According to the Brazilian Academy of Letters, denialism is a “biased attitude that consists of refusing to accept the existence, validity or truth of something, such as historical events or scientific facts, despite the evidence or arguments that prove it”.
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The term became known due to the Holocaust, which was the persecution, imprisonment and annihilation of the Jewish population between 1942 and 1945. This intolerance resulted in the death of at least 6 million Jews, most of them murdered in gas chambers.
Some intellectuals, such as Maurice Bardèche and Paul Rassinier, claimed in their books that the Holocaust was a hoax. This was the first denialist wave recorded in history. After that, even scientific facts began to be systematically denied. O 'flat earthism' is one of them.
In fact, another fact: at that time the word genocide. Jewish jurist Raphael Lemkin used the term to describe the Nazi treatment of concentration camp prisoners. You can see that nothing is new today, right?
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“Denialism is a deliberate stance of ignoring already consolidated evidence and facts. With the advancement of social networks and the expansion of information sharing, the truth, facts and evidence are diluted and end up losing spaces and legitimizations of authority”, explains the History Professor at Canal Historiando, Rodrigo Basilio, master in Humanities, Rights and Other Legitimacies from the University of São Paulo (USP).
Comedian Matheus Costa is successful on social media with videos irritating his father, Seu Zé. In several videos it is possible to see the influencer calling his father a denialist. Mr. Zé freaks out and corrects his son. But why is he so angry?
The professor explains that denialism exists in Brazil and gives examples such as “anti-vaccine movements and the military dictatorship”.
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“Brazil within this Western context is also permeated, perhaps Brazil is the vanguard of these denialist stances.”
In recent times, science denialist delusions have been:
- anti-vaccine movements;
- flat earth movements;
- climate change deniers;
- pandemic deniers.
In Brazil, unfortunately, it is possible to check all theories.
The teacher explains that “denialism is not the right to bring an untruth and does not fit within a perspective or an opinion".
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Combat
“It is important to combat denialism assertively and emphatically, and with a culture of education on the more responsible and conscious use of social media, so that denialist speeches can be cut off at the beginning of their dissemination”, concluded Basilio.
🎬 It's worth watching
On Netflix, the documentary “The Earth is Flat” tries to understand who the people are who believe that the planet is not round.
Curto Curatorship
- What is denialism? (Brazil School)
- The Earth is flat and the voting machine is rigged (Stay)
- Flat Earthers, anti-vaccines: what’s behind denialism (UOL)
- What is Genocide? (Holocaust Encyclopedia)
- Flat Earthism – Flat Earth Theory (InfoEscola)
Curto Explain: everything you need to know and are embarrassed to ask!😉
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Click here to see more explanatory content ⤴️
