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My topic is about Communism in Brazil and the lingering effects of the 70's era Military Dictatorship, the campaign of propaganda they created, and how leftist parties in Brazil have fought back since.

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For my project, I will conduct some interviews, including:

my uncle, Paolo, who was a member of the Communist Party of Brazil during the dictatorship

Prof. Braza, head of indigenous languages department at the University of Rio de Janeiro, who lived with indigenous tribes during the dictatorship

and I will conduct research, including

sociological studies about the history of communism in Brazil

newspapers of the era filled with propaganda

a deep dive into telenovelas of the era and how they pushed fascist sentiment

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Youth, Politics, and the Downfall of the Brazilian Military Dictatorship

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Youth, Politics, and the Downfall of the Brazilian Military Dictatorship

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Taken from a lecture about the history of the Brazilian Military Dictatorship by Professor James Green at Brown University, Professor James connects the peace movements associated with the 60s with the guerilla warfare occurring in Brazil against the dictatorship, detailing his own experience in hippie movements and how they would hear news of rebellion movements in Brazil. He told the story of Marcus Saura, the founder of the Committee Against Repression in Brazil, who made his way to America and joined various communes in California. Through the local connection between freedom movements in Brazil and the USA and the philosophical ones, the groups reinforced each others behavior through ther exchange of cultural values that support ideologies.

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Brazilian Propaganda: Legitimizing an Authoritarian Regime

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Brazilian Propaganda: Legitimizing an Authoritarian Regime

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In the article Brazilian Propaganda: Legitimizing an Authorian Regime, author Nina Schneider describes the modes of propaganda that existed in Brazil at the time. She writes about the three primary types of propaganda, which include, "subliminal propaganda attempts to win “general support” for the regime indirectly, while refusing to “intimidate, threaten, construct enemies, or justify violence;” blunt propaganda offers more direct support and praise for the regime; and aggressive propaganda“ glorifies the regime by promoting violence,

clearly constructing enemies, creating a personality cult around military leaders, and praising organs of repression”. These three types seek to influence the public by different means, using signifiers to oppose countercultural movements and dispel materialist ideology within society.

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I think this article clearly connects to the sociological idea of groupthink, both how a military government utilizes groupthink to push propaganda, and how the social environment of the 60's and 70's pushed a left wing in-group that led to group think. I think the application of group think for the purposes of propaganda is more relevant. As our textbook states on page 138, "creating a sense of belonging is especially common among racist groups, which promote their identity as superior by hating inferiors". This pitting of "superiors" against "inferiors" is crucial to the project of fascism and authoritarianism. For right wing ideologies to succeed, the ideology must create an enemy. Often, this enemy is falsified, such as the Nazi's hating the Jews or modern American politics hating immigrants, but sometimes it is valid. If you're a fascist, it is only logical to hate communists, as communists legitimately want your ideology destroyed, as they should. Therefore, to protect the already fragile ideology from much more popular political ideals, propaganda must be created to artificially widen the in group. If a person who is not an autocrat watches the news and sees that communists are violent, destructive monsters, you become part of the in-group, in your mind at least. Practically, you are still a member of the oppressed proletariat.

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Professor Jose Ribamar Bessa, or, as he is called to his friends, family, and colleagues, simply Bessa, was a tenured professor at UERJ, or Rio de Janeiro State University, one of the foremost universities in Brazil. He taught indigenous history and cultures during his career and now, he lives with his wife, also a former professor, in the apartment below my grandmother. His family and mine have been lifelong friends, he helped babysit me and my sister when we were little kids and spent a lot of time helping my grandmother when her health started to fail. I interviewed him about his experiences during the Brazilian Military Dictatorship and it's lingering effects, and in the interview he informed me he was actually living with an indigenous tribe during this period of time, and the way he discovered a military coup had taken place was when deforestation began to threaten the community. He told me how it rapidly escalated from there, with groups being forced from their lands, tortured, killed, kidnapped, raped, and even enslaved. He just narrowly evaded a similar fate but was saved by his white complexion and ethnic background. this ties into the sociological concept of racism, obviously, as well as authoritarian personalities and ethnic antagonism

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Paulo Aguiar is a former member of Ação Libertadora Nacional (National Liberation Action) or ALN, a leftist urban guerilla group that sought to destabilize the military dictatorship through. They are most famous for the 1969 kidnapping of the American Ambassador to Brazil. Paulo was in this group for more than a decade, and just as many of the other members of this group, he was kidnapped by the government and subjected to brutal torture. Paulo Aguiar is also my uncle. I interviewed him about his time in the group, and what brought him into it. He described to me how the Brazilian Communist Party, which he was a member of, split following the rise of the dictatorship. He felt compelled to fight against the dictatorship in a more extreme way than the majority of his comrades and thats what brought him over. I think this relates clearly to the sociological idea of organizations, specifically how an organization can split or fail. when the written rules that govern the conduct of those in an organization change due to societal factors (like the rise of authoritarian government), the entire structure of the organization can crumble and lead to a division amongst a group that shares common ideals. This was also seen in Ireland after the civil war.