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One of the most discussed topics of 2018
The Brazilian elections were the production and massive spread of fake
new. It is the Brazilian contribution to the international phenomenon of
manipulate information and target niche audiences identified by some
preferences, as we have seen in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in
the context of the US elections and the "election campaign" in the UK.
This is a bad contribution. In general, the
the dynamics of false news involves the identification of people living in an arid region
suffer from a lack of rain and then send to those same people information that
shows that a particular candidate wants to build a dam on the only river that
provides this region in formats that he likes. In the Brazilian version,
this candidate would be involved with tribes who favor witchcraft rituals to move
the rain clouds to another place.
As a result, during the Brazilian election
campaign, we saw pictures of bottles with a penis-shaped tip, supposedly
distributed in day-care centers during the Workers' Party (PT) government;
manipulated photographs that place posters with sentences supporting pedophilia
in the hands of leftist politicians; many images of Fernando Haddad and
Manuela D'Avila wearing t-shirts with anti-Christ messages; a lot of pictures of Manuela full of tattoos,
holding a bottle of beer and wearing the presidential belt, etc.
This practice poses a first problem that
is known as false news. Only last week, the Higher Electoral Tribunal
ordered to withdraw from the internet 35 references
in Haddad and 33 others references
in ManuelaWorkers of the Workers Party to the presidency and the vice-presidency.
Brazilian right-wing movements have been identified as producing and
spread false news. Earlier this year, Facebook
removed several pages identified with this type of misconduct, including some
related to MBL – Movimento Brasil Book, which was directly involved in the project
mobilization for the dismissal of President Dilma Rousseff, and another
maintained by Olavo de Carvalho, an activist known for his attacks against
leftist politicians and social movements.
The question of the post-truth
False news is a serious
problem and, for that very reason, is punishable by judicial sanction in Brazil,
associated with slander, defamation and defamation.
But we must resume the discussion on
another problem, which involves false news, but it is deeper than that. It is
the problem of the post-truth and how that can harm the democratic culture. The post-truth is
a term that refers to the construction of a larger narrative, which gives
meaning and legitimacy to specific worldviews, often already fought
consolidated knowledge.
Focus on the false news at the expense of the after-truth guide the solution for the great appreciation of traditional media in the opposition and delegitimization of alternative media.
A recent example that produces enough
dangerous impacts is the story that vaccines are dangerous, which goes against
all established scientific discoveries and threatens the success of vaccination
this has been done to fight serious diseases in many countries. It's more
that the false news because the culture of vaccination especially and scientific
knowledge in general is in question. In this sense, limit the debate to
the issue of false news has at least three important implications.
The first is that focus on the fake news to
the detriment of the post-truth guide the solution to the great appreciation of
traditional media in opposition and delegitimization of alternative media. Consequently,
the cure for false news is good, neutral and unbiased coverage
by journalists formally linked to registered and recognized media.
Even if we
believing in journalistic neutrality and impartiality, it would be impossible
rely on it in a country where the concentration of media ownership is also
as in Brazil. In 2017, the Media
Property Monitor project assessed the plurality of the media sphere in the
country and revealed that five groups or their individual owners control
concentrate more than half of the media at the national level. according to
another media evaluation project, the Atlas
da Notícia, more than 70 million Brazilians live in a so-called "desert of
news "and the popular media are often the only media covering permanently
the daily life of the peripheral communities.
Focusing on false news means banning social movements and citizens spreading lies, but on the other hand, it also implies weakening the already poor state of the community, alternative and popular media.
On the one hand, focusing on the false news
means to ban social movements and citizens who spread lies but on the
On the other hand, it also implies a weakening of the bad state of the community,
alternative and popular media that are often the only dissenting voices in
relationship with many important issues. If she had relied solely on
media, huge mobilization of women in the campaign # elenão would have
went unnoticed by the public and, at best, would have been compared to
a small pro-Jair Bolsonaro demonstration in Rio de Janeiro.
This is also true
Recalling that, in addition to concentration, traditional media in Brazil have
shown that he has a clear part. Jair Bolsonaro had an exclusive interview with
TV record at the same time as presidential candidates debated on television
Globo. This represents a flagrant disregard for the rule of isonomy, which
Brazilian TVs should follow as long as they are public concessions.
A second implication refers to the
construction of stories impervious to debate. The post-truth combines a
collecting false information to deny knowledge, as in the case of vaccines, or
deny history, as in the case of the military dictatorship in Brazil or the Holocaust.
According to post-truth followers, these historical facts do not exist (for example,
example, a
The Minister of the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil has described the coup of the military state as
Brazil as a 1964 movement).
The legitimization of these realities does not mean
depend on a scientific or historical validation of any kind. Sometimes there
is an attempt. Doubts about vaccines come from groups of researchers who
have raised questions and even published the test results in reputable scientists
journals.
Although these
the publications were subsequently revoked of
the fragility and biases of the research process, their continued existence
inform the public. But often, public expression is enough to validate a
postulate. Hence the ease with which false news spreads in this context. The
no need to present a source for distributed information. As
As an illustration, the increased use of "memes" in comments to newspaper articles or
social networking publications has largely replaced any kind of dialogue or
personal exchange.
The post-truth dynamic associates precarious or
conditions of education (going beyond formal education or
instruction) with the moral urgencies of society to build and consolidate
visions of the world. In this perspective, the post-truth is part of the
exercise of creation of abyssal lines, as defined by the Portuguese sociologist
Boaventura de Sousa Santos.
The false news of the PT candidates associates them with statements against the faith, God and Christians. The post-truth mechanism justifies the false news.
It's the exercise that separates the existing one from
the non-existent, which attempts to eliminate by delegitimizing all that
destabilizes the structures of domination. In the case of the current Brazilian society
who is increasingly influenced by neo-Pentecostalism rooted in the community
Basics, it is easy to understand why the false news of PT candidates associate them
with statements against faith, God and Christians. The post-truth mechanism
justify the false news.
In a discussion with a known person
who posted a false report on Facebook about two PSOL members (another
Brazilian leftist), she told me that lying was not important because these people
people would be quite capable of saying what was in the report. This
posture reveals a structure of interpretation of reality in which the fact
he himself has little importance in the face of convictions. In this sense, the
first implication of the revalidation of the traditional media as a solution to the false
the news becomes more severe.
Repeating again the case of # elenão events,
The main Brazilian newspapers have not given one of the newspapers to associate the
event with photos of popular masses that filled the streets and squares everywhere
the country. In doing so, they corroborated the interpretation that the
the mobilizations did not exist and that these photos were in fact a carnival
records or other popular events in the street, as propagated by the false news.
A third implication is that the post-truth is
related to the naturalization of particular cultural patterns as opposed to
collective projects of the company. As Roland Barthes suggests in his essay
Mythology, naturalization is an ideological resource widely used to inoculate
realities that are far from natural. In this sense, the post-truth dynamic
associate the postulates of the interpretation that he wants to consolidate
with daily facts, easily verifiable by the ordinary citizen, which makes them
obvious and indisputable.
Some of the defending voters of Jair Bolsonaro
justified his homophobic, sexist, misogynistic and xenophobic speech by a
"direct and sometimes a little rude way of speaking" which would
typical of the average Brazilian. On the other hand, like many politicians in
workers were charged with investigating corruption, all parties
politicians are corrupt – something that does not even consider whether the
the accusations are true or the political bias of the judiciary.
From the post-truth to the truth of oneself
Eliane Brum talks about an evolution (or
involution?) from the concept of post-truth to that of "self-truth".
Brazilian journalist associates "truth of self" with aesthetics
opposition to ethics. This is the area of proclamation, use of the
pulpit. It also connects the concept to the production of realities. Falsehood
the news is there, but the most important thing is not to contradict a version of the story.
It suffices to establish a utopia (or dystopia) that begins to govern
the behavior of the person who broadcasts it.
the numerous
case of aggression against left-wing voters, activists of social movements,
women, gays and blacks, who have been reported in social networks, can
be interpreted as the naturalization and incorporation of a discourse of
the violence that characterizes Jair Bolsonaro.
Brazilian law considers that homophobia and
racist acts and statements are a crime. Challenge the legal and moral
rules, the candidate's "freedom of expression" in open advertising
attacks on social groups and human rights naturalize the dystopian
reality in which ordinary citizens can express their prejudices, including
carrying a weapon, if they consider themselves threatened in any way.
The reality created by Bolsonaro does not solve the problems that produce this crime, but allows the vociferation against the supposed enemies and allows the reduction of the rights in the name of the utopian security.
the
the dystopia of this is justified by the utopia of most Brazilians who associate
that freedom of expression with the protection of the family, both in terms of
security, motivated by the rise of violence in the country and, morally, fed again by
neopentecostal movement.
The "self-truth" is so powerful that it leads
free citizens enjoying the enjoyment of a democracy to declare that they prefer
the interference of armed forces regularly searching their pockets and their homes
rather than continuing to live at the risk of crime. The reality created by
Bolsonaro does not solve the problems that produce this crime, but
allows vociferation against supposed enemies and allows the
limitation of rights in the name of utopian security.
The post-truth transforms democracy into a
inert mass in the hands of those who dominate it. He loses his primordial
values to fit the interests of the moment and is depoliticized by the
deliberate absence of debate. Ideas are not discussed. The truths are confronted
and the interlocutors are delegitimized. In this process, the Brazilian elections
of 2018 were embezzled by the post-truth.
No proposals have been discussed and the concentration
efforts against a presidential candidate, although source of a historical
highly politicized mobilization, dismantled the debate for all the others
positions, paving the way for the election of the candidate may be more conservative
composition of legislative chambers in the history of Brazil.
Institutionally, the
The effect is harmful, as the lack of debate weakens the political and
the ideological orientation of the government that will be put in place. But the
still a serious effect on the social fabric, which embodies the dynamics of society
post-truth or "self-truth" as a modality that allows the symbolic
and finally the physical elimination of the dissonance, the opposition, the
other. There is no greater risk for democracy.
