From the Time of Rights to the Time of Intolerance. The Neoconservative Movement and the Impact of the Bolsonaro Government. Challenges for Brazilian Anthropology

Abstract

The present article discusses the recent neo-conservative movement in Brazil led by the Agribusiness and Evangelical Congressional Caucuses. Both fronts built and consolidated a confluence of objectives and political linkages in the National Congress to confront access to human rights. Neoconservative narratives centered on the “moral agenda” and based on the manipulation of Christian religious values have grown in Brazil’s public scene, countering concepts of gender equality, sexual diversity and reproductive rights. At the same time, an agenda of “legal certainty”, based on the interests of agribusiness, has dismantled environmental protection policies and blocked indigenous and quilombola rights to access land. This movement promotes the delegitimization of anthropological knowledge and of the sciences in general, while undermining the fundamental rights referenced by the Brazilian constitution. With the inauguration of a neoconservative government, intolerance has grown. As Bauman warns, one of the conditions of the dehumanization of the “Other” is authorization by government practices. The challenges facing Brazilian anthropology have increased dramatically in this scenario.

Did they even try? Brazilian government policy measures in the first 12 weeks of the pandemic

“…Bolsonaro and his coalition are fervorous opponents of such redistributive practices and share a narrower comprehension of collectivity (Machado, 2020). This narrowing of the notion of sameness among the people is what enables and justifies their notorious contempt for democratic institutions; hence, it was viable for the federal government to ignore the Constitution and employ its own vision of social protection, since reframing the universal vision of rights sanctioned in the Constitution is an overarching goal of the Brazilian neoconservative movement (Machado, 2020). The social choice that is inherent to these actions but hidden in the low games of situational validation is that of an old and politically efficient combination of an individualized way of life, a concept of the world where the citizen is responsible to build his own future through entrepreneurship and market skills in fields such as health, education, financial security, and personal safety.…”

“…The social choice that is inherent to these actions but hidden in the low games of situational validation is that of an old and politically efficient combination of an individualized way of life, a concept of the world where the citizen is responsible to build his own future through entrepreneurship and market skills in fields such as health, education, financial security, and personal safety. It means a strong, biased, fundamentalist, morally regulatory state that represents the values and interests of a specific part of the population and promotes the dehumanization of the other, which is considered as subhuman, unworthy of tolerance and consideration (Machado, 2020). Based on this ideology, the Brazilian federal government did not play an important role in the fight against the novel coronavirus.…”

“…The most comprehensive innovation in the field of public health was the inclusion of the "outsiders" who had been previously excluded from access to health care, expanding the group of beneficiaries to the universality of the population (Arretche, 2018). Bolsonaro and his coalition are fervorous opponents of such redistributive practices and share a narrower comprehension of collectivity (Machado, 2020). This narrowing of the notion of sameness among the people is what enables and justifies their notorious contempt for democratic institutions; hence, it was viable for the federal government to ignore the Constitution and employ its own vision of social protection, since reframing the universal vision of rights sanctioned in the Constitution is an overarching goal of the Brazilian neoconservative movement (Machado, 2020).…”

Racismo Religioso, Discriminação E Preconceito Religioso, Liberdade Religiosa: Controvérsias Sobre as Relações Entre Estado E Religião No Brasil Atual

“…E, por fim, as diferentes respostas a essas questões refletem e se sustentam em que tipo de visão de sociedade? (ver Almeida, 2017;Machado, 2020;Mariano, 2011).…”

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“…24 Quatro anos depois, o deputado Diego Garcia assume a presidência da Frente. Na solenidade de relançamento a ministra Damares Alves é uma das protagonistas e, em seu discurso, afirma que "esta é uma instância fundamental para que possamos, no futuro, olhar para trás e dizer, esta é uma nação que valoriza a família" 25 . Por sua vez, Diego Garcia sinaliza que é chegado o momento de "colocar os sonhos, que nunca puderam ser vistos em prática por vocês, vamos colocar esses sonhos agora em realidade para a nossa nação".…”