Conspiracy theories and anti-environmentalism in Bolsonaro’s Brazil

Abstract

Far-right politics has become an explosive phenomenon in Brazil since the presidential election of Jair M. Bolsonaro in 2018. In his reactionary political platform -based, among other things, on a neoliberal political economy set to destroy social security and an educational policy which aims to legalize persecution of teachers deemed 'leftists' -lies a promise to deregulate environmental norms that currently constrain deforestation and guarantees natives the right to land demarcation. In this chapter, we analyse how conspiracy theories about environmentalism in Brazil have found space in the far-right government and impacted the country's current environmental policy.Conspiracy theories have played a central role in Bolsonaro's strategy of 'organized chaos' which, much like Trump's communication strategy, 'feeds on, and fosters, a climate of confrontation and uncertainty that helps him secure the loyalty of his base' (Nunes et al. 2020). 1 As a result, fascist groups such as the '300 do Brasil' and the green-shirts 'Integralistas' have directly threatened Parliament and the Supreme Federal Court with outright support from Bolsonaro and top government officials, echoing a long and much-alive tradition of coup plotting that involves large sectors of the military, intellectuals and businessmen. 2 The tragedy of Brazil's post-transitional period -which after 21 years of military rule chose to reconcile with its past instead of seeking both justice for the crimes of the dictatorship and ways to curb military influence over politics -is that it has allowed a proliferation of conspiracy theories, similar to those that created the breeding ground for the 1964 military coup (dos Santos, 1994), to spread and find political representation in mass democracy. Thus, there is a move away from enclosed conspiracy circles such as the 'Clube Militar' -a reactionary association of retired military men -and the 'Philosophy Seminar' of Olavo de Carvalho -the 'intellectual Guru' of Bolsonarism -to organized political parties, security forces, religious institutions and even armed militias in urban as well as in rural areas