“Olavos”, “Reinaldos”, “Villas” and “Bolsonaros”

Everyone knows Olavo de Carvalho, Reinaldo Azevedo, Marco Antonio Villa, and Jair Bolsonaro.

But what do they have in common? They are in the service of the Big House, as Daves Sena Filho wrote in relation to one of them.

In my view, the three of them are a dangerous kind of idiot. Dangerous because they go beyond foolishness and idiocy, preaching hatred and intolerance, and corrosively asserting a worldview that flirts with fascism, with at least one of them openly advocating for military dictatorship, the closure of Congress, and the death of anyone who opposed the military dictatorship.

From the Greek "idiotes," meaning "layperson, without professional skills," as opposed to those who performed specialized work. In its original meaning, idiot literally designated a private citizen, someone who dedicated themselves only to private matters, as opposed to a citizen who held a public office or participated in matters of public order.

The term has always evolved in a derogatory way and has come to designate an ignorant, simple, uneducated person. Popularly, an idiot is a foolish, imbecilic individual, devoid of intelligence and common sense. Idiocy is what produces the idiot. The three mentioned produce idiocies and wickedness, but there are those who admire them, follow them, and repeat their foolishness.

I researched and discovered that in psychiatry, an idiot is someone who suffers from "idiocy," which is the diagnosis given to a mentally deficient individual with an advanced degree of mental retardation, linked to brain lesions. In a state of profound idiocy, the person with this pathology has their vital capacities reduced to a state similar to a coma.

Well, these idiots are the representatives and voice of a conservative wave in motion in the country. It's true that some say there is no conservative wave or that it's just a passing hiccup; but the fact is that ten years ago they were treated as pathetic caricatures, but today they are not like that.

The conservative attitudes represented by these idiots must be recognized, understood as something negative, and combated on the level of ideas and progressive political action.

Conservatism, as a political ideology, emerged in England at the end of the 18th century as a reaction to the French Revolution. The term "conservative" denotes adherence to timeless principles and values, which must be preserved despite all historical change, if only because only in and through them does History acquire an intelligible form.

Conservatives do not believe in the "natural goodness of Man"; they consider that it is the constraints introduced by habits and traditions that allow societies to function, so any lasting and stable regime can only work if it is based on traditions; they believe it makes no sense to develop universal projects for an ideal society, as such a society would be unattainable.

These aforementioned idiots, sad characters from a dark period, fight against popular movements, ethnic groups, workers, unions, and left-wing organizations, and, as economist Fernando Nogueira da Costa has written since 2010, the field in which the conservative perspective is best expressed in politics is the moralistic agenda.

What to do? I think it's time, through the Popular Front of Brazil, to denounce and combat this conservative wave. The solution lies in activism and the involvement of all progressive sectors; only then will this wave be a ripple and not a tsunami.