Prado: Radicalization passes through ‘moderate’ influencers – 05/02/2023 – Politics

It had been more than ten years since Michele Prado had immersed himself in the online environment of the right when he decided to change his life. It was not easy. She needed to quit her job in the decoration area and break up with people who, at that point, accounted for almost all of her friendships.

“I had two options: to remain silent and remain friends with people, pretending that nothing was happening, or to be intellectually honest and take the consequences,” says Prado, 44.

She chose the second option. She moved to the interior of Bahia and started researching. She wanted to understand what was behind the messages that popped up in a WhatsApp group she started participating in after the election of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in 2018.

“I saw people saying that Bolsonaro should carry out a coup, that he would have popular support”, he says.

“I saw that it wasn’t a democratic, moderate right. They were people who rejected liberal democracy, with many things that disrespect human dignity.”

During his studies, he understood that many of the conspiracy theories circulating on WhatsApp were anti-Semitic theories disguised with other words. She was shocked, because they were coming from people she considered to be intellectuals and her friends.

Called “Free Internet”, the group added several right-wing influencers. “Only the big ones. There were congressmen, journalists, people from right-wing organizations, etc.”, says Prado, who in 2021 published the book “Ideological Storm” (Lux) and is preparing to launch “Red Pill – Radicalization and Extremism”.

“These influencers on the right, especially those that people consider moderate, are the main introducers of this type of conspiracy theory”, says the researcher. “And that continues to radicalize people.”

Last year, after former federal deputy Roberto Jefferson (PTB) attacked police officers, Mrs. said that it was not an isolated episode. Events such as the attempted terrorist act at Brasília airport and the January 8th coup attempt were on her radar? We are seeing in Brazil a process of mass radicalization that essentially takes place online, especially when we are referring to the various currents of the extreme right. Bolsonarism itself is a movement that emerged online.

Within this right-wing ecosystem, concepts, conspiracy theories, guidelines and methods are copied from the alt-right, from the United States [movimento de extrema direita]and far-right international as a whole [junta direita radical e extrema direita]. So it was obvious that, if we were going through a process of more or less 15 years of online radicalization, and if there in the United States there was the invasion of the Capitol, here it would be no different.

Back in my book, “Ideological Storm”, I said that we would have something similar here, because they are the same ideas that are radicalizing and mobilizing these people. And these people are being trapped within a belief system that rejects liberal democracy to the extreme, including the embrace of violence.

Here in Brazil, we saw examples of people in coup camps believing in conspiracy theories with no basis in reality. Why does this happen? Brazil’s new right is all based on far-right conspiracy theories. The entire imaginary universe of these people is already contaminated with the conspiracy mentality.

Recently, Renan Santos, who is the MBL coordinator [Movimento Brasil Livre]shared an anti-Semitic, racist conspiracy theory that has a high potential for violence, which is the grand replacement theory [segundo a qual as elites estão substituindo a população europeia branca por povos não europeus]. Only he shared it with the name “population transplantation”.

These influencers on the right, especially those people consider moderate, are the main introducers of this type of conspiracy theory. And the people who start to get captured by that get trapped in these echo chambers and form a collective identity.

In what sense? If you look at the images that were made available of the invasion [em Brasília], you notice that most people are recording, taking selfies. This is an identity resource for the people who are there. They put it in the echo chamber, where they find themselves belonging to something much bigger. They come out of anonymity. They have a collective identity built on the basis of conspiracy theories that dehumanize other groups and that have a total rejection of liberal democracy.

It is not just the extreme right that is captured by the conspiracy mentality. It’s the right itself. Because it is the influencers, perhaps due to the misinformation of many people, who continue to spread conspiracy theories, but with other words, with euphemisms, as in the case of “population transplantation”. And it keeps radicalizing people.

On January 8, did people really think they were going to overthrow the government? It was not a homogeneous group. There were many opportunists there, people who saw the confusion and took advantage of it. But the majority really believed that that act of violence would disrupt the democratic order.

Those demonstrators who were camped out in front of barracks leveraged violent extremism. When you are within online radicalization, you don’t have all the means to commit the act. In the camp, the protesters had a hybrid radicalization, online and offline. This increases the emotional investment in violent extremism.

As if it were really an incubator for violent action. And when that was allowed by the Armed Forces and other institutions, people felt more empowered to consider the solution to violence as legitimate.

Shortly after the attacks, Ms. stated that the action would not be restricted to Brasília. However, there was nothing else as expressive. Why? I think it’s momentary, because the mobilization continues. People are not yet disengaged, not turned off. The volume of people arrested dampens the momentum of those who might eventually want to continue with this type of attack. But you can expect it to continue. Will not stop.

Bolsonaro’s performance at the end of his term was criticized by Bolsonarists. Will this make Bolsonarism weaker? There was a disappointment with Bolsonaro. For many of these people, he wasn’t extremist enough, he wasn’t representing what they believe to be a right wing. So they go looking for another idol, another avatar, another candidate to fill that need. The extreme right in Brazil is not limited to Bolsonaro or Bolsonarism. It’s bigger. They will regroup, as is already happening.

What is your assessment of the institutional reaction to extremism, especially that of the Federal Supreme Court? We only got to this situation because the other institutions were very silent. They were very unproductive, inconsequential and irresponsible. Because there were many warnings about the process of radicalization.

It is up to parliamentarians to demand from intelligence agencies monitoring reports on violent extremism in Brazil, for example. Request reports regarding extremist infiltration of military forces. None of this has been done in recent years. So it’s left for a court [o STF] taking care of this problem alone, which makes her a target.

What should Brazil do to combat the growth of extremist violence? We have to think about ways in which PCVE programs [prevenção e combate ao extremismo violento, na sigla em inglês], which exist in other countries. Brazil is about 15 years behind in this. But one important thing to say is that it’s not just about the extreme right. It needs to be willing to address all extremisms, from right to left. You cannot think from a political-electoral perspective.

Before looking at the extreme right as an object of research, how long had Ms. Did you attend these groups as a regular participant, so to speak? It was an ecosystem, an environment. It was not a specific group. I’ve always been on the right, my whole life. Today I am no more. A lot has happened and I think I’m right in the middle. But in 2004, for example, I was already on Orkut looking at these influencers.

I didn’t have the “right X left” view yet. I was just a person who didn’t vote for the PT. Or rather, I could vote for the PT if I thought the proposals were good, but I preferred the PSDB. I spent the first decade of the 2000s online, talking to people who also didn’t vote for the PT. They weren’t extreme right wing people, at least not as far as I knew at the time. Only after that I went to remember some things.

Then, around 2010, the boom of the new right, Olavo de Carvalho, the new books, all of this I followed as a spectator. In 2018, I voted for Bolsonaro in the second round, because I was a radical anti-PT.

And in the first round? I ended up voting for João Amoêdo [então no Partido Novo]. Bolsonarista I’ve never been. Soon after, a girl I met on Facebook, completely radicalized on the extreme right, put me in a WhatsApp group called “Free Internet”. It was a group only with influencers, only with the big ones. There were congressmen, journalists, people from right-wing organizations, etc.

And I was watching. I saw people saying that Bolsonaro should carry out a coup, that he would have popular support. I was watching those internal comments and saw that there was something very sinister. I realized that the group was radicalizing people.

That’s why Mrs. decided to break up? I argued with these people, I made a shack. So I decided to study, research, because I already saw a lot of signs happening and I tried to understand what that was. When I got to these influencers within that group, it was all very clear to me. And I saw that it was not a democratic right, moderate, none of that.

They were people with rejection of liberal democracy, with many things of disrespect for human dignity. I kicked the dick in the tent, there were Homeric discussions, which always ended in misogyny.

We count on our fingers who we can say is moderate right in Brazil, democrat. Whoever you think of right-wing digital influencers that you think are moderate, you can put them all in a far-right basket, because they all bring concepts from the radical right and the transnational extreme right.

During your research, what was your biggest surprise? The first thing that shocked me was seeing how they protect each other’s mistakes. For example, when someone points out something that is wrong, none of them analyze the argument. If one of them says that the person is wrong, everyone starts to attack that person.

Another shocking thing was to understand that the theories disseminated by them were anti-Semitic theories. Because they were people I considered my friends. I’d try to alert one person in the group, but they’d say, “No, you’re tripping.” Then I called another influencer, and he said I was crazy, that I didn’t quite understand what was going on.

So I had two options: either stay silent and keep friends with people, pretending nothing was going on, or be intellectually honest and take the consequences. I opted for the second option, which was more difficult but more necessary.

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X-RAY | Michelle Prado, 44

Researcher of the extreme right, she is the author of the books “Tempestade Ideológica” (Lux) and “Red Pill – Radicalização e Extremismo” (launching soon)