Brazil Is Just the Latest Victim of the Global Fascism Virus

This moment in history may be seen to be defined by two pandemics. One was COVID. It brought massive human and economic costs. It also revealed much about how governments must work together to contain global threats.

The second pandemic has been the spread of right-wing authoritarianism. Its dangers are well illustrated by an assault Sunday on the Brazilian capital of Brasilia by election-denying supporters of Brazil’s defeated, discredited populist thug president Jair Bolsonaro. That assault, of course, was strikingly (if not shockingly) similar to the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by election-denying supporters of the U.S.’ defeated, discredited populist thug president Donald Trump.

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The reason the carbon-copy insurrection was not shocking is that the two are so clearly and intimately related. Bolsonaro has long been a Trump imitator and wannabe. The two have long expressed support for one another. As happened in the U.S., advisers close to Trump (such as Steve Bannon) spread the idea that Bolsonaro supporters should contest any election result that did not favor him. Bolsonaro moved to Florida shortly after his election defeat. His son met with Trump personally. And as the chaotic scenes unfolded in Brasilia over the weekend, Bannon and other Trump allies offered words of support for the Bolsonaro mob.

The thousands of protestors that descended on the Brazilian capital went further than their American allies had done. They attacked not only the Congress building but also the Supreme Court and the presidential palace. They called for a military coup.

But there was one big difference.

The Brazilian government was no longer controlled by Bolsonaro as Trump controlled the U.S. government on Jan. 6. So the response to the rioters was swift—with the federal police taking control of the situation. Control of the capital city was seized by federal authorities from its pro-Bolsonaro governor, who was accused of looking the other way and helping to facilitate the onslaught. Brazilian security forces have detained more rioters in 24 hours than the U.S. has done in the two years since Jan. 6.

Bolsonaro condemned the attacks, but his words carried little weight, since for months he had been setting the stage for the siege. His successor, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, toured the site and called for swift action against the rioters. “They have to be punished. And we are going to find out who are the financiers of these vandals,” the Brazilian president said. “They will pay with the force of law for this irresponsible act, this anti-democratic act, this act of vandals and fascists.” His justice minister echoed these comments, as did the chief justice of the Supreme Court, who called the attackers terrorists.

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Watching these scenes unfold and watching the response of the Brazilian government should have been not only eerily familiar for American audiences but frankly, uncomfortable. Because even if the current outbreak of the right-wing authoritarian virus did not originate in the U.S. (Vladimir Putin is really both patient zero and the man who weaponized the ideological disease), the U.S. is a super-spreader—guilty of both failing to contain the spread of this political plague, and of accelerating and enabling its virulence. (And make no mistake, we should fear the virulence more than the violence. Across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas it is threatening more democratic systems, paring away more fundamental human rights, and extending the power of the few over the many.)

It is no coincidence that just hours before the mayhem in Brasilia, election deniers and coup enablers were elevated to the leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives. The United States, a country that once viewed itself as the great champion of democracy in the world, has sent a message to the world, intentionally or otherwise.

We have rewarded and elevated those who attacked our system. Donald Trump—the man behind the assault—remains, according to polls, the most popular Republican candidate to run for president in 2024. The man who first embraced Trump after Jan. 6, who most helped reverse the condemnation against him within the GOP, Kevin McCarthy, is now the Speaker of the House. The most extreme election deniers, those who resisted all efforts to hold coup plotters accountable, those who actually cheered the rioters on two years ago, are now more powerful than ever in Congress. And while hundreds of Trumpist foot soldiers have been prosecuted, there is absolutely no indication on the horizon that the U.S. will do anything like go after the financiers of the riots—as Lula promised his government would do.

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The Brazilian government has thus far acted swiftly. Our government has enabled the Trumps and the Bannons and their ilk to spread their poison far and wide. While it is possible we will act against them in a decisive way, we will have done so slowly—and that has had not just a domestic but a global cost.

While it is possible Lula may stumble–indeed, given his old-school socialist political leanings, it is very unlikely he will be able to acknowledge Russia’s hand in this problem—it is also true that he and his government have quickly called those behind the problem worldwide by their name—fascists, while many in the U.S. have been reluctant to do so.

Political epidemiologists can trace the global spread of this pandemic. They have seen the money flow from Russia to right-wing governments throughout Europe—the support of Putin for the rise of Orban in Hungary, the gains made by LePen in France, and of other right-wing groups across the continent. We have seen Russian money go into support for Brexit, and then the Brexit leaders and enablers (from Nigel Farage and Cambridge Analytica) turning their efforts to support for Trump (who also had a little help from his friends in the Kremlin). And we have seen the Trumpists draw from and boost the narratives of Putin, Orban, Bolsonaro, and others who have tapped into this authoritarian movement—like Netanyahu in Israel and Modi in India.

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Our failure to recognize the global nature of the problem leads directly to our failure to acknowledge the worldwide ramifications of our failure to contain it here. The Brazil insurrection was an example of this.

The U.S. has been critical of China for its ineffective response and inability to contain the spread of the COVID virus. While we were not the point of origin of this pandemic, there is no doubt that similar criticism can be directed at us.

It is time to acknowledge our culpability in the spread of a disease that is weakening the ability of the planet to defend itself against corruption, autocracy, brutality, and governments that abuse and exploit those they are supposed to protect, defend, and ultimately answer to.

And once we acknowledge that, it is time to act to ensure the toll taken by the spread of this virus does not do irreversible damage to the planet, our countries, our governments, and the well-being of future generations.