The return of the round Earth

Olavo de Carvalho mocked the pandemic and was an anti-vaccine activist, contracted COVID, and died. How many cases like this are there, involving activists of the same stature, pastors, and all sorts of harbingers of death, who influenced unsuspecting people who also ended up losing their lives or even suffering serious consequences? He blamed communist countries for mass vaccination, saying they implanted a chip. A fight against a non-existent enemy reminds me of the 90s American senator Bob Dole, who blamed the violence in TV and movies for the crimes in the country, even though the politician was supported by the National Rifle Association—the epitome of hypocrisy.

Olavo de Carvalho, the Bolsonaro ideologue who deceived many with his anti-scientific, polemical, flat-earth rhetoric and ideologue of Brazilian neo-fascism, has died. He was the biggest poster boy for the fight against Covid vaccination. Bolsonaro decreed official mourning in the country and did not issue a statement about Elza Soares. Olavo's legacy is that he gave self-confidence to Bolsonarism, giving space to political radicalism. The arrogance of a point of view without basis gained strength always with insults and expressions used aggressively.

He was a precursor of flat-Earth theory in Brazil, and at the very moment when science is launching the James Webb telescope into space, the largest and most powerful ever built, where it will explore the origins of the Universe and exoplanets similar to Earth, searching for extraterrestrial life—boldly going where no man has gone before! At a time of incredible technological advancements, we have the contrast of a country listening to a pathetic imitation of a far-right thinker, without scientific or philosophical basis. After all, Olavo de Carvalho criticized scientists like Newton and thinkers like Sartre. His commitment was not to truth, facts, or logic, but to rhetoric. And that's what flat-Earthers relied on.

Despite a far-right group suggesting Olavo de Carvalho could be saintly, his influence will wane in Brazil as new winds blow through Latin America and a year of election concerns arrives. Olavo de Carvalho, a staunch defender of flat-Earth theory and denialist, dies of Covid. This proves not only that the Earth is round, but that it rotates. Simple facts can now help those who listened to rhetoric and can give reason to science. When a boat disappears over the horizon, it gets smaller until we can no longer see it. Round Earth. Different constellations are seen from different latitudes. Round Earth. Aristotle, 350 years before Christ, showed that in lunar eclipses, the Earth's shadow on the face of the Sun is curved. Flat Earth. Gradually, science will once again be listened to sensibly, in the same way that most of the population shows support for vaccination.

Olavo's conspiracy theories aren't completely buried only because fascist groups in the country will have some breathing room for a while longer, but we can celebrate the return of the round earth. The Greeks already knew about the round earth, but in the Dark Ages, we had the concept of the flat earth, which persisted until Ptolemy. The domination of the people by religion necessarily involved concepts that required divine justification for the condition of slavery. Not only through laws, through force, but also through ideas. Fortunately, after centuries of darkness, science unveils the veil of ignorance. And in this dark moment we are going through, when its main ideologue dies, so too do the concepts that represent this spirit of domination over the uninformed and naive.

May God have mercy on the family's suffering and comfort their hearts. But the values ​​of his ideas, the cult-like atmosphere, and the notion that we were resisting some invisible threat, die with him. And today we can celebrate the return of the round Earth.