Well-funded right-wing groups borrowed leftist protest aesthetics for funded political goals
Evidence
The MBL and Vem Pra Rua were clearly appropriating the language, posture, and repertoire of contention that entered the national consciousness in 2013. But these were not anti-authoritarian, self-funded punks and committed horizontalists who would rather cease to exist than tell anyone what to do. They got money from some of Brazil’s richest people (and right-wing institutions based in the United States) to pursue clear political goals. That didn’t matter. Their messaging strategy was effective. After one huge protest, the Atlas Network—that “neoliberal Comintern” in Washington, DC—publicly congratulated the MBL for organizing protests and “working to tear down Brazil’s barriers to liberty.” — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 553
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the earlier ch17 note on the US-funded think tank network spreading free-market ideology into Brazil’s protests, and to ch13’s internet/free-market infrastructure themes. — connects to: Right-wing actors mimicked leftist movement names to hijack protest meaning.; The Proud Boys borrowed skinhead subcultural signifiers for right-wing organizing — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 448; Supposed left-wing authoritarians in past movements were probably right-wing wild cards (+7 more)
- SHARE: The Atlas Network congratulating MBL for ‘working to tear down Brazil’s barriers to liberty’ would interest anyone following the Atlas Network’s global libertarian work.
- recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source
Broader Connections
- The Proud Boys borrowed skinhead subcultural signifiers for right-wing organizing
#exemplifies(0.92) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 448 - Right-wing corporate critique mirrors left critique while serving opposite ends
#exemplifies(0.85) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 402 - Alt-right politics inverted sixties counterculture by recasting progressive institutions as oppressive
#exemplifies(0.80) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 451 - Left-originated syndicalism became a powerful organizing tool of the fascist right
#exemplifies(0.75) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 262 - Supposed left-wing authoritarians in past movements were probably right-wing wild cards
#responds-to(0.70)