Explaining Brazil #218: Demons, Freemasons, and cannibalism

Perhaps more than in any other presidential campaign in Brazilian history, religion has taken center stage in the 2022 race. Especially on social media.

After the nail-biting results of the first round of Brazil’s presidential election, the campaign for the runoff stage started off pretty weirdly. Besides the classic race for endorsements to get that extra push for the win, candidates have engaged in a holy war of sorts. 

On social media, Lula was associated with an alleged satanist who predicted the center-left politician would clinch a first-round win. The Workers’ Party even felt it needed to publish a statement saying “Lula believes in God and is a Christian” and that “Lula has no pact nor has ever spoken with the devil.”

The left, meanwhile, has linked Jair Bolsonaro to “satanic rituals” and tried to portray the president as someone willing to engage in cannibalism.

This week we discuss how low social media strategies have fallen — and what this means for the future.

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Guest:

• David Nemer is a professor at the University of Virginia’s media studies department and a faculty associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center and Princeton University’s Brazil Lab. He’s also a member of the Washington Brazil Lab.
• He wrote “Technology of the Oppressed: Inequity and the Digital Mundane in Favelas of Brazil.”

This episode used music from Uppbeat. License codes: HLV454OEALKQ0QVC, BXIZ5WCET6LYTNUH, 1TWICQFFMTI6J39T.

Video:

Watch our special 2022 live broadcast. The Brazilian Report team hosted special guests on Election Day for a five-hour broadcast. Guests: Mario Sergio Lima (Medley Advisors), Mauricio Savarese (The Associated Press), Natalie Unterstell (Talanoa Institute).

Background reading:

• We have launched a special 2022 election report with everything you need to know about the races for Congress, governorships, and, of course, the presidency. Buy it here! Use the promo code Explaining2022 for a 20-percent discount.
• Arguably Brazil’s biggest pop star of the moment, singer Anitta endorsed former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and, at one point, even gave him campaign advice. Her endorsement was believed to have been consequential with younger voters — but first-round results showed it wasn’t enough to beat Jair Bolsonaro outright.
• Read our October 5 issue of the Brazil Daily newsletter: How the presidential runoff campaign has been co-opted by religion.
• An exclusive survey by the media monitoring company NewsWhip — carried out at the request of The Brazilian Report — showed a spike in the number of articles published about the relationship between Mr. Bolsonaro and the Freemasons, as well as about supposed links between Lula and the Devil.

Do you have a suggestion for our next Explaining Brazil podcast? Drop us a line at podcast@brazilian.report

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