Opinion – Bruno Gualano: Bolsonaro ended the breast of scientists

In response to one of my articles critical of the federal government’s role (?) in the pandemic, a reader predicted: “SCIENTISTS HATE BOLSONARO BECAUSE HE FINISHED YOUR BREAST!”

Thus, in bold letters, as if he were spitting screaming in the face of the opposing interlocutor, the co-religionist boasted of the fulfillment of a goal of his captain. I admit, choleric commentator: the “mamata” (imperious quotation marks) of scientists has come to an end. And it wasn’t all of a sudden.

Over the 27 years of his parliamentary career, Bolsonaro’s only contact with science — more of a collision than a contact — was his fervent defense of phosphoethanolamine, the infamous “cancer pill”, which, by not curing cancer, shamed us. before the world when approved by a negationist legislature, in the absence of Anvisa and, above all, of science.

Ironically, the pandemic would make history repeat itself as a farce or tragedy — paraphrasing a famous imaginary enemy of the captain —, with chloroquine, ivermectin, ozone therapy, alligators and the like. The Bolsonarist farce became the tragedy of Brazilians, especially of ethnic and racial minorities, a thesis that will soon be accepted by the People’s Permanent Court.

Let’s go back to the historical line. In 2018, a Bolsonaro with the hat of an outsider politician crossed out issues of science, technology and innovation in his government plan: a draft of some 80 slides printed in pdf; two of them dedicated to the topic.

In this, the presidential candidate stated that the research and development model in Brazil was completely exhausted, since it depended on government resources. That the Brazilian university needed to be aligned with the interests of companies, with the objective of “training future entrepreneurs”. That the Environment portfolio should be reallocated under a “new federal agricultural structure”. And that the new goal would be to make the country a “world center for research and development in graphene”, raw material for building a nuclear submarine.

Three and a half years passed. Critics will say that Bolsonaro has failed to make us a leading nation in graphene science—or any other area. But we cannot deny that the president managed to deliver much more to his supporters than was assumed.

Internationally renowned science and technology institutes and public universities were systematically dismantled. The National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) has suffered a serious dismantling, it seems, for fulfilling one of its main missions: to show, with data, the deforestation of the Amazon. Against the facts, Bolsonaro would offer the saliva.

The Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Capes) came to be delivered to a creationist. Something as natural as elevating visionary astrophysicist Stephen Hawking (1924-2018) to the papacy. Federal universities were accused by Weintraub, ex-Education (!), of maintaining “extensive marijuana plantations, the bridge of needing a pesticide sprayer.

And barbarism was not restricted to institutions. in life and in memory, Brazilian scientists from different areas of knowledge have been harassed by Bolsonaro and his team. The vast list includes, among others, Ricardo Galvão, Marcus Lacerda, Lucas Ferrante, Pedro Hallal, Adele Schwartz Benzaken, Conrado Hübner, Paulo Freire. In an article published in Science, the great Herton Escobar denounced this “hostile environment” where our scientists venture. “An adventure not recommended”​, a militiaman would warn. This was not how the Brazilian academy would imagine itself highlighted in one of the most prestigious journals in the world.

As a scientist, I can only surrender to the facts. In his obsessive struggle against science, Bolsonaro won by hand. Gone are the days of programs such as Science without Borders, which, although imperfect, allowed for the intense exchange of students and scientists, favoring unprecedented and productive international cooperation. under Jair, No Border Science it was the plan that prospered.

Farewell to the postgraduate scholarship mamata. More than 15% have already been preyed upon in the management of the myth. And anyone who wants to be paid by the State to do science should choose their favorite communist country (the United States, Germany and Canada are among the “communes” that most welcome, very satisfied by the way, our brains on the run).

Au revoir, public university funding. The patriotic machete has just bled another 14.5% of the already hemorrhagic federal budget. Who cares? Let them close one by one when the accumulated garbage has suffocated them. And so lies Brazilian science, victim of asphyxiation, to the taste of the captain.

We must also recognize that the end of the mamata is not just the crucial fate of our simple category. Among the broken are also journalists, environmentalists, indigenous peoples and indigenists, anti-racists, artists, precarious workers, and many others who suffer from Bolsonarism above all and kneeling on everyone’s neck.

In the hateful beloved homeland that we have become, knowledge, freedom, environment, land, culture, affirmative action and food on the plate all fall under the category of breasts. Secret budget, hate office, motorcycle, gun, viagra and paper voting remain as vital civic needs. It is the school of the inverted world, in the words of the Uruguayan intellectual Eduardo Galeano (1940-2015) – another who not even a postulant escaped the Bolsonar moral patrol.

Before the atrocities and everything else, it is the mere exercise of logic — the mainspring of our craft — that repels the scientists and the captain. If not, let’s see:

Bolsonaro is a denialist who has taken scientists as enemies.

we are scientists.

Therefore, Bolsonaro and the scientists are enemies.

In October, we will be graced with a new chance to repudiate obscurantism, incivility, stupidity, retrogression. Ah, the breaths of hope of democracy. If he could, Bolsonaro would abolish this mamata too.

*This column was written for the #scienceinelections campaign, which celebrates Science Month. In July, columnists reflect on the role of science in the reconstruction of Brazil.