Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Brazil’s Ministry of Education launches astrology campaign for students on the internet, but it deletes posts shortly after criticism from readers that such a campaign was born of the influence of Olavo de Carvalho, who has a history of astrologer, on the Minister of Education


Brazil’s Ministry of Education launches astrology campaign for students on the internet, but it deletes posts shortly after criticism from readers that such a campaign was born of the influence of Olavo de Carvalho, who has a history of astrologer, on the Minister of Education

By Julio Severo
Brazil’s Ministry of Education (known by its acronym MEC) deleted from its official account on Twitter posts of an astrology campaign showing who is “the student of each sign,” published on July 14, 2019.
In the 12 images, one for each sign, MEC tried to create a relation between the profile of students and the characteristics traced from the interpretation of zodiac. However, the repercussion on the internet of the astrology campaign faced criticism from Internet users about the reason for MEC to present so favorably astrology, which is based on the reading of the present and the future by observing the stars in outer space. The controversial images were deleted one day later.
In addition to linking horoscopes to studies, MEC encouraged students to get other students involved in its astrology campaign. In one of the posts about the sign of Aquarius, MEC asked: “Who are you in the study horoscope? Enjoy and tag your friends!”
For the Virgo sign, MEC said that the “education stars” indicate an organization-oriented personality, with studies planned according to the days of the week.
MEC astrology campaign was criticized by different Internet users who associated it with Olavo de Carvalho, considered the Rasputin of President Jair Bolsonaro and with Education Minister Abraham Weintraub, who is an adherent of Olavo. Some of the criticisms:
“Probably this nonsense will be introduced in the National High School Exam.”
“Does study have a horoscope? I think this is something borne by the astrologer living in the USA. It’s a pity the education ministry has made that choice.” (Carvalho is a self-exiled Brazilian immigrant in Virginia.)
“What the hell is this? Does that charlatan want to make our children and students into occultists? @PastorMalafaia is this government that the evangelical caucus is giving support to?”
“Stop this pseudoscience, value national science.”
“Astrology and signs are the total denial of science. So I find it totally inconsistent for the Ministry of Education to publish something related to this.”
Although Olavo de Carvalho denies involvement with astrology today and often hides his past and books on astrology, everything he touches becomes astrological.
The Ministry of Education, which for the first time in its history has promoted this outrageous campaign of astrology, is run “coincidentally” by an adherent of Carvalho.
In 2017, there was the equally scandalous case of a Protestant teacher who, without the consent and knowledge of their parents, gave astrological indoctrination to her students, teaching them how to make astral maps. Usually, no Protestant gets involved with astrology, much less to impose it on students against the will of their parents. But the teacher in question, Ana Caroline Campagnolo, is Carvalho’s adherent.
In addition to denying or hiding his astrological issues, another subterfuge that Carvalho uses to explain away his astrological connections is to accuse others of what he does. Earlier this year, when he was called an astrologer by Silas Malafaia, Brazil’s greatest televangelist, Carvalho countered by saying that Luther and his assistant Philip Melanchthon believed much more in astrology than he does.
It was a strategic evasion, easily refuted by me in this article: “Olavo de Carvalho accuses Philip Melanchthon of being a greater astrologer than he is.”
Yet, whether he denies it or not, the fruits always emerge through his own students, be it a classroom teacher or a minister of education.
Despite Carvalho’s occult influence, President Jair Bolsonaro, a syncretic Catholic who was elected mostly by evangelicals, has insisted on appointing for his administration individuals strongly influenced by Carvalho. He already did this with the Ministry of Education, blindly appointing an anti-Trump olavist (Olavo’s adherent), who was eventually replaced by the current minister who launched the astrology campaign. And he did this with the Foreign Office, appointing an adherent of Carvalho, René Guénon, and Julius Evola, whose writings in defense of the right and witchcraft helped Nazism and fascism.
With information from MEC and O Globo.
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