The Beauty of Little Things
The Beauty of Little Things
It was no surprise that social psychologist Rui Costa Lopes saw the Portuguese radical right party experience galloping growth in the last 5 years, going from 1 deputy to the current 50. The social psychologist has just published a book that partly explains this phenomenon. He called it “Prejudice and Discrimination in Portugal”, in an edition of the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation, where he analyzes the root of this problem, dismantles negative ideas and beliefs about minorities and points out solutions. Listen to him here in this podcast conversation with Bernardo Mendonça
Almost two weeks have passed since the country went to vote and more than one million and 100 thousand people chose to put the cross on an admittedly racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic and anti-democratic party. How can we explain this phenomenon, which is not only national but global? In this podcast episode we begin by analyzing the various paths that led to this result.
Portugal was one of the last European countries to have a significant radical right-wing parliamentary group, but the extremist phenomenon finally arrived in our country. And it has grown rapidly. In just 5 years, Chega went from 1 deputy to 12 and now to 50. How can you explain that a party that relies on prejudice and discrimination against social groups is gaining more and more followers in Portugal?
Since the result of the legislative elections, many voices have been saying that it is not credible that so many people are racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic, or anti-democratic. And these 50 deputies elected by Chega were votes of pure discontent and indignation. Out of anger. For a tantrum. Because they are against it. But this alone does not explain the result.
If in fact a certain dissatisfaction with the performance of those in power caused more people to feel seduced by an extremist and security political project, promising to cleanse the country of corruption – despite itself containing numerous leaders convicted of corruption – many people also felt heard and legitimized when a party leader took the stage to point out certain social groups as enemies and threats, based on lies, frustrations, anger and fears. What are the risks of the increasing normalization of prejudice and hatred?
How is it that 50 years after the achievement of our democracy, an anti-democratic party begins to grow in the Assembly with 50 deputies and is willing to use democracy to destroy it and place social minorities as scapegoats and targets for all evil? What makes more and more people interested in voting for the far right? What does this say about us, our democracy and our country? How can we explain why we don’t like certain social groups from the outset, without knowing them well? Where do prejudices take root and what makes them grow?
These questions are put to Rui Costa Lopes, who has been studying these topics for a long time. PhD in Social Psychology from ISCTE and Principal Investigator at ICS dedicated to the study of intergroup relations, prejudice and discrimination. His latest book, released in January this year, is an essay about this very thing, “Prejudice and discrimination in Portugal”, published by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. And with this succession of events, it becomes even more pertinent and urgent to read it to help us understand the origin of this social and political problem.
In this podcast we learn that Portugal has one of the highest percentages of respondents with racist beliefs and the recent deaths of Bruno Candé and Giovanni Rodrigues and, this week, of Ademir Araújo Moreno, of Cape Verdean origin, murdered in the city of Horta, are remembered. on the island of Faial, due to alleged “racial hatred”. The problem is systemic and the police forces themselves have been accused of discrimination and racist crimes. Where does so much hate come from?
What is the risk of normalizing prejudice and discrimination? Do we risk having a society that is massively prejudiced and willing to put an extremist party in power? What can reverse this path? What does social psychology say about this? Rui Costa Lopes responds.
In this second part of the episode, researcher Rui Costa Lopes begins by responding to the provocations and praises of political scientist and friend Pedro Magalhães, who points out Rui’s “relentless” sense of humor. What makes you laugh? And how can humor be a good weapon for empathy?
Rui talks about his recent move to the island of Terceira, in the Azores, and the epiphany that led him to realize that his happiness lay in the simplest things, leaving aside the weight of life’s great missions. And here he shares his new pleasures on the island, his desire to add a goat to his family, a brief reading of the book “The Unsustainable Lightness of Being”, by Milan Kundera, which translates his new phase and lets us hear some of the songs that accompany it.
As you know, the generic is signed by Marcia and has the collaboration of He had taken. The portraits are by José Fernandes. And the sound design of this podcast is João Ribeiro.
See you next week and happy listening!
