By LUIZ MARQUES*
The farcical cycle is coming to an end. The people learned to distinguish the lies from the truth
Lying in the Brazilian public sphere reached its apex at the hands of former judge Sérgio Moro and former prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol. O National Journal reverberated Lava Jato falsehoods for years on end, instead of fulfilling the duty of critical journalism. Mediocre figures were transformed into heroes of the country, champions of morality in the face of corruption. But they were deceitful, converting fifteen minutes of glory into many dollar signs, through lectures at their weight in gold and the “daily spree”, denounced by the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU). As a result, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF/PR)'s PowerPoint mouth is obliged to reimburse the treasury by R$ 2,8 million.
The head of the current misgovernment, Jair Bolsonaro, continued the practice of lies as a method of political intervention. It was possible because he placed himself outside the rules, as an anti-systemic character, in the confrontation of ideas in the traditional institutions that supported the Republic. Without the commitment to respect the facts, measured by the conventional criteria of the democratic regime, common sense gave way to folly. A word was then added to the dictionary: “post-truth”. Denialism treated the pandemic disease as a “little flu”, subjected vaccines to the scrutiny of ignorance and demonstrated a lack of empathy with the sick.
400 lives were wasted, in the name of irresponsible “herd immunity”. Even the quack chloroquine “to prevent bodies from attacking the coronavirus”, despite being disallowed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), invaded health posts and barracks during the pandemic. Incidentally, prescribed even today by the genocidal.
The concept of “narrative” came to justify the use of fake news in political disputes, as seen in the 2018 election campaign and in the exercise of power by the tenant, who intends to take over the Planalto Palace, with the threat of a “coup” if he loses the elections. A disgrace. Militia violence took to the streets, divided families, separated friends. Brazil lost the international credibility it had gained in the first decade of the XNUMXth century. Our postcard, which was joy and affection, suddenly became the criminal deforestation of the Amazon. Who should preserve the forests, "passed the cattle" in environmental protection legislation.
The debate on Rede Globo began with unfounded accusations in court against candidate Lula da Silva, who won the right of reply in sequence. The nameless was not alone in the role of Pinocchio. Ciro Gomes and a certain priest shielded him. Poor brizolist labor that became the auxiliary line of a neo-fascist, which tarnishes the image of Brazil abroad and sacrifices the people, returned to the hunger map of the United Nations (UN). The lesson that remains is that the dynamics of the television event favored, in format, a pantomime. The lack of decorum from that famous ministerial meeting settled in the studio. The Christian nervousness when facing Lula spoke for itself. Perhaps the last breath of dignity of the candidate who found time to attack Caetano Veloso.
Guy Debord, author of the book The Society of the Spectacle which influenced the outbreak of the emblematic French May 1968, opens the work by saying that modern society “presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles”. The debate was yet another show in search of images to satisfy the desire for visibility, in exchange for rationality, especially on the part of the right-wing squad.
In the story, the diversionary tactic that led Getúlio Vargas to death (accused of the fanciful “sea of mud”), reproduced against Juscelino Kubitschek (accused of a fictitious apartment “fruit of bribery”) and Dilma Rousseff (dismissed without “crime of responsibility” ), was fired at Lula (convicted by the obscurantist legal figure “for undetermined crimes”). The "elites" and the politicians without composure fear losing the atavistic privileges resulting from the social and regional inequalities of the country, since centuries. However, the farcical cycle is coming to an end. The people learned to distinguish, the lies, of the truth. The poet Thiago de Mello's lines, full of affection and energy, have never been so current: “Singing together, let us raise / the weapon of love in action”.
* Luiz Marques is a professor of political science at UFRGS. He was Rio Grande do Sul's state secretary of culture in the Olívio Dutra government.
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