Scholarlink

This chapter examines themes intersecting crime, media, and will-to-representation. During the 2018 Brazilian presidential elections, two individuals disseminated images on social media that artistically combined electronic voting machines with firearms, illustrating ballots poised for confirmation in favour of candidate Jair Bolsonaro. Separately, a video was recorded and shared depicting a voter employing a firearm as a means to interact with an electronic voting machine. These actions, which constitute criminal offences under Brazilian law, attracted considerable attention from mainstream media outlets and provoked extensive debate across social media platforms. The analysis considers how the intentional staging of these acts, along with their intrinsic association with violence, highlights a quest for both visibility and validation within a fragmented modern context. It is posited that these behaviours can be interpreted as transgressive expressions of a will-to-representation, encompassing stylized and impactful media performances wherein actual or replica firearms serve as symbols transcending formal democratic processes, thereby manifesting disregard for legal norms and state authority. Although such actions may appear irrational, they are imbued with significant meaning, reflecting subcultural desires for unity, the symbolic destruction of adversaries, the reduction of complex realities into binary oppositions, and the reinforcement of masculinity as a marker of identity. Ultimately, these performative gestures illuminate the challenges faced by their perpetrators in navigating the plurality and increasing political dissent characteristic of late modern Brazil.

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Voting with Firearms in the 2018 Presidential Elections: An Exploration of the Flows of Meaning at Play in Late Modern Brazil

  • 章节

  • 发表日期：

    2025年

查看全文
  • Salah H. Khaled,
  • Álvaro Oxley da Rocha,
  • Guilherme Baziewicz de Carvalho e Silva

摘要

This chapter examines themes intersecting crime, media, and will-to-representation. During the 2018 Brazilian presidential elections, two individuals disseminated images on social media that artistically combined electronic voting machines with firearms, illustrating ballots poised for confirmation in favour of candidate Jair Bolsonaro. Separately, a video was recorded and shared depicting a voter employing a firearm as a means to interact with an electronic voting machine. These actions, which constitute criminal offences under Brazilian law, attracted considerable attention from mainstream media outlets and provoked extensive debate across social media platforms. The analysis considers how the intentional staging of these acts, along with their intrinsic association with violence, highlights a quest for both visibility and validation within a fragmented modern context. It is posited that these behaviours can be interpreted as transgressive expressions of a will-to-representation, encompassing stylized and impactful media performances wherein actual or replica firearms serve as symbols transcending formal democratic processes, thereby manifesting disregard for legal norms and state authority. Although such actions may appear irrational, they are imbued with significant meaning, reflecting subcultural desires for unity, the symbolic destruction of adversaries, the reduction of complex realities into binary oppositions, and the reinforcement of masculinity as a marker of identity. Ultimately, these performative gestures illuminate the challenges faced by their perpetrators in navigating the plurality and increasing political dissent characteristic of late modern Brazil.