Brazilian top culture official fired after quoting Nazi Goebbels while talking about nationalist art in a video as Hitler’s favorite composer played in the background
By
Julio
Severo
Brazil’s
top culture official was fired on January 17, 2020 after using phrases used by Hitler’s
right-hand man, Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany’s minister of propaganda.
 |
| Roberto Alvim |
“It
is an unfortunate pronouncement, even with his apologies, making his tenure
unsustainable,” Bolsonaro tweeted. “I reiterate our condemnation of
totalitarian ideologies and genocides, like Nazism and Communism, as well as
any type of allusion to them.”
Alvim’s
scandal was a disappointment for Bolsonaro, who said recently about him: “After
decades, we do have a real Culture Secretary.”
Roberto
Alvim made the controversial comments while discussing a new art prize in a
video distributed by the Bolsonaro administration. Lohengrin by Wagner,
Hitler's favorite composer, played in the background.
Alvim acknowledged the similarity
between his speech and the speech of Goebbels and he has even disavowed Nazism but
said it was merely a “rhetorical coincidence.” When confronted by a journalist that
his speech was based on Goebbels’s speech, Alvim admitted that he was aware of the
similarity, but he defended its use adding that it was perfect.
The
“rhetorical coincidence” of Alvim became an international scandal, with
headlines in the U.S. saying:
*
Washington Post: “Brazil’s culture secretary fired after appearing to
paraphrase Nazi propaganda in speech.”
*
New York Times: “Brazil’s Top Culture Official Fired Over Speech Evoking
Nazi Propaganda.”
In his speech Alvim said:
“The Brazilian art of the next decade
will be heroic and will be national, will be endowed with great capacity for
emotional involvement… deeply linked to the urgent aspirations of our people,
or else it will be nothing.”
Parts
of it are identical to a speech quoted in the book “Joseph Goebbels: A
Biography,” by German historian Peter Longerich, who has written several works
on the Holocaust:
“The
German art of the next decade will be heroic, it will be steely-romantic, it
will be factual and completely free of sentimentality, it will be national with
great Pathos and committed, or it will be nothing.”
Alvim
said in a radio interview that he chose the music himself, because the work is
transcendent and stemmed from Wagner’s Catholic faith. Wagner was a Catholic
who did not like Jews. This is the main reason Hitler loved him.
Speaking
in a separate recorded message, with a wooden cross atop his desk, Alvim said
he wants 2020 to mark a historic cultural rebirth to “create a new and thriving
Brazilian civilization.”
Following
release of his taped video, Brazil’s Israeli confederation Conib said in a
statement: “To emulate [Goebbels’] view… is a frightening sign of his vision of
culture, which must be combated and contained.” It called for his immediate
removal, adding: “Brazil, which sent brave soldiers to combat Nazism on
European soil, doesn’t deserve it.”
Germany’s
embassy in Brazil condemned the speech in a post on Twitter,
saying that it opposed “any attempt to banalize or glorify” an era that
“brought infinite suffering for humanity.”
Goebbels
led the Ministry of Enlightenment and Propaganda, designed to brainwash people into
obeying the Nazis and idolizing Adolf Hitler and his nationalism. Its methods
included censorship of the press and control of radio broadcasts, as well as
control of culture and arts.
President
Jair Bolsonaro made the decision to fire Alvim after a backlash from Jewish
organizations, key lawmakers, political parties, artists and Brazil’s bar
association.
U.S.
newspapers suggested that the guiding force of Alvim’s radicalism was
evangelicalism. The Washington Post said, “Alvim has been one of the most
militant cultural warriors in the Bolsonaro government… he converted to
evangelicalism after a nearly fatal cancer diagnosis.”
The
Associated Press said that Alvim “is a born-again Christian who found renewed
faith while recovering from cancer.”
“Born-again”
is a term associated with evangelicalism. But Alvim is not an evangelical or
even Protestant. In an interview with the Brazilian newspaper Gazeta do Povo,
he said he had a tumor in his belly and permanent fever. He was healed after
the evangelical babysitter of his son asked to pray for him. But his connection
with evangelicalism ended in this point. After this dramatic and miraculous experience,
instead of looking for an evangelical church, he got involved with Olavo de
Carvalho and his movement that includes syncretic Catholicism. He began to
attend the Catholic Church every day.
So the effort of the Washington Post,
the Associated Press and other U.S. media to associate Alvim to evangelicalism is
not realistic. The radicalism they saw in him does not stem from
evangelicalism, but exclusively from Carvalho and his syncretic Catholicism.
On
May 11, 2019 Alvim said on his Facebook:
“Given
how much Professor Olavo de Carvalho has done for all of us, in view of the
magnificent books that he has with so much sacrifice and care bequeathed us,
the least we can do is to support him unconditionally.”
And on November 15, 2019, Carvalho,
who is a self-exiled Brazilian in the U.S. since 2005, said on his Facebook:
“I
repeat the warning: From my courses and books, whoever is smart gets smarter,
whoever is stupid goes crazy.”
Bolsonaro
had appointed Alvim not because evangelicals recommended him. He appointed by
Carvalho’s recommendation.
So
how can the Washington Post and the Associated Press suggest that Alvim and his
crazy radicalism are evangelical? They are 100 percent Carvalho’s Catholicism.
On
Twitter, Alvim regularly uses the hashtag DeusVult, echoing the traditional Catholic
battle cry of Middle Ages crusaders. Carvalho has also a fixation on the Middles
Ages, especially the Inquisition, which he defends passionately.
If
Carvalho and his adherents can defend the Inquisition, which persecuted,
tortured and killed multitudes of Jews, why cannot he and his adherents also
defend Nazism, which likewise persecuted, tortured and killed of Jews?
If an intelligent man enrolls in
Carvalho’s courses, he will easily see Carvalho’s crazy advocacy of the
Inquisition against the Jews. If he does not see, Carvalho’s prophecy is
fulfilled in him: the idiot ends crazy.
Because of massive backlash, Carvalho
disavowed his former pupil Alvim.
Yet,
Carvalho, who is considered Bolsonaro’s Rasputin, recommended Alvim to Bolsonaro
not because Alvim is an idiot. On the contrary, Carvalho recommends only his
best pupils. And his best pupil showed all the crazy culture he learned from
his master.
Even
though Carvalho disavowed Alvim, the Nazi connections are real. For years,
Carvalho was the biggest propagandist in Brazil of the Islamic occultist René
Guénon, whose most prominent disciple was Julius Evola, who wrote books
advocating occultism and the right-wing ideology. Evola was a guru of the
Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Evola’s books were also used by
Nazis.
Evola
and Guénon have been praised by Steven Bannon, a friend of Carvalho. Evola and
Guénon have also been praised by Brazilian Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo, an
adherent of Carvalho.
Occultism
has crazy connections and confusions. How could not Alvim reveal such religious
traits?
The
case of Alvim is a symptom of what may happen if the Bolsonaro administration
fails. Newspapers around the world, ignoring the fact that Rasputin-guided Bolsonaro
has filled his administration with inept adherents of Carvalho, will blame
innocent evangelicals who voted for Bolsonaro.
With information from DailyMail,
Washington Post, BBC, New York Times, Associated Press and Antagonista.
Portuguese
version of this article: Principal autoridade da cultura do Brasil foi demitida
depois de citar nazista Goebbels enquanto falava sobre arte nacionalista em um
vídeo que tinha o compositor favorito de Hitler tocando ao fundo
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Reading:
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How the Powerful Union of Trump with
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