Opinion – Reinaldo José Lopes: A scorched earth

At the time of writing these lines, it is still too early to say whether the Bolsonaro government will end at the end of 2022. What is indisputable, however, is that there is no possible country if the method of thinking about reality typical of Bolsonarism continues to occupy the highest echelons of power.

I say this from a point of view that is perhaps quite idiosyncratic, or even narrow, but that is also enlightening. If it is horrendous —as it is—to realize that Bolsonarism is this mass of truculence, prejudice and (most likely) poorly disguised corruption that we have seen over the last four years, it is even more terrifying that its mainstay is the systematic denial of the most basic facts.

It is a tragic irony that this was the modus operandi of the guy who kept repeating “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (poor Gospel of John). Politicians, the most cynical will say, are naturally given to flexing the facts. It could be, but I can’t help but see an abyss between hiding old differences with an opponent in the name of a new alliance, or even hiding a bill full of dollars in Switzerland, and saying that the color of the sky is green with white polka dots, and not blue.

This has been the almost instinctive maneuver of Bolsonarismo, which explains the president’s hatred of science. That was when Bolsonaro, supported by former astronaut and moral invertebrate Marcos Pontes, attributed the worsening of deforestation in the country to an alleged infiltration of NGOs. (The data kept getting worse, and he didn’t even bother recycling conspiracy theory to deny it anymore.)

This is how Bolsonaro and Ricardo Salles propagated the thesis of the “firefighter ox” as the person responsible for preventing fires in the Pantanal or claimed that regions of the Amazon rainforest naturally caught fire in the dry season.

And, to crown this habit of denying the facts with murderous irresponsibility, this is how the President of the Republic did everything he could to sell innocuous or harmful medicines as miracles during the pandemic, in addition to spewing doubts and conspiracy theories about security. and the effectiveness of vaccines against Covid-19.

I have no doubt that Bolsonaro actually believes some of these unreasonable claims, or even all of them. If that is the case, here is one more reason to get him out of the Plateau as soon as possible: it is madness to leave the course of a nation in the hands of a guy who is incapable of changing his mind in the face of evidence, or perhaps is incapable of to understand what is evidence and what is just belief to begin with.

It’s disheartening that many voters seem to think the pandemic “is in the past” and shouldn’t rule their choice now. However, the damage caused by Bolsonaro’s inability to recognize the facts has already become a burden for the future, for the lives of Brazilians who have not yet been born.

This goes for public health: before the pandemic, anti-vaccination movements were incipient in the country, but now they have gained repeated injections of anabolic thanks to their presidential godfather. If polio returns to Brazil for good, for example, it is Bolsonaro’s account, and no one else’s, that future children with infantile paralysis should be placed.

And the same goes for the environment: each deforested hectare will weigh on the bill of rain, extreme weather events and the price of food on our table. Facts are stubborn things. When a president fights with them, we all suffer.