Brazil's QAnon followers see Bolsonaro as God's chosen messenger

If Donald Trump was the superhero in the north, in Brazil, it is Jair 'Messias' Bolsonaro, who is fighting against paedophilia, corruption and the spread of evil socialism. If Trump was the Q fountain head, Bolsonaro is the stream that runs south.

The turbulence in the waters, however, is the same. Those who oppose Bolsonaro are cast as enemies of the people, paedophiles, or evil promoters of such things, with only the “godly” and aptly middle-named Messias (Messiah) Bolsonaro standing in their way to protect and save the country. Bolsonaroists have taken to the Q model like fish to water. Members call each other “patriot.”

Bolsonaro’s Trump-like attack on the media as enemies and purveyors of “fake news” has served to polarise the country, with his supporters buying into the conspiracy theory that elite media is in an evil cabal out to destroy the religion and the culture of conservative Brazilians. Like Trump followers, Bolsonaro’s faithful believe in him while claiming to love God and accepting the president as God’s chosen messenger for Brazil, by way of Trump in this case.

Bolsonaro supporters are also passionate Trump supporters, parading around Brazil with “Q” and Trump flags, praising him, even after he is out of office and supposedly — as per a new Q theory — readying to be sworn in as president on March 4.

This day will be called the Great Awakening, they say, and it will usher a new era of religious revival; it failed to materialise on January 20, but March 4 is the day, they now say, returning to Q, after Biden’s inauguration, without incident, left them aimless and disoriented.

“It will be the Last Crusade,” is the new buzz on chat rooms as much in Brazil as in the US. Moving beyond disappointment when the final battle did not come on Inauguration Day, people who love conspiracies love to make the conspiracies more elaborate to explain reality when it fails to meet their expectations, say psychologists analysing the quick adaptation. March 4 will be the definitive end to the eternal conflict between good and evil, Q followers now believe, the last penance before the last judgment.

How did all of this get to this point?

The origin of the whole phenomenon is obscure. Q is anonymous, mysterious and elastic enough to be thought to be Trump or someone appointed by Trump. Messages are posted in anonymity in deep web forums complaining about the “Deep State” that controls the world and from which only Q will save them, and save the children.

Initially, the Q theory was a uniquely American phenomenon with no mention of Bolsonaro. Whether by design or proclivity, however, Bolsonaro supporters have been keen to include him among the world leaders chosen by Q to “save the world”.

Proof?

When Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo, a deputy in the country’s lower house, posted a photo of Bolsonaro and his sons eating corn, Movimento Q supporters noticed that the American Q had just days before posted a picture of a cornfield with the caption “Put the pieces of the puzzle together.” For Brazilian Qs, the corn-eating picture was proof enough that Messias Bolsonaro was the chosen one. Q posts are said to be breadcrumbs that lead people to figure out the truth.

With some local additions and slight modifications, Brazil’s Bolsonaro movement is a mirror-reflection of Trump world, not necessarily learning from Trump’s failures, but copying his playbook with high fidelity. Well ahead of Brazil’s presidential elections, Bolsonaro is already claiming that election fraud will be the only way he will be defeated.

Like in the US, the Brazilian Q movement is a repository of all kinds of adapted conspiracy theories incorporating fantastical claims that range from the usual Communist, Marxist plots for world domination, to the Illuminati, the New World Order, brainwashing through 5G antennas, COVID-19 denialism, and an anti-vaccine movement fuelled by Bolsonaro himself. That is one noticeable Trump departure since he championed vaccine development only to refuse to be vaccinated himself.

Just like Hillary was made out to be a baby blood-drinking paedophile in US QAnon narratives, Bolsonaro critics and political enemies are made to be paedophiles, paedophile enablers, or outright abusers and criminals. The Q Movimento has targeted Brazilian superstar Xuxa (the first wife of football great Pele), actors, opposition politicians, Supreme Court justices and leftwing political figures in neighbouring countries like Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez, former Bolivian president Evo Morales and Venezuela’s leader Maduro, all frequently named as part of a cabal of a New World Order of Satan-worshipping paedophiles from whom only Bolsonaro — with Trump’s guiding hand — can save them.

It turns out, conspiracy tactics are just as effective in Brazil as in the US, especially where there are demographic and religious similarities using moral panic to disqualify any political enemy. “It is a very well-modulated strategy to put you in an absurd position, to say that you do not support murder or sexual abuse of children”, explained Orlando Calheiros, anthropologist and researcher at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. “Paedophilia mobilises many people, from liberals to fundamentalists. It was this agenda that united the gun crowd and the Bible crowd when they linked it to the Workers Party.”

It was precisely that type of outrage-filled momentum that fizzled out support for former president Lula’s party and propelled Bolsonaro to power.

Q lore tells them they are patriotic crusaders charged with restoring order with the truth, for which they must fight to bring society back to God’s path. It is God’s plan, they believe, to battle the world’s secret rulers, the deep state of George Soros-led leftwingers and their network of paedophile human traffickers who rule the world with help from Hollywood actors, Bill Gates, country governments and even the Vatican.

The truth, of course, is relative. The common understanding of society and the world around them is challenged or ignored by a systematic attack on the media as purveyors of “fake” news who advance the agenda of the evil forces they believe they are fighting. Gospel, then, is what comes from the mouths of their leaders. For all the mystery about who Q is, in America Q followers believe it is Trump or someone designated by Trump; in Brazil, Bolsonaro, chosen by Trump. Truth is what they say.

Like their American counterparts that stormed the Capitol, Brazilian Qs see themselves as the ultimate patriots being initiated into a major force for justice. They carry weapons and armour, but their real belief is that they are protected by the armour of God delivered by their Messianic leaders, be it Trump or Bolsonaro, and by the hand of God who has sent them to save the world.

“This effect of relevance, of protagonism, is very tempting,” said Professor Christian Dunker, a psychoanalyst at the University of São Paulo speaking with Terra about the phenomenon. “Paranoia solves things because it will say that there is a bigger plan, a sense. And it indirectly says to the person that it is very important because it has come to know that the world is divided, for example, in the fight between darkness and light.”

That explains in great part the resilience of the movement, say experts. Conspiracy theories simplify things for easy understanding, explained Dunker. That also explains the movement’s widening appeal outside America.

Despite the de-platforming of many American QAnon sites, hundreds of publications only in Portuguese remain, reaching millions of Brazilian “Q” followers. Their global motto is “where goes one go all.”

Claiming that the mainstream media works against the “secret truth,” those publications target Bolsonaro opponents with false links to “orgies with under-age girls,” insinuating the Supreme Court conspires against Bolsonaro as part of the evil plot. Tweets admire Trump, Bolsonaro, and Brazil’s evangelical pastor Damares Alves, Minister of Women, Family, and Human Rights and laud them for their fight against paedophilia.

Bolsonaro supporters are buoyed by his continued channelling of Trump, right down to outright copying his strategies, questionable statements, and false theories, such as his comments that the upcoming national elections will be rigged against him.

Bolsonaro’s often-used “Brazil over everything” slogan is merely an adapted version of Trump’s “America First” line.

Whether for political expediency or out of admiration for America, a section of Brazil is well entwined with the QAnon movement, the politicians behind it riding on the appeal of its conspiracy theories to perhaps gain an equal and as passionate share of followers and influence in Brazil’s power struggles.

Milan Sime Martinic is a writer, researcher, and analyst with scientific, economics, and political background. He is the author of the upcoming book on the COVID-19 crisis, 'PANDEMIC — And The Music Stopped'. He can be reached on Twitter @MilanSimeMrtnc.