Terrifying Outbreak of Mass Delusion in São Paulo

Avenida Paulista, São Paulo

Last weekend there was a major incident in São Paulo that medical experts are saying is a worrying example of widespread cognitive impairment. In the heart of the city on the Avenida Paulista, hundreds of thousands of  Bolsonaro’s fanatical supporters gathered to pay homage to a man sent by God. Under threat of prosecution for openly inciting a coup, he was on his best behaviour, and tried as hard as he could to say nothing that might invite further charges. His loyal lieutenants like the grotesque billionaire pastor Malafaia more than made up for it with a rabid outburst of incoherent nonsense. Equally disturbing was Bolsonaro’s unhinged evangelical wife Michelle who clearly believes she is an angel. In the throes of ecstatic transcendence, she exhorted the crowd to ever greater acts of sacrifice. You are God’s army on earth, she told them, as in unison they  vibrated and screamed hysterically, as if infected by an otherworldly syndrome that severed their connection with objective reality.  The chants and slogans were familiar: “We don’t want communism,” “God, Family, Fatherland,” and then the extraordinary spectacle of a women who to loud applause called for Israel to be saved because, “it was a Christian country.” Meanwhile, undeterred by pleas to be sensible, other flag waving maniacs screamed, “long live democracy, bring down the government,” “Ustra, (chief torturer during the military junta) is our hero,” “we live under a dictatorship, military intervention now,” and “lock up the Supreme Court.” I would love to think that such irrational behaviour was an aberration, but the rally was followed by the CPAC conference in the US, where mass delusion was all the rage. There was a star turn by a clearly deranged ex UK Prime Minister Liz Truss who imagines she is a victim of some deep state conspiracy. Equally disturbing was the love-in between a tangerine rapist and the lunatic boy next door, the dog talking privatise everything Argentinian President Milei, who along with Trump and Bolsonaro inhabits a parallel world bereft of reason and empathy for other human beings. It has been a bad week.