Hate is taught and has a purpose. As a political force, hatred manipulates and mobilizes. But hate also kills.
In a Harvard University study, experts cross-referenced two key data about the moments leading up to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda: the number of murders in each of the villages spread across the country, and the strength of the frequency of one. local radios to reach the devices of that population.
The result was frightening in the country with a “thousand hills” and a special topography: where harmony was good, massacres were terrible. Where radio did not grow, the population was partially spared.
Before evaluating data from airwaves, observation is studies like Barbara Harff’s, when persecution of certain groups in society became the official ideology of the ruling elite. US Naval Academy He points out that “the probability of a transition from conflict to political mass murder is significantly higher”.
In Rwanda, the campaign was led by the government’s Hutu leadership against the Tutsi ethnic minority.
But in a country with low newspaper circulation, few television sets, and a high illiteracy rate, “radio was the dominant medium for the government to get the message across to the public.”
In this strategy, the pre-genocide Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) station spearheaded the propaganda effort, broadcasting provocative messages calling for the extermination of the Tutsi minority.
Until the assassination, President Habyarimana was one of the station’s strongest supporters. “Ferdinand Nahimana, formerly director of the agency responsible for mass media regulation, helped found RTLM and played an active role in determining the content of broadcasts, writing editorials and giving screenplays to journalists to read,” says the study.
That’s why hate was taught, and it was justified. For example, the radio station claimed that preemptive violence against him was a necessary response for “self-defense.”
The most common provocative statements consisted of reports of atrocities by Tutsi rebels, allegations of involvement in a conspiracy and claiming power and control over Hutus.
“The language used in the broadcasts was dehumanizing, as the Tutsis would often be called. inyenzior cockroaches,” he says.
Years later, its founders were found guilty of inciting genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. But how did this happen?
Harvard research attempts to fully explain this relationship between the spread of hatred by government and its consequences.
One argument was that in Rwanda, radio had a direct persuasive effect by “convincing some listeners that it was preferable not to participate in the attacks on Tutsis”.
They also spread the information that the government “will not punish participation in the killing or confiscation of Tutsi citizens”.
The results therefore showed that RTLM had a direct impact on participation in villages with access to broadcasts. Where the radio broadcast was, there was a 12 to 13 percent increase in total participation in violence. The study also estimates that around 50,000 people were killed as a result of the radio’s operation.
The hatred that was taught turned into death.
Today?
30 years later, in a moment of tension in our country, this radiation of hatred multiplied exponentially through social networks.
If that’s not enough, the basis for the outburst of hatred is visible and uses a scary primer:
– Media that deliberately publishes content created to lie, confuse, and create conflict.
– The other side has been dehumanized, deeply affecting one of the principles of democracy: the recognition that the enemy is legitimate.
– My candidate was deified, infallible, and today leads a sectarian militia.
– Gun sales have exploded, including with new laws legalizing possession.
– A few months before the election, the political forces still could not come to an agreement on what the rules of the election would be.
– By minimizing the torture, there was room for discussion about who would have the rights and who would not.
– The past has been rewritten to erase crimes and blur the victims of history for the second time.
If a scenario of ethnic genocide is not the most obvious risk in Brazil, and radio Africa is just an extreme example, the Rwanda example serves as an important warning: used as a force to mobilize part of the population, hatred will destroy a society.
Unprepared for the digital age, we face the real threat that the concepts of coexistence and coexistence will be eroded. War for our minds involves spreading hatred and thus shaping our choices, our acceptance of acts of violence, and our selective generosity.
The hate taught in Brazil doesn’t just have an effect in October when we go to the polls. He has lessons in every social media post and is tested when relations with family members are broken on behalf of the new political family, democracy is illegitimate and voting is questioned.
Therefore, hatred activates and defines a society.
In 2022, there will not be just one election or a new presidential election in Brazil.
We are faced with a much deeper and more embarrassing question: Who are we after all?
source: Noticias
