrediting any mediator, such as the press, academia and even their colleagues, Araújo does not have to prove what it says nor to confront his claims with facts. Just talking about it. But, for that to be himgítimo, as a member of a populist government, you have to convince the people that speaks for the people. Or the people speaks by his mouth.

At any given time, writes: “And what about the brazilian people? Do not be concerned with what the brazilian people think of you? Do you know who is the brazilian people? What have you seen? Have you seen the girl waiting for the bus at 4 o'clock in the morning to go to work, with the fear that the mooring or break it? Does the woman who carries his sick daughter in a wheelchair precarious, pushing her hospital to hospital without getting the address? How sad kid who sells cloths at the traffic lights all day in the sun and get to eat it? What about the woman who asks for money to buy drugs, but in reality it is to buy crack and forget a little bit of life? What the other guy crosses the street with crutches, with a backpack broken in the back, in which you have stuck the adhesive Bolsonaro, perhaps with the hope of giving dignity and meaning to their daily struggles? Do you or the father of a family who has a wound in the leg that will not heal ever, because you have to work three shifts in order to feed their children? There is the brazilian people, it is Betticket not in the New York Times”.

the minister of Foreign Affairs not believe in climate change does not mean that the planet will stop warming and affect the lives of millions of people

As Araújo intends to talk directly with “the people”, but in one-way, where he speaks and the people swallow it, prefer not to explain to the people that are the poorest who will suffer the greatest impact of climate change. People in regions with low income are seven times more likely to die when they are exposed to natural hazards than the population of regions of high income. The poor also have six times more chances of being hurt or the need to scroll, abandoning their lands and homes. Brazil loses more than 6,400 million reais (1.650 million dollars) a year with extreme events, such as storms and floods, caused by climate change.

The climate crisis not only reflects the inequality is huge in Brazil, but expanding it. These same people Araújo claims to know —and their critics do not— are the ones that will suffer more by having a Foreign minister like him. That Araújo does not believe in climate change does not mean that the planet will stop warming and affect the lives of millions of people in Brazil.

At the end of the text, the minister is betrayed. A part of the town, one that does not agree with him, does not understand anything. The minister with a “popular mandate,” he says to the “people” that you have to let those who know and have studied to make the decisions: “If repudias the ‘ideology of the PT’, but you don't know what it is, sorry, but you're not trained to fight it and remove it from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or wherever. On the contrary, you're helping to perpetuate under new forms. If the priority is to remove the ideology from within the ministry, isn't it convenient to have a minister able to understand the ideology that exists within the ministry? Can someone who is studying in books for years and not simply had you heard any reference at some point in the program Globo Repórter?”.

As all can be much worse, Brazil has not only a minister of Foreign Affairs is disastrous, but two. Last week, the president-elect he sent one of his sons, the deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, to cozy up to Donald Trump, the third person of his trinity. As underlined by Matias Spektor, in the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo: “Your son came to make commitments on an agenda that the u.s. Government appreciates: Cuba, Jerusalem, China and Venezuela. Asked for nothing in return, part of the deference american Bolsonaro. As Trump does not respect one who makes unilateral concessions, the team Bolsonaro is debased. (...) It is an irrational belief which ignores the predilection of Trump by wrench concessions from its main partners to change anything. (...) The americans are going to put the boots”.

How do you intend to the family Bolsonaro get the best deals to Brazil wearing the cap who sits on the other side of the negotiating table?

While serving the official agenda in Washington, the son of the president-elect wore a cap that read “Trump 2020”. Perhaps the most understand what's embarrassing is that a representative of the president-elect of Brazil wear a cap which defends the re-election of the current u.s. president. It is as if Brazil take a cap of Trump 2020. How can you expect to negotiate the country's interests in good condition from this position of subordination explicit, as if it was a fan that will take you to the head the name of his idol? His father did not do better during the visit to Brazil of the adviser to Trump, John Bolton. As if it were a subordinate, he made the military salute. And it was not reciprocated.

that's it. The “mad” are already dancing on the stage, do not need anyone to put a scenario. Not even the clap of the sectors that they believed that they had the monopoly of the applause. At the dance, they claim that the facts are fake news and that the science is fake news. As they are in positions of power, and one of them will be the next president of Brazil, the newspapers are forced to play their speeches and their dancing.

They will govern the universities. They will decide the scientific policy. They can convert into law the bill School Without a Party, establishing the censorship with the excuse of combating a problem that does not exist. And everything indicates that we will be able to dismantle the unified Health System in the interests of the private health system. The fate of the Amazon and its peoples what will determine that they want to open up the rainforest to exploitation.

When many believe the same delirium, what happens to the reality?

Ernesto Araújo became the laughing stock internationally because their claims are absurd. Do not hold up when compared with the facts. But when many believe the same delirium, what happens to the reality? This question is crucial at this time. And a challenge that we need to build a response. And fast.

When there is no longer a common base of facts from which it can speak, no language possible. For example: in the last few decades, religious fundamentalists have argued that the theory of evolution, Charles Darwin should be taught in schools alongside the “creationism”, the belief according to which everything was created by God. According to them, the two are equivalent. The issue is that this statement is equivalent to say that a chair and an orange are the same thing. Are not.

evolution is a scientific theory, creationism is a religious belief. The first had to be tested by scientific methods. Even if you don't believe it, the processes that the theory of evolution described will continue to exist, and acting. The second you can creértela or not, and can never be proved by scientific methods. The two do not mix or compare. Mixing them would mean that you could understand a part of science that makes the world work, and also would mean that the mythic dimension of the religious texts would be lost in what is more poetic.

The same is true for the climate change caused by human action. It is not a matter of belief or faith. It is proven by the best scientists in the world. It is so obvious that the majority of you can notice it even in empirical research, in their own everyday experience. Although the future of the minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil believes that global warming is a “left ideology”, the planet is not going to stop warming up for his belief. Only small children believe that something is going to cease to exist if they pretend it doesn't exist.

How to reset the language so that we can have a minimum basis common from which we can go to talk?

But to treat facts as beliefs —or as “ideology”— both Araújo as the president-elect may prevent that Brazil do what you have to do to reduce emissions of CO2, the main responsible for global warming, as that can prevent Brazil to take measures to adapt to what will come. We have only 12 years to keep the planet warm more than 1.5 degrees celsius. If you climb higher, the effects will be catastrophic. Is serious, of these 12 years, for at least four Brazil will be in the power to people who confuse facts with beliefs. Or, for their own interest, they claim that what is a fact is the “ideology” of the other.

The second crucial question at this point is: how do I reset the language so that we can have a minimum basis common from which we can go to talk? We also need to build a response. And fast.

The third is how to return meaning to the words. For example: an orange. Again. You and I have to agree that an orange is an orange. If I say that an orange is a chair, how are we going to talk? We can discuss what type of orange is better, how to improve the production of oranges, and how we can expand the access of all to the consumption of oranges, etc., But we can not discuss if an orange is a chair or an orange, if not, you will not advance in any of the important issues on the orange. All that is relevant, as its nutritional value and the evidence that the poorest may not buy or plant orange, it will remain locked in an impasse, to insist upon the questioner that the orange is a chair.

it is Not a matter of opinion that the orange is an orange and not a chair. Nor are there facts alternative. There are facts. There is an alternative in that the orange is a chair. Currently, however, the trick of treat oranges as chairs to prevent the debate is used in abundance.

While called communist half of the brazilian population without have never been, the issues that affect the life of the people is decided without the people's participation

If you empty the words of common meaning, there can be dialogue. This is what happens with the word “communism”, among many others. There is a minimum base of understanding of what is communism. Therefore, all that the followers of Bolsonaro do not like or all of what you stimulate to attack is called “communism”, as all they consider their enemies call them “communists”.

however, the meaning of communism is almost totally lost. And, in this way, it crashes the dialog, because for a part of brazilian society, the orange has now become chair. While called “communist” half of the brazilian population without have never been or wanted to be, the issues that directly affect the life of the people is decided without debate or popular participation, as, for example, the reform of pensions.

The “mad” today of dance in all of the scenarios are not so crazy. Rather they seem very ready. It is clear that some believe that, for example, the climate crisis is “climatismo” or a “left ideology”, says Araújo. But the majority know that they say that is almost as stupid as saying the Earth is flat. And after very alarming with the topic, pass to the next stage of the script. What is it?

While the followers of Bolsonaro were distracted by the dance of foreign invasion, their friends take the Amazon

to Say that yes, of course, that global warming is a fact, but “the rich countries have already destroyed all their natural resources and now use the climate crisis to manipulate countries, such as Brazil.” You just need to follow the recent statements of Bolsonaro and the others in your environment to make sure that the strategy that will be used to keep your supporters will be to revive the false accusation that the indigenous and international NGOS want to take over the Amazon region of Brazil. The lie of the threat to national sovereignty never ceased to be active in the fight for the Amazon. But, in times of WhatsApp, you can reach a lot more people who are willing to believe it. It has already started.

While the brazilians were distracted by the dancing of the “crazy”, the ruralistas are trying to move forward in his purpose of opening up indigenous lands to exploitation. It is worth recalling, once more, that the indigenous lands are the domain of the Federation. The indigenous have only the usufruct exclusive. When Bolsonaro compared to the indigenous on the reservations with “animals in a zoo” and said that indigenous people “want to be " people like us”, want to be able to sell and lease land, is not only being racist.

it is Also manipulating. Your friends want the public land to become private land, which can be sold and leased and exploited. While doing the dance of the foreign invasion, are taking the jungle inside. The nationalism of the followers of Bolsonaro made the military salute not only to the united States, but also to large landowners and corporations, and mining companies are transnational.

A part of the environment of Bolsonaro believe that you can control the child spoiled and capricious. Really?

In the very near future we will see what happens when a rave collective, construido from lies persistent presented as unique truths, they are confronted with the reality. Sometimes it seems that Bolsonaro believe that everything will happen just because he says that will happen. He says, then retracted, then said to have been invented that he said what he said. In summary: say anything and the opposite. In some senses, Bolsonaro seems like a child enraptured with the success in the world of adults, with their caps, and the dolls of their idols. A part of the environment of Bolsonaro, that is not silly, believe that you can control the brat and crotchety and convince him to act according to their interests. As we shall see.

At some point, the followers of Bolsonaro will discover that you can't sit in the orange or eat the chair

The confrontation of the promises with the exercise of the power has already begun. How to explain that they will be more than 20 ministries and not the 15 promised? Or, how to explain the consequences of moving the embassy to Jerusalem, lacking the respect to important trading partners, such as the arabs? How to interact with China, a large importer of brazilian products, after making the military salute to Trump in the middle of a trade war between the two powers? How to deal with the impacts that this will have on the economy and on the lives of the poorest of the poor? How do you justify that the dispensaries will be able to remain without medical because the cubans are gone and the brazilians do not want to occupy the most difficult places and with less infrastructure? How to manage a possible increase in teenage pregnancies, the spread of aids and sexually transmitted diseases for lack of public policies of prevention and sexual education in schools?

The reality is irreducible. It is then when the followers find that they can't sit in the orange or eat the chair. Bolsonaro and his friends have already begun to live this confrontation. His followers still have not understood. But what you will understand.

The left proved unable to build a project capable of uniting the people, and that is not the fault of Bolsonaro

Who is encouraged with that idea, however, should be ashamed. Who suffers first and suffers most in an unequal society are the poor. If the “madmen” are on the stage dancing is also because the majority of the brazilian population was excluded from the dialogue even during a large part of the democratic period and even during great part of the governments of the PT. Although Bolsonaro has managed to unite people around is not a project, but to an affection —hate,— his large number of followers felt that he was part of something. Since 2013, had already become very clear that the brazilian society wanted to be more involved.

During part of his stay in power, the PT also invested more on the affections in the construction of a project with the people. She stopped to talk, did not think that they need more the streets and expelled from them in 2013. After the PT is corrupted in power, and I don't mean just the financial corruption, the left proved incapable of building a project able to unite the people. And that is not the fault of Bolsonaro. There is nothing to accuse the other of having a project of destruction. You have to deal with the ruins themselves, and present a project of reconstruction and reinvention of Brazil to convince the people because it is done in conjunction with them.

The greatest victory of Bolsonaro is when your opponent speaks as he

if someone still has not understood: to dispute an idea of Brazil, there is, first, to have an idea; second, to convince the majority of brazilians that this is the best project to improve their lives; third, try to go back to dance on the stage to recompose the language, restore the importance of the facts, and return the substance to the words. It will not be easy.

In these elections, Brazil have frayed to almost rip it out. At some points, it has been torn. Perhaps the greatest triumph of Bolsonaro has been to block any possibility of dialogue. This process is not what started it or is their more responsible. But, without blocking the dialog, Bolsonaro probably would not have won the election. Today, on the one hand and on the other, people only know how to discredit and destroy. Those who report to Bolsonaro not to have understood that, by adopting the same vocabulary and the same syntax, only in the opposite sense, is equal to him. And give you the greatest victory you can have. In this sense, the hatred, Bolsonaro has unified the country. All hate it. There is No complement in this grammar. Hate is depleted in the verb itself, but the noun is destroyed is the body of the most fragile.

anyone Who desires to resist the reduction of Brazil, in so many senses, has to, first, resist in the language. To differentiate, also to be able to host. The only way to return to talk about is going back to talk to you. Although for that we have to talk about oranges and chairs.

Eliane Brum is a writer, reporter and documentary filmmaker. Author of books of non-fiction Coluna Prestes – o Avesso da Lenda, Life Ninguém vê, Or " da Rua, Female Stream, Meus Desacontecimentos, and of the novel Uma Duas. Website: desacontecimentos.com . E-mail: elianebrum.coluna@gmail.com . Twitter: @brumelianebrum/ Facebook: @brumelianebrum

Translation: Meritxell Almarza