With my heart in the pit of my throat, I flew from Rio de Janeiro to Stockholm on October 2. The date is important because, as registered in Stockholm, I can only vote at the embassy when there are presidential elections in Brazil. I couldn't miss the first round of elections on October 4. Not only because we Brazilians have a duty to vote, but above all because there is an imminent risk that Flavio Bolsonaro, son of Jair, will take over power.
The opinion polls showed that "Lula" da Silva led over Bolsonaro but by a small margin. But the result on October 5 was a slap in the stomach to everyone who protects democracy, justice and equality. We still cannot believe that "Bolsonarism" would be so successful and win a majority in the entire Congress. Flavio Bolsonaro received about 2 million more votes than Lula, but without achieving his own majority. There will be a second round, and now Lula is betting everything on persuading the 30 million eligible voters who did not vote to go to the polls, as well as win over Bolsonaro's voters to his side.
The first thing Flavio Bolsonaro has promised to do if he is elected is to "redemocratize" the country; by changing the constitution, appointing five ministers to carry out a revolutionary reform of the Supreme Court, privatize large parts of the state, implement drastic budget cuts, above all in the appropriations for social and cultural policy, persecute the universities and the so-called "cultural Marxism" and dismantle the public school and health system. The highest priority will be to grant amnesty to the father Jair Bolsonaro, who is now sentenced to 27 years in prison for the coup attempt in connection with the storming of Congress on January 8, 2023.
The purpose of "re-democratization" is simply to overthrow democracy and introduce an ultra-liberal techno-dictatorship. "Bolsonarism" is more than a far-right ideology and a return to historical fascism. It is not only an extension of the past of authoritarianism and dictatorship in Brazil, but also an expression of techno-fascism. Trump represents a variant of techno-fascism's way of combining finance-capitalist economics with wars of invasion for the expropriation and colonization of strategic territories. To ensure American control of the new, digitally controlled market economy against China, Trump wants to conquer all of South America. Brazil, which has the world's second largest reserve of rare earth metals and critical minerals, is of course central to Trump's "Donroed Doctrine" of control over both North and South America.
The connection between Bolsonaro's clan and the Trump administration is well known and Flavio Bolsonaro has publicly said that under his administration, American companies will have free access to exploit Brazilian land. This is at the expense of the Amazon - the lung of the world - indigenous peoples, fair working conditions and Brazilian sovereignty. In order to sell out Brazilian sovereignty, democracy must be crushed.
Despite Flavio Bolsonaro and his family's involvement in several corruption scandals, including a around the bank Banco Master and the use of state funds for the production of an American film about the father, the Bolsonarians accuse the current government of corruption. Bolsonaro, who himself is being investigated for this very thing, is regarded by his supporters as blameless. His authoritarian project is interpreted as "re-democratization". Confusions of meaning and values stand out everywhere. Everything becomes ambiguous, exaggerated and at the same time meaningless.
Whatever can be proven against Bolsonaro does not touch the voters, because the election is made in the name of "the father and the son". In this formula is the key: Bolsonarianism is a techno-fascism spread with the help of the religious rhetoric of the Protestant neo-Pentecostal mega-churches.
If the answers to the question why are lame, perhaps the question of how so many people came to vote for Flavio Bolsonaro can show us something. The conservative Rockbridge Network, founded by JD Vance with a large investment from Peter Thiel, has been actively involved in the campaigns of Flavio Bolsonaro and several of his supporters. Technofascism does not only operate through disinformation. It works to actively twist, empty and replace meanings and values. The candidates for the Chamber of Deputies who have received the most votes from Bolsonaro's side are young influencers and YouTubers. The influencers have become the new politicians. They have followers instead of voters. Since these young ultra-conservative, homophobic, misogynistic and racist digital agitators are entrenched in the mega-churches, the word "follower" also equates to "believer".
The influencers have gained enormous impact in a digitally controlled world that is increasingly abolishing traditional work forms and conditions. The more work is digitized, the more unemployment and informal jobs increase. The work turns into service delivery in all areas and drains the word "worker" of meaning and value. Now there are only entrepreneurs left. For an entrepreneur, the influencer is the main model of self-marketing. Everyone feels the same – on the screen there are no class differences. Everyone becomes equal in the kingdom of church techno-capitalism.
Flavio Bolsonaro preaches the liberation of workers from legally protected working conditions. Everyone must become free entrepreneurs, their own boss, responsible for their unemployment; pay health insurance and pension on credit and thus put themselves in debt. Dreams of consumption are scrolled in the hand. In 2018, online betting was legalized in Brazil. Since then, hundreds of thousands of families have become desperately indebted. Lula has recently banned betting, to overcome this social problem.
The electoral spat is much bigger than the question of who wins: Lula or Bolsonaro, "left" or "right". It is about the future of democracy and national sovereignty. But not "just". It is about the fate of politics in the era of techno-fascism. Many talk about the death of politics; more and more people are becoming aware of the devastating dangers when AI not only rules societies and makes decisions about war and invasion, but also replaces man's greatest weapon of emancipation, namely the ability to think. What meaning can politics have in the digital era?
School and university students are now demonstrating for democracy throughout Brazil. During my youth, the military dictatorship forced upon us a culture of silence. In the fascist turn that is going on, the mega churches are putting the word in everyone's mouth. But now the young people are shouting openly, despite the walls of the algorithms. This does not only apply to Brazil. In France, the students are also on the streets and shout: "The young in crisis, the elderly in misery - we don't want such a society!". In Sweden, there is also such a cry, albeit more quietly: "stop youth deportations!".
Under the techno-fascism that now administers the world order, a hope is growing that the cry of the youth will become a political practice; an active presence on the street every time the dream of a fair and equal common life is threatened to be shattered. On October 25, I will once again go to the polls. With the heart in the pit of the throat and the hopeful cry of the youth in the soul.
