Luis Nassif, Brazilian journalist.
One of today's greatest thinkers has definitely paid for his mistakes, seeing 60 years of the best intellectual work compromised
One of today's greatest thinkers has definitely paid for his mistakes, seeing 60 years of the best intellectual work compromised.
When I arrived in São Paulo, during the traffic madness of the 70s, I met a kind of lyncher, the vigilante, the one who, seeing himself as the master of reason, does not care about the consequences of his actions on criminals. If a pedestrian crosses a red light, they will pass it. Any mistake, any sin, maximum penalty.
In fact, the other day there was the case of the driver of the application who ran over a passerby. She got out of the car in a panic, until she discovered that the victim was a thief who had just stolen a cell phone. From then on, the driver emerged victorious, celebrating the death of the victim and mocking the tragedy, making L for human rights defenders. It's the same sentiment that plagues social media lynchers, promoters of cancellations.
I was a victim of the first cancellation movement just after the 2010 election. It was a terrible year, with half a dozen scouts facing the professional army of José Serra. EBC and Secom shot him from the front and stabbed him from behind.
I was going to Atibaia, for a talk at the NGO of a volleyball player, when they called me from the newsroom, asking if they could publish a comment on one of the publications, which mentioned the word "feminazi". I had never heard the term. I thought it was just one of the many expressions that swarmed in the new language of social networks. I authorized the publication. Soon I began to be run over by the guards. How had he allowed the use of that term? There was no point in explaining that I had no idea what the word meant. "Everyone" knew the term, I was told.
It was a week of Twitter fights and countless cancellations from people who, theoretically, were in the same political camp. There was still no "lock" command to take a break.
The leader of the movement continued to order various cancellations, until the day she messed with unbalanced people, from another political camp, the real enemies, not rhetorical constructions to exercise her aggression, and began to suffer physical threats.
The virulence of the new movements
Even so, I understood that it was an understandable action for all groups that needs to be asserted in the first moves of the political game.
I remembered the behavior of the first trade unionists of the CUT, Lula's incendiary speeches, until the moment they entered the political game, gained their space and began to replace virulence with ideas and negotiation. It is no longer necessary to gain space in the shout.
The same happened with the black movement, with the LBGTI+, the MST and many others that contributed to coloring the Brazilian political landscape, with a vitality that had disappeared from traditional politics. In other words, initial aggressiveness is a sign of empowerment, of discovering one's own power, of throwing away centuries of submission.
The fascination with aggressiveness continued and in the most unexpected environments. It's an addiction. Some time ago I left a group that brought together lawyers, journalists and human rights defenders, after a lawyer from Bahia suddenly threatened to denounce me to feminists for not inviting lawyers to TV GGN Justiça. They are invited, but not to the same extent as men.
A civilized conversation, a piece of advice, would alert me to preserve the balance of the guests. But he wanted an alibi, a reason to introduce himself to the group. He seized the holy wrath of the stomper and began to run over the white male.
This is where misplaced aggression is understood. In the current era, in order to consider oneself included in the group of feminists, or to be identified as such, the password is the rhetoric of war against the "white male", preferably from the same political camp, more susceptible to being affected.
It is a curious ceremony, of the same nature as other groups, which use passwords, greetings, war cries, tattoos, collages, attacks on opposing fans to establish their identity.
Among some feminist groups, the password is the virulent word, whatever the circumstances. And, with all due respect, that's not good for the cause. There is nothing more legitimizing than a woman's indignant reaction to blatant abuse; and nothing more compromising than the permanent exercise of indignation or, even worse, lynching.
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