Some 1,500 supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro were recently detained after what can only be described as a failed coup attempt.  Any other descriptor is disingenuous or willfully blind.  But this fascist uprising did not originate in Brazil.  It was transported by America.  Specifically, by Donald Trump and his supporters.

As detailed below, these fascist attempts to overthrow free and fair elections will only spread across democracies globally and the attempts will intensify.  Something has to change.  But before we discuss solutions, let’s define what exactly it is that we’re talking about.  

We need to call it like it is: fascism.  

How are the January 6th and Brazilian insurrections related instances of fascism?

At the core of fascist uprisings is contempt for democratic elections.  The contempt can be so great, especially when fueled by conspiracy theories that an election has been rigged, that people may self-justify the use of violence to reach political ends.  

Their nationalism is often militaristic.  They form militias, stockpile weapons, and place emphasis on winning over the military.  Remember how Trump continuously called the Joint Chiefs, “My generals”?

In both instances – January 6th and almost two years later in Brazil – self-proclaimed patriots adorned in their nation’s colors organized behind one man.  Although unlike Bolsonaro, Donald Trump was actually present before encouraging his supporters to march on the U.S. Capitol.  But like Trump, Bolsonaro had planted the insurrection seed long before this past weekend in Brazil.

How America transported fascism to Brazil

Bolsonaro and his supporters would probably not have existed without the Trump model.  From his candidacy through the tenure of his presidency, Bolsonaro acted just like his American counterpart.  From insults to overt racism, he wasn’t a bull in a china shop.  He was a bull who tried to take down the china shop of Brazil’s fragile democracy.  

Bolsonaro’s supporters took their lead not only from their fearless leader, but from Trump and his supporters too.  They implemented the same strategy with the same talking points.

For years Bolsonaro attacked Brazil’s democratic institutions, much in the same way Trump did in America.  He harassed the Supreme Court, tried to cancel the elections prior to his defeat, and silenced dissidents who threatened his rule.  Like Trump, he built the foundation for contesting his reelection long before it actually took place in October 2022. 

In January [2022], President Bolsonaro said that unless the electoral system is changed Brazil would have “a worse problem than in the United States”

Source

Bolsonaro’s supporters organized themselves on social media, similar to how the “Stop the Steal” movement helped organize January 6th.  Even though Bolsonaro – unlike Trump – largely bowed out and retreated to Florida (of all places), his supporters were incensed at what they perceived as an electoral defeat caused by rampant fraud.

Like Trump’s supporters, Bolsonaro’s loyalists claimed numerous wild conspiracy theories.  All of them baseless.  Multiple audits and analyses have been undertaken – as they were in America in 2020 – and no material issues were unearthed suggesting that the election was anything but free and fair.  Trump’s 50+ losses in court cases should also tell his true believers the actual truth.

But like these extremist Americans, Bolsonaro’s supporters blame the far left.  Basically, the equivalent of ANTIFA was actually at fault for all the mayhem that was caused.  Bolsonaro’s supporters, like Trump’s, would never ransack a government building.  They love their government.  They are the party of law and order.  It was the far left that did it! 

The years of Presidents in both America and Brazil voicing falsehoods and waging war on democratic institutions have evidently taken a serious toll.  These are not simply fascist tactics.  This is fascism.  The use of force to threaten democratic institutions cannot be called anything else.

Brazil was simply copying America’s extremist playbook from January 6, 2021.

“Donald Trump was taken out with a rigged election, no question about it, and at the time he was taken out, I said, ‘President Bolsonaro is going to be taken down’”

– Wanderlei Silva, 59, a retired hotel worker in Brazil

This is only the beginning 

As we’ve witnessed in America, Trump disciples have tried using his extremist, fascist tactics in their own election campaigns.  Thankfully, it hasn’t worked too well.  Just ask Kari Lake.

But that doesn’t mean they won’t stop trying.  And in fact, the rhetoric and actions suggest they are only getting started, especially given the fact Trump still has to be considered the Republican frontrunner for the 2024 Presidential nomination.  

Accepting that election fraud led to his loss in 2020 is basically a litmus test for any modern day Republican in America.  They can try to dance and dodge around the issue, but the bottom line is that if you’re still a Republican in 2023, you have at least morally accepted that the leader of your party is lying about a fundamental mechanism of any democracy.  At worst, you’re complicit.

It can only amplify and escalate from here.  The 1,500 people who were just detained in Brazil won’t just go home and have a change of heart.  They aren’t going to read this article or consume other forms of content that question their actions and have an epiphany.  

They and their counterparts in America have been polluted with lies that proliferate on (now unregulated) social media like Twitter.  Or they see it on their favorite channel, whether that’s Fox News or the Brazil equivalent. 

We cannot rely on indoctrinated people to suddenly thirst for countervailing opinions or the actual truth.  To solve this we must place the onus on the platforms themselves to moderate better.  It is one of the hardest jobs in the world.

But the way NOT to combat it is to act like Elon Musk.  Since he took the reins at Twitter, almost the entire content moderation team in Brazil was fired.  He may not see the complex problems of content moderation like electric cars or rockets, but it’s arguably harder.  His actions to revive far right extremism and conspiracy theories on Twitter cannot have helped this situation.  

The only way we will help prevent future far right coups is to prevent the transporting of dangerously false ideas.  As in verifiably false ideas.  If 50 different court cases say it’s false, if audits and technicians say the voting was free and fair, then what the hell are you fighting for aside from political tribalism?  

But that’s exactly what fascism does to people.  It enforces this false ideal of a greater good, “us v. them”, nationalism over everything, and then advocates for violence when the rhetoric fails.  

Until we stop the falsehoods that digitally spread like wildfire, this form of American fascism will find new homes in democracies beyond Brazil in the near future.  The model can be replicated.  It’s only time before it finally succeeds.