By LUIZ DE LUCCA NETO* and ANDRÉ VILLELA DE SOUZA SANTOS**
Commentary on the article by Luiz Felipe Ponde “The PT is professional, the Bolsonaristas are amateurs and tacky”
First of all, it is important to say that Folha de São Paulo, which frequently gives space to the most obtuse opinions, was not interested in publishing this commentary on the incredible texts of one of its most assiduous columnists. This text ironically highlights the manipulation of ideas and concepts that the philosopher practices in his columns.
In the social media environment, there is a maxim that one should never, under any circumstances, respond to or “give a platform” to inferior comments or criticism. Here, inferiority corresponds to the accumulated digital capital, which floods the networks in search of its own appreciation and which a given individual active in digital media can gather. Whether a communicator, a content producer or a newspaper columnist, their recognition is measured in the number of followers and number of views, generally reflecting its popularity on the internet.
Based on this principle and since we, young humanities researchers, are in a position of great inferiority, both in terms of digital popularity and intellectual projection, we thought: why don't we write a text commenting on the recent and incredible columns of philosopher Luiz Felipe Pondé? All we need to do is transform into text what we have already said whatsapp, during the fateful morning when we opened the Folha de São Paulo website and a column with a suggestive title appeared before our eyes (clickbait), signed by him.
Recently, the philosopher treated us to another morning of long conversation between friends through whatsapp. The title of his column was captivating, as if his finger had taken on a life of its own and clicked the left mouse button without his consent: “The PT is professional, the Bolsonarists are amateurs and tacky.” The first paragraph immediately denounced, bluntly and intoxicated with Hannah Arendt’s “totalitarianism,” the plot conspired by the left:
If Boulos takes the mayoralty of São Paulo, the city will be an important bridgehead for the PT to take the state in 2026. With its hands on the federal coffers and those of São Paulo —the richest state in the federation— the PT will bleed the country dry for 100 years.
It would be the “Rich “100 years of the PT”! Probably commanded by the infamous clones of Lula, so much talked about recently in the “zap” underworld, who would continue the PT leader’s power project. If the current Lula is not already a clone. Could Luiz Inácio be the Paul McCartney of the Workers’ Party and the PT, like the Beatles, a creation of Theodor Adorno and the Frankfurt School, to subvert Western culture and the pillars of capitalism?
We don't know. The fact is that philosopher Luiz Felipe Pondé knows what he is writing about and, without any irony, he masters the concepts of his field.
Once, I needed to write for my academic thesis (warning of an academy dominated by cultural Marxism!), a short text of a methodological nature on the concept of structure and superstructure for Marxist theory, as an introduction to the concept of hegemony of the Italian Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci. Anyway, I looked up the main texts on the subject and, while browsing the internet, I found a video by Luiz Felipe Pondé, surprisingly, commenting on exactly what I was looking for: the concept of structure and superstructure in Marxism!
Like almost every humanities academic, who does not hide a certain arrogance, I immediately imagined disjointed and absurd speeches presented by someone who repudiates Marxism. I could not have been more wrong, the philosopher's video gave me a didacticism that saved me days of reading and studying to write about the subject. I immediately exclaimed to my friend whatsapp:it seems that Pondé really read (without distortions) Hegel and Marx!
Returning to the “PT Reich”, what Luiz Felipe Pondé presents in his article is a diffuse defense of freedom, as the far right does, evoking the moral panic of “PT totalitarianism” and the “corrupt Brazilian state”. In this sense, social networks would be the last frontier not dominated by the leftists’ power project, with all the institutions of the republic already taken over.
The title of his column highlights the equivalence between the PT left and the Bolsonaro far-right, for the most part vibe “theory of the two demons”, from the same creators of Nazism and communism are the same and the military dictatorship was a war between the military and evil guerrillas. However, despite the false equivalence, Pondé gives a certain pejorative emphasis to the “professionalism” of the PT, in the face of Bolsonaro’s “amateurism”, avoiding any association with Bolsonarism.
Pondé knows how to differentiate himself from the “tacky” “WhatsApp” aunts who consume conspiracy theories on the internet and have hardly been able to open a book on these subjects. After all, he is from USP, has a PhD in philosophy, and has read and understood Hegel and Marx. He knows well, much more than we do, who Adorno, Benjamin, Horkheimer, Marcuse and the Frankfurt School are, unlike that other “philosopher”, deceased and flat-earther, who alleged the cultural domination of the left through the Beatles and the use of aborted fetuses as sweetener by a soft drink company.
Despite appearances, the “sophisticated” academic and the astrologer of the masses have the same “theory”: the left has a plan to dominate institutions and build cultural hegemony. There is no evidence to prove this, but we hope that both the living philosopher and the deceased “philosopher” are correct.
*Luiz de Lucca Neto He is a PhD candidate in History of Architecture at FAU-USP. He is a member of the group Culture, Architecture and City in Latin America (CACAL/ FAU-USP).
**Andrew Villela de Souza Santos PhD candidate in Psychology at FFCLRP-USP. Member of the Contemporary Philosophy Study Group (GEFICO/ FFLCRP-USP).
References
Hannah Arendt. The origins of totalitarianism. San Diego, New York, London: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1975.
Luiz Felipe Pondé. The PT is professional, the Bolsonarists are amateurs and tacky. Folha de São Paulo, 03.Mar.2024.
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