Lula government tries to rewrite history, as in Soviet communism

Rewriting history is a communist practice to try to impose an imaginary reality on new generations, softening or erasing past “mistakes” or distorting true facts in order to hide what really happened.

This is how you try to turn bad guys into good guys and vice versa. It happened often in the former Soviet Union. In Cuba, it became a recurring practice after the 1959 revolution, in which Fidel Castro took power.

The murderous, misogynistic and homophobic Che Guevara is perhaps the greatest icon of this practice of rewriting history. Young people across Latin America thought of him as a “good” adventurer, an empathetic hero, concerned for the weak and oppressed. Pure twisted story.

In Brazil, during the 2022 presidential campaign, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) prohibited certain truths from being told, because they could cause “informational disorder”. It was the euphemism found to say that no voter should be reminded of the criminal past of one of the candidates.

Lula government tries to rewrite history

At the beginning of 2023, Lula’s team is already showing appreciation for the practice of erasing or rewriting history. The first sign of this was the publication on official websites of the fake news that the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff was a coup.

Last weekend, with the unexpected change in command of the Army, one of the first announcements by the new commander was that the Army will no longer issue an official note recalling what happened on March 31, 1964, as it used to do.

Could it be that the pro-Lula generalship was co-opted to also force the Armed Forces to rewrite history? Was there no movement by the Army to respond to the clamor of the people and the press in 1964, against the threat of communism?

Even if the military regime committed atrocities against guerrillas and opponents in the following years, is it correct to pretend that March 31st did not exist? As the Irish philosopher and politician, Edmund Burke, one of the greatest critics of the French Revolution, said, “Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.”

Second Opinion

This Monday’s Second Opinion program (23) discusses the old communist strategy of rewriting history at will, the interests behind the misrepresentation of facts and the consequences for the population.

Follow the debate by clicking play on the image that illustrates the page. In this issue we are Cristina Graeml; the anthropologist Flávio Gordon, also a columnist for People’s Gazette; the professor and specialist in Education, Paula Marisa; and independent journalist and international correspondent, Karina Michelin.

After watching, leave your reaction to this content and a comment to contribute to reflection. Is there a way to prevent the indoctrination of young people and the loss of collective memory about the facts, in the face of incessant attempts to erase or rewrite history?