Eros, Thanatos, and the hatred towards the Lula da Silva family.

The advent of social media and the increased access to it through digital inclusion certainly bring virtues and benefits. In Brazil, however, social media has also served to reveal a horrific trait in a segment of the Brazilian population: latent hatred and violence, intolerance, the inability to accept divergence and coexist with others, and the absolute absence of compassion for those who "are not on my side," do not think like me, or do not resemble me. In a people who in other times claimed to be governed by Eros – the god of love and pleasure in Greek mythology, who manifested himself through joy, carnival, and the lightness of the Brazilian soul – suddenly groups dominated by Thanatos, the instinct for death and destruction, permeated by the complete absence of compassion, a distinctive feeling of humanity, emerge. Freud, in the foundations of psychoanalysis, identified these two principles as governing human behavior. Over the past two days, the Thanatos impulse has manifested itself with all its brute force, in the violence of attacks, on social media, against Mrs. Marisa Letícia Lula da Silva, who is in an induced coma suffering the consequences of a stroke.

Beyond the young women from São Paulo who went to the doors of the Sírio-Libanês Hospital demanding Lula's imprisonment and Marisa's treatment in the public health system (SUS), a torrent of aggression is pouring forth on social media. A certain Emerson Rodrigues da Silva posted a "celebratory note to commemorate the day Marisa Letícia Lula da Silva went to hell" on YouTube. And he did so praising God for doing justice. This is followed by a torrent of insults against Lula and his family, held responsible for the death of the angry YouTuber's father, who doesn't go into detail about how this might have happened. I managed to listen to the end, but it was enough to make me lose hope in humanity.

Another activist, who presents himself as Dom Werneck, claims to be reporting firsthand that Dona Marisa has passed away, that she suffered brain death. Regarding this lie – since it is known that she remains in an induced coma, and according to the hospital, in a stable, though worrying, condition – he spews his hatred: “This family destroyed Brazil, robbed the Brazilian people, led millions of Brazilians to unemployment…” and so on. He also invokes God to ensure that the Lula da Silva family will suffer greatly, both on earth and in hell, in the afterlife. Who will dare to engage in dialogue with such a person? He will continue speaking to his “peers” and listening only to his equals, ignoring or hating all who deviate from his convictions. He is possessed by Thanatos.

But even in the more refined world of journalism, there have been pronouncements that only time can explain, such as that of columnist Ricardo Noblat, who claimed that Mrs. Marisa suffered a stroke through her own fault, due to her bad habits like smoking, a sedentary lifestyle, and her husband's actions that brought tension to the family. Such an unauthorized diagnosis can only serve the purpose of inoculating readers against interpretations that "others" were to blame. Others from Curitiba, from Lava Jato, from the Supreme Court, etc. A purpose that goes far beyond the mission of journalists, back when journalism still observed the canons that Noblat cultivated so much in his brilliant career.

Have the young women at the entrance of the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital ever had a relative fighting for their life? Have they seen someone in their family die for lack of proper medical care, as Lula saw his first wife die? Have they ever protested against so many other politicians hospitalized in that private hospital, some with notorious criminal records, yet white and well-born? They want a wall like Trump's, a wall between classes, a wall that suffered minor demolitions precisely during Lula's era, and which the Temer government is now repairing with regressive measures. They too are driven by Thanatos. They align themselves with death, not with life.