S3 E16 - ’Bolsonaro, Brazil and the New Heirachies of Social Media’ with Alex Fleck

Moments of Clarity

Today's guest on Moments of Clarity is Alexandre Fleck Soares Brandao (Alex Fleck). Alex moved to Australia in 2018 to pursue a PhD at UNSW Sydney under the Scientia Scholarship Program. His research focuses on how social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook have reshaped the way social movements pursue legal change. He has previously taught at UNSW Law, but is currently in the last stages of finishing his thesis. Alex is originally from Brazil, but has lived in different places. As a child he briefly lived in Southern California and as a young adult moved to the Basque Country, Spain, where he completed his Masters degree in Sociology of Law. Alex lives in Sydney, New South Wales with his partner Michele whom he met while protesting at the Federal Law School in his hometown of Porto Alegre, Brazil. They were both law students at the time and were occupying the building in a struggle against illegal changes to the faculty and fell in love. Alex's strong interest and knowledge in law, social media, and politics shines through in this conversation. He is articulate and values-driven yet demonstrates how important it is to understand the nuances and perspectives on various issues. Matt, Toby and Alex discuss:

• Social media and it's impact on activism, politics and society.
• Whether social media has democratised power or created a new paradigm of power.
• The difference between amateur and professional activists and how it leads to repression.
• The history of Jair Bolsonaro
• Brazilian politics more broadly

Links

Twitter @A_FleckBrandao https://twitter.com/a_fleckbrandao?lang=en

Interview on Ticker News: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQKLzMHaf60

https://www.unsw.edu.au/law-justice/about-us/our-people/higher-degree-research-students/alexandre-fleck-soares-brandao

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/anticonstitutional-populism/when-bolsonaro-and-the-judges-go-shopping-how-brazils-legal-elites-opened-the-door-for-bolsonaros-bad-populism/D520A6C9D7582479FE94CDB41E2A003F

Zeynep Tufekci - https://www.nytimes.com/column/zeynep-tufekci

Toby is currently reading "In the shadow of the Sword" By Tom Holland - https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/12376830

Time Stamps

0:00 - 15:37 Introduction with Matt and Toby

15:38 - 38:57 Part 1 with Alex Fleck

38:58 - 80:14 Part 2 with Alex Fleck

80:15 - 81:29 Outro

Thank you to the team at Ex-Zero for our branding and design work and to Christian Prochilo for our music and sound editing.

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