Human Rights, Asymmetrical Polarization, and Political Radicalization: Dehumanization, Digital Platforms, and the Democratic Crisis in Brazil

Abstract

This article analyzes the effects of political polarization and ideological radicalization on human rights in contemporary Brazil. It starts from the premise that recent political disputes are not confined to institutional arenas, but also unfold in public space, discursive practices, everyday forms of sociability, and struggles over recognition and the dehumanization of others. The article’s central argument is that polarization must be understood asymmetrically: although conflicts, affects, and antagonisms exist across different political fields, the most acute erosion of human rights language, the normalization of political violence, and the delegitimation of democratic institutions have been mobilized more intensely by radicalized sectors of the far right. At the same time, the article avoids reducing all human rights violations to polarization, distinguishing long-term historical structures, such as racism, patriarchy, urban inequality, and state violence, from conjunctural processes of radicalization that intensify, legitimize, or make such violations more visible. Drawing on sociological and political literature, as well as recent data from national and international organizations, the article discusses the vulnerability of social groups, political violence, the political economy of digital platforms, and the limits of normative responses centered solely on democratic education. It concludes that rebuilding a public culture of human rights requires confronting symbolic dehumanization, the economic incentives of disinformation, and the power asymmetries that structure the Brazilian public sphere.