After years of Jair Bolsonaro and the crude, tacky, aggressive aesthetic he brought to power, there seemed to be a tiredness of this anti-establishment model, but the hole may be deeper. Pablo Marçal confirms what British researcher Jamie Bartlett had already said before the 2018 election about how the internet favors candidacies of outsiders and politicians with an authoritarian profile.
At the time, I said that Bolsonaro would win by shouting, without making proposals, with insults and accusations, treating his opponents as enemies. This tactic, which seemed worn out and has made it difficult for Donald Trump to secure the victory, proved to be very effective in Argentina, which elected Javier Milei, and helped Marçal to confuse the race in São Paulo.
In “The People vs Tech”, Bartlett shows that ideals, public policies, the viability of promises, and the performance of previous administrations are all superfluous. It is no wonder that Marçal disdains his own lack of knowledge about the city and focuses on personal attacks. Like few others, he understood that it is about appearances and data analysis, and that what goes viral is rudeness and shouting.
Everything is unclear about Marçal, a real threat, not only in the São Paulo election, but in a possible presidential candidacy, which he had already tried to do in 2022. He ended up being investigated by the Federal Police for electoral crimes, ideological falsehood and money laundering. There is a conviction in a case for embezzlement of money from bank accounts.
But his experience as a coach and his understanding of how social networks work could make Bolsonaro seem like a boy scout. Marçal is a talented con man who, among other things, convinced 60 unprepared people to climb a peak. In his ad, he warned: “Only those who are willing to give up all their resources along the way will reach the top of this mountain. Blood, sweat, tears and fat.” It took firefighters nine hours to rescue the group. During an election, rescue takes four years.
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