Book news. My opus on authoritarianism, The Black Pill, is finally circulating with publishers in a third draft, ready to see if anyone will bite. Meanwhile the news has brought grim confirmation that authoritarian political violence is distorting democracy worldwide.
A chapter of my book is dedicated to Brazil—a dysfunctional democracy that I chose for its many parallels to the USA—a multiracial, economically unequal society with futuristic aspects and entrenched financial interests trying to weaken rule of law, and a reality-denying leader who encouraged an attack on the national capital.
I focus specifically on the assassination of one promising politician, Marielle Franco, a black, gay woman from the poor favelas. Franco’s murder—in a hail of bullets from an H&K sub machine gun—was a result of her signature issue, opposition to the powerful “militias” that had taken over much of Rio de Janeiro. In Brazil, militias are different than the US. They are effectively pro government, and serve as anti-crime forces, an extension of law enforcement and the state. However, as Franco knew, they were really criminal enterprises used to control the poor. Under the guise of fighting drug gangs, they ran corruption schemes and contract killings, often simply taking over the cocaine trade they claimed to fight.
Franco’s killing six years ago was always mysterious. Despite links to Brazil’s President, Jaír Bolsonaro, the case was never solved. Now we know why: the lead police investigator was covering it up. He has just been arrested in Rio, along with two wealthy brothers who were the alleged paymasters. It’s no surprise—Franco was killed because she was investigating and exposing a corrupt land deal that would enrich the powerful brothers who financed the militias. They hired a notorious contract killer—a friend and neighbor of Bolsonaro—to stop her.
Here’s my obvious point in this chapter: political violence inevitably gets tied to financial interest. Whatever their motives, American militias must follow the logic of money. The wealthy and powerful will end up directing and controlling an institutionalized form of political violence that is used to suppress resistance and control the weak, the poor, and the disenfranchised. We are in danger of becoming Brazil.