At times, Brazil does seem to be a country straight out of Bizarro World. Earlier this week, a social media clash showed just how difficult things have gotten around here. After the German Embassy in Brasília published a video about Nazism – highlighting its extreme-right politics – Brazilian netizens went berserk. They called out the German diplomats, saying that Nazism was “obviously” left-wing, as Adolf Hitler’s movement was called the National Socialist German Workers’ Party.
In one stroke, these enraged social media trolls associated Nazism to Socialism and, therefore, to the left-leaning Workers’ Party.
Incited by Olavo de Carvalho, an...