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1./ What has Brazil's COVID crisis got to do with the gender wars? Ever wondered how such a science-denying moron as Bolsonaro got elected? This is the story of how Queer Theory, and its nutty acolytes, helped rocket-fuel the rise of a dangerous monster.
https://www.ft.com/content/55713895-2423-4259-a222-f778f9587490
https://www.ft.com/content/55713895-2423-4259-a222-f778f9587490
2./ His incompetence, failure to act decisively and vaccine skepticism have resulted in a spiralling crisis with 4000+ deaths a day and a second variant spreading that combines the worst of the Manaus strain with the risks of the South African one. https://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/miscellaneous/covid-19/new-virus-strains-detected-in-brazil-deepen-restrictions-for-the-region/
https://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/miscellaneous/covid-19/new-virus-strains-detected-in-brazil-deepen-restrictions-for-the-region/
3./ Bolsanaro's anti-science stance is nothing new in Brazil. There's a tradition of violent populism that equates science with "elites". When iconic medic Oswaldo Cruz promoted smallpox vaccination there were populist-agitated street riots in Rio. https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2021/02/10/1904-vaccine-revolt-rio-de-janeiro-brazil/ideas/essay/https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2021/02/10/1904-vaccine-revolt-rio-de-janeiro-brazil/ideas/essay/
https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2021/02/10/1904-vaccine-revolt-rio-de-janeiro-brazil/ideas/essay/https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2021/02/10/1904-vaccine-revolt-rio-de-janeiro-brazil/ideas/essay/
4./ But Bolsonaro's philistinism was also thoroughly modern; shaped by a science-hating nutjob Olavo de Carvalho who delivered "fireside chats" on his outlandish Youtube channel. An astrologer, he even defended the flatness of the Earth https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/12/brazil-olavo-de-carvalho-jair-bolsonaro/604117/
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/12/brazil-olavo-de-carvalho-jair-bolsonaro/604117/
5./ Carvalho claimed the pandemic was a "fiction created by the KGB". But long before that he'd built up a massive following based on his attacks on "cultural marxism" and our old friend ..."gender ideology". https://www.brasilwire.com/olavo-de-carvalho-the-guru-of-death/
6./ Carvalho and Bolsonaro were united in their homophobia. Bolsonaro said he would rather his son die in an accident than be gay, advocated parents beat the "gayness" out of kids; and declared âI'm very proud of being homophobicâ. https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/jair-bolsonaro-pro-torture-anti-gay-and-brazils-future-president/
https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/jair-bolsonaro-pro-torture-anti-gay-and-brazils-future-president/
7./ During the first two terms of the Workers Party under the hugely popular President Lula da Silva and while the economy boomed his was a fringe voice. But all the time, the number of Congress Deputies backed by the powerful evangelical churches were steadily growing.
8./ By 2011 a huge campaign against pro-gay policies was in full swing. In a previous generation the gay movement might have played a smarter game, assuring the public of its limited aims. Instead Brazil's LGBTQ+ movement decided to provoke. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/jul/02/brazil-gay-rights-evangelical-movement
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/jul/02/brazil-gay-rights-evangelical-movement
9./ Even the Guardian wondered whether it was sensible to outrage the powerful religious constituencies with posters that encouraged people to have gay sex with saints. That in.... the same week 800 000 people took to the streets in a 'March for Jesus'. Maybe not.
10./ Queer Theory now dominated Brazil's LGBTQ+ movement. The old gay movement's attempt to assimilate and gain equal rights were denounced. By seeking accommodation Judith Butler and others claimed gays merely reinforced the deeply reactionary system. https://schoolofthot.com/gay-men-still-dont-get-it-assimilation-is-not-enough/
11./ In 2011 Dilma Rouseff, Lula's successor, just wanted to get elected. When she saw proposed LGBTQ+ sex education materials for schools she withdrew them but was denounced by Queer activists who said she should be boycotted; despite her opponent being openly homophobic.
12./ After her impeachment the evangelicals ramped up the homophobia. For them the cack-handed Queer movement was the gift that kept giving. Bolsonaro shot to to prominence with his denunciations of this play, which drew huge crowds of protestors. https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/rising-conservative-movement-in-brazil/4089001.html
13./ In 2016 the UK Arts Council and Creative Scotland funded a tour by 'The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven' in which Jesus was a transwoman. British virtue-signalling condescension during a religious revival. What could possibly go wrong? https://apnews.com/article/d1a2c69b8c6a458d978e9363a3f9ba2f
https://apnews.com/article/d1a2c69b8c6a458d978e9363a3f9ba2f
14./ I'm all for artistic freedom but maybe a political crisis marked by the rise of terrifying reactionary forces might have been a time for wiser counsels? For Bolsanaro this was manna. One tweet denouncing the play got 6 million retweets. He'd become Brazilian mainstream.
15./ As elections neared and with Bolsanaro's polls soaring a new Queer Museum opened with a work of art showing Jesus as a monkey. A video of a little girl being encouraged to touch a naked performance artist also went viral. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/26/world/americas/queer-museum-rio-de-janeiro-brazil.html
16./ It wasn't just own goals like these that Bolsonaro and his clique exploited. Carvalho and others waded through the output of Queer Theory and found plenty to talk about. They made much of Gayle Rubin's defence of paedophilia; and that of Foucault, and spun conspiracies.
17./ Queer Theory had always wanted to "trouble" and provoke. Now it was doing exactly that; but not in a good way. Its claims that male and female are not fixed categories and that sexual identities like gay or straight are essentially outmoded went down like lead balloons.
18./ I filmed in Brazil not long before the elections. Nice liberal-minded doctors or scientists would often have religious iconography in their offices or homes. Arguing that biology is disconnected from gender baffled them twice over; ethically as well as scientifically.
19./ And what were women, scientists and non-scientists alike, to make of feminists who now proclaimed the influence of Queer Theory's Butler or Rubin, announced "woman...is a representational fiction" and wanted to "detach feminism from the exclusive experience of women"? Duh?
20./ The progressive opponent of Bolsonaro, Fernando Haddad, was up against a science-denying bigot. He should have had a huge advantage. But he was hardly in a position to blare his rational, pro-science credentials while defending unscientific nonsense like 'gender identity'.
21./ It didn't help Haddad had been the Education Minister who drew up the LGBTQ+ Schools material Rousseff withdrew. He defended it as best he could along with a major trans education scheme Pink News proclaimed a likely vote winner (during the worst recession in 20 years).
22./ In better times perhaps, with an economy booming and the shadow of graft not hanging over the Workers Party, Haddad should have overtaken Bolsonaro. But in bad times the association between his party and silly LGBTQ+ gaffes kept undermining him . https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/lgbtq-brazilians-edge-after-self-described-homophobic-lawmaker-elected-president-n925726
23./ Bolsonaro's rule is now crumbling as the military circle. Lula, who's been cleared of charges, could win any forthcoming election. But what happens if the homophobic evangelicals find a less stupid, less erratic poster boy that doesn't deny science?
24./ Brazil's soaring death toll will be Bolsonaro's legacy. But he was -in part- Queer Theory's legacy. It turns out it isn't assimilation alone that can reinforce "the reactionary system". Acting dumb and making it easy for a bigot to get elected will do that just as well.
