THE RISE OF FASCISM IN BRAZIL: A DELEUZIAN AND GUATTARIAN ANALYSIS

Last November, Jair Bolsonaro was elected the 38th president of Brazil. During the

campaign, he was elected with a fascist, ultra-right and intolerant bias speech. He made

apology to the military dictatorship during the campaign, and also during the last years

of his career as a deputy, and he cast his vote for the impeachment of President Dilma

Rousseff. In fact, before he ran for president, he was known only for his polemical and

politically incorrect statements, apology for torture, misogyny, homophobia and racism.

Machismo and homophobia impregnated in Brazilian society were evident, and often

encouraged by the active moralism of the evangelical churches. Throughout the

campaign, Bolsonaro, who is a former army captain, approached generals and other

militaries with political careers, bringing the shadow of the military coup and the style of

government of the military regime to his profile. An apparent eagerness for the return of

dictatorship, by the "order" that then reigned, leads to serious questions about the

historical memory of Brazilian society, buried, malformed by the silence of the amnesty

law that pardoned the military and militants, the prisoners but also the executioners and

torturers of the dictatorship.

In addition, Bolsonaro showed a mixture of liberal economic discourse with conservative

political and social positions, such as the proposal of violent fight against crime,

protecting private property; the greater exploitation of the Amazon region by the

agricultural industry; the privatization of public services, and the reduction of public

social welfare policies in Brazil. It was an anti-PT campaign, which attracted people who
wanted to take away the PT and what they saw as the old establishment of power. The

campaign had little concrete proposals, and the candidate never went to the debate

again after being stabbed during a campaign on the street. Bolsonaro's victory was

much more based on hatred and the mechanism of incitement of hatred; in the support

of the evangelical church industry and its fanatical base of conservative values; in the

inflation of antipetism and paranoia against the left, "communism", Venezuela; in

attacking the establishment of the media and use of WhatsApp and social networks to

propagate speech and fake news. It showed an ugly side of Brazilian society, willing to

support an extremely intolerant speech against women, queer, indigenous and black

populations.

In this essay, I will analyse the rise of fascism in Brazil during the last elections from a

Deleuzian and Guattarian perspective. I will focus on Guattarian theory of desire and

the micropolitics of fascism. According to Guattari, “ fascism seems to come from the

outside, but it finds its energy right at the heart of everyone’s desire.” (Guattari 1995:

245) Fascism is everywhere and to desire is to activate it in some measure at different

scales within a microphysics of power relations. Guattari names three approaches to

fascist movements in order to develop his theory of micropolitical fascism that I will be

relating to the rise of fascism in Brazil during Bolsonaro ́ s campaign and government,

and connecting the theory of desire and fascism to the current socio-political and

historical context in contemporary Brazil.

The Guattarian theory of desire both de-centres the individual person as source and the

object as lack instead positing an assemblage of mutable heterogeneous components

as a process that is auto-organizing but also influenced by dominant historical trends,

such as the mutual imbrications of humans and machines in the time of immaterial

labour and production.1

If humans are cogs, and they are mechanically enslaved, there is potential there,

because they no longer have the kinds of social identities that are easily alienated.

Guattari called this a black-hole effect: a phenomenon of subjective collapse that is

attached to empty promises, and spectacularized policy, like televised executive orders

that are reproduced widely in the post-mediasphere. This is how Deleuze and Guattari

define microfascism: it occupies micro-black holes and resonates among them acting on

the masses through millions of catastrophes.

The elections, although it might not seem so, were balanced. The elected president Jair

Bolsonaro won with 55% of the votes, corresponding to 57 million Brazilians. That was

against 47 million people who voted for his opponent, Fernando Haddad, from the

Workers’ Party, plus around 43 million null and blank votes. That is, we have around 90

million Brazilians who did ​not ​vote for a fascist government. And it must also be said

1
Black Holes of Politics: Resonances of Microfascism by Gary Genorosko. La Deleuziana – online journal
of philosophy – ISSN 2421-3098 N. 5 / 2017 – Earth Refrain War Machines.
that not every one of Bolsonaro’s voters is a fascist, not all of them. This means that,

contrary to what is believed, Bolsonaro ́ s opponents are not the minority.

According to my friend Ana Giselle, a black trans Brazilian activist, we should center the

conversation around the proliferation of fascist elements and structures and not

necessarily around the growth of fascism. The groups that have fascist elements in

Brazil are very small and few in quantity; obviously, they have grown to the point of

electing a candidate to the presidency of the Republic. But this feat is connected more

to a certain strategy than to quantities [of fascist-leaning people], because these groups

remain small with relation to the total of Brazilian society.

Therefore, the election of Bolsonaro was caused from a structural fascist system and

from a collective feeling of hopelessness and anger against the left-wing party PT and a

general mistrust of traditional political parties. Bolsonaro took strategic advantage of the

failures of Dilma ́ s and Temer ́ s government, the structural economic recession, and the

fear to the increasing empowerment and visibility of dissident bodies (LGBTQ+, black

and indigenous folks) in the cultural panorama and the media to create an appealing

populist and radical speech with promises of re-establishing the order, traditional

religious values and combating crime rates and corruption. This strategic speech to

restore hope is an example of Guattari ́ s black holes effect. Empty promises of hope

and solutions to the collective despair caused by larger structural collapses like the

economic recession, political corruption and crime rates.

isolate these groups and to bring to our side people who did not truly know the

government they were voting for; and to form, again, a majority. However, the left failed

to do this and the fascist factions were able to “contaminate” those larger sections that

did not want to vote or agreed with an extremist fascist ideology but wanted some type

of change.​ ​Fascism is everywhere and to desire is to activate it in some measure at

different scales within a microphysics of power relations ​. ​“What makes fascism

dangerous is its molecular or micropolitical power, for it is a mass movement: a

cancerous body rather than a totalitarian organism.” They were not driven internally to

suicide by a death drive. Rather, fascism constructs a totalitarian State that is suicidal.2

The vehicles used by the fascist sections to propagate propaganda and instigate,

indoctrinate and alienate the masses were the media, religious institutions (Evangelical

faith and values) and social platforms and digital networks like Whatsapp in order to

spread fake news; these are the powerful and proliferating fascist elements Ana pointed

out.

In Brazil, the media is also fascist; it manipulates entirely what is passed on as the truth.

Around the 70s and 80s in São Paulo, the “Tarantula Operation”3 was totally uncovered

2
Black Holes of Politics: Resonances of Microfascism by Gary Genorosko. La Deleuziana – online journal
of philosophy – ISSN 2421-3098 N. 5 / 2017 – Earth Refrain War Machines.

3
During the military dictatorship in Brazil, the Tarantula Operation was a policy established by the
government that operated as a witch-hunt, an action of the State to give an end to all the travestis and
homosexuals that the men in uniforms happened to see.
by the media, so it was completely unnoticed by the population. That is, the arm that

killed and today continues to kill LGBT people in Brazil feels justified by the consensus

of the big media, which get to forge the supposed truth, but which remain silent about

what is happening in the country.

In this way, the State is not for the citizen, the police is not for the citizen, and the

Brazilian media is planned out to make the citizen dumber, so that the average

Brazilian lives in a profound state of social psychosis where the sense for having one’s

own opinion has been lost, the sense for researching facts for oneself and indeed

seeking information is lost. The result is people who live in a conformist, lazy state, as

veritable ignorant robots, who are, consequently, violent. As if violence were the only

possible key to end all this shit-show, to give an end to “evil.”

The creation of violence is built upon the dualism of “the good” and “the evil” where

everything is reduced to binary and opposing categories of “good” and “bad”, “the

friend” and “the enemy”; where there cannot be any grey areas. One of Bolsonaro ́ s

slogans was “Bandido bom é bandido morto” (A good crook is a dead crook). He

believes “cidadãos de bem” (good citizens) are unprotected by the sea of crime and

violence caused by “crooks”, which black poor boys from the favelas are usually
targeted as, to justify violence4 and police brutality. Hence, racial and class profiling of

black poor people as the “bad” or “the enemy” is collectively assimilated. Media and

religion are the most powerful and responsible mechanisms for creating this duality.

According to the Christian and Pentecostal logic, people are divided between good and

evil, between those who should build order and those who flirt with disorder, those who

supposedly follow the law and good customs, and those who are outlaws and

sinners, promiscuous, vagabond, lazy people; good guy and bad guy, hero and villain.

That is, a hard line is created, dividing the population between the individuals who follow

society’s rules, and thus deserve to live, and to be happy, and those who break the

rules, and thus deserve to die, to be erased, who shouldn’t even exist. Then bring

together all of this dichotomy with a thirst for justice, and what results is this sickly

desire for force, violence and for power, especially on the part of this portion of Brazilian

population that is economically disfavoured, and thus has never enjoyed any power or

any justice. Because power and justice, in Brazil, are only on the side of those who

have money or are in a social position of high status.

In Brazil, religion has a big influence on Brazilian politics. The Evangelical bench is the

third biggest in Congress, in number of representatives, counting with 100

representatives. It is the bench that has grown the most in the past two elections. This

means that the supposed pact for a secular State has fallen apart long ago. Religious

4
One of Bolsonaro´s most popular policies has been opening up gun trade to the entire population for
self-defense
beliefs have a direct and undeniable influence in Brazilian politics. Bolsonaro has been

constantly referring to the preservation of the “familia tradicional brasileira” (Traditional

Brazilian Family) which in his terms is constituted by a heteronormative couple with

children where religion, order and obedience are the foundations of such nucleus.

Therefore, anything outside the gender and sexuality normative paradigms is perceived

as repulsive, the “sinner”chaotic, “the enemy”. That is, people have a fear, almost a

repulsion, to a being who is simply free. Considering that this being is free with relation

to a certain paradigm that would be the correct way of being, free with relation to the

righteous person.

Deleuze and Guattari see the familiar nucleus as a paradigm of the larger social

structure, the family operating as a microcosmos of a larger reality; where fascism is

created. The preservation of traditional gender and sexual norms, the hierarchical

power structure that imposes obedience from the children to the parents and creates

order; largely influenced by the religious rhetoric 5 , generates a thirst for radical

conservative ideology within traditional familiar nuclei, which extends to national politics.

In fact, the importance of family relations in politics was strategically used by Bolsonaro

in framing his campaign. The most extended social app in Brazil is Whatsapp, a

platform that has strengthened the familiar network and interaction by the Whatsap

family groups. Most families in Brazil interact and communicate through Whatsapp, and

5
The current Minister of Human Rights, who is an Evangelical pastor, Damares, said that gender ideology
is destroying families and “Boys should wear blue and girls pink”.
therefore, it is the most utilized tool to discuss politics among family members.

Bolsonaro bribed Whatsapp to spread and share fake news against his political

opponent, Fernando Haddad, during the elections.(the scam was never addressed or

penalized) Bolsonaro is the first president elected that has not participated in a televised

electoral debate or press conference.

Right wing political parties and institutions around the world have appropriated social

media and digital platforms, traditionally used by minorities to reclaim justice, in order to

frame their political campaigns and reach out to the masses. The question right now is

“​How can we create new strategies to re-frame political activism and social movements

from an ethical perspective?”

As Guattari and Deleuze points out, there is a desire for revolution, which can go in

either ideological extremes, and a desire of becoming revolutionary, yet if revolution is

not the answer. I share with Deleuze that art is the key to diagnose and cure society

and there are relevant examples of artistic expressions fighting fascism in Brazil. The

squatting movement has turned into a political, cultural and artistic action to fight

gentrification and fascism through the use of social practice, involving local communities

and offering educational artistic workshops, creating safe spaces for community

gathering, artistic production and public discussions.

The rave scene has also been a primordial force to fight fascism. Artistic collectives

have opened up space for the plurality of bodies, the representation and visibility of
LGBT artists, and by parties often being thrown in the streets or abandoned properties,

reclaiming public spaces and popular action.