The Left and “Winning Hearts and Minds”
The Left and “Winning Hearts and Minds”
Subtitle: Psychopathology of the Brazilian State
1. Opening — Fractal, 17 years old
You turn on the TV or enter social media.
Someone says:
“we need to win hearts and minds.”
It sounds beautiful.
It sounds caring.
It sounds intelligent.
It sounds like sensitive politics.
But pause for a second.
If someone wants to win your mind…
is it still yours?
If someone wants to win your heart…
what remains of your consciousness?
Maybe the problem is not the speech.
Maybe it is the hidden goal inside it.
2. Deepening
The terms “right” and “left” seem natural today.
But they come from a historical seating arrangement during the French Revolution: groups defending different political positions sat on opposite sides of the assembly. The right was associated with preserving privileges; the left with change.
Over time, this became a global way of organizing politics.
But this division also carries a problem:
it simplifies reality too much.
It turns complexity into team loyalty.
It turns debate into identity.
It turns politics into symbolic war.
Here enters the central point.
The idea of “winning hearts and minds,” often used by sectors of the left — including strategies historically associated with the Workers’ Party in Brazil — may appear, at first, as dialogue.
But in practice, it can become something else:
a dispute over perception.
It is no longer about building consciousness.
It becomes about directing feeling.
It is no longer about expanding thought.
It becomes about organizing narratives.
When politics enters emotion without metacognition, it can:
reduce critical thinking,
create automatic identification,
generate belonging without reflection,
transform ideas into rigid beliefs.
In other words:
it replaces consciousness with adhesion.
This is not exclusive to the left.
But here the criticism is direct:
when a political project organizes itself to “win” the other, it stops treating the other as a subject.
It treats the other as a target.
And this is where the psychopathology appears.
The discourse may speak of justice, equality, and inclusion…
but the method may operate as capture.
This becomes visible when:
debate becomes slogan,
divergence becomes attack,
questioning becomes betrayal,
thinking becomes automatic positioning.
And then something essential is lost:
the autonomy of the body that thinks.
In our model, this is central.
Because consciousness is not something imposed from outside.
It emerges from the relation between body, perception, and world — through shared agency, Jiwasa.
When this relation is replaced by ready-made narrative,
the mind stops exploring.
It starts repeating.
3. Metacognition
Now bring this inward.
When you hear a political discourse that pleases you, what happens?
Do you think more?
Or agree quickly?
Do you question?
Or feel that you “already understood everything”?
This is the point.
Capture does not happen only when someone disagrees with you.
It also happens when you agree without noticing.
Now ask:
Are my ideas mine?
Or were they organized for me?
Do I feel that I am understanding the world?
Or only positioning myself inside it?
That difference is everything.
Without metacognition, any political side can capture.
With metacognition, no side dominates.
Politics stops being a dispute over narrative.
It becomes the construction of reality.
And that changes the entire game.
References in Didactic Order
Books
Antonio Gramsci — Prison Notebooks
Develops the idea of cultural hegemonies, showing how power is also built through influence over thought and culture.Paulo Freire — Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Proposes education as conscientization, not imposition — an important counterpoint to the idea of “winning minds.”George Orwell — 1984
Shows how language and narrative can control perception and thought.Gustave Le Bon — The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind
Explores how individuals change behavior inside collective dynamics.Daniel Kahneman — Thinking, Fast and Slow
Helps explain how fast, emotional decisions can reduce critical reflection.Antonio Damasio — Descartes’ Error
Shows that emotion and reason are integrated, meaning that emotional manipulation directly affects consciousness.
Post-2021 Publications and Studies
Pew Research Center — political polarization studies, 2022–2025
Shows how political identities become more rigid and polarized.Nature Human Behaviour — political behavior studies, 2023–2025
Indicates that emotion and identity often shape political decisions more strongly than rational arguments.OECD — trust and governance reports, 2022–2024
Shows how institutional trust declines when polarization increases.World Economic Forum — Global Risks Report, 2023
Identifies misinformation and social polarization as major global risks.American Psychological Association — studies on political identity, 2022–2024
Shows how ideological belonging affects cognition and perception.MIT — studies on social media and influence, 2023–2025
Indicates that narratives often spread through emotional force more than evidence.
Defender “Cosas de Rico” Empobrece el Espíritu y Limita el Alma
Defending “Things of the Rich” Impoverishes the Spirit and Limits the Soul
Defender Coisas de Ricos Empobrece o Espírito e Limita a Alma
Estado Inteligente contra la Corrupción: IA, Justicia y el Monopolio de las “Cosas de Rico”
Intelligent State Against Corruption: AI, Justice, and the Monopoly of the “Things of the Rich”
Estado Inteligente contra a Corrupção: IA, Justiça e o Monopólio das Coisas de Rico
¿Las Tierras Raras También Serán “Cosas de Rico”?
Will Rare Earths Also Become “Things of the Rich”?
Terras Raras Também Serão Coisas de Rico?
Conciencia, Movimiento y Futuro Vivo
Consciousness, Movement, and a Living Future
Consciência, Movimento e Futuro Vivo
DREX Ciudadano: el Ciudadano como Unidad del Estado
DREX Citizen: The Citizen as the Unit of the State
DREX Cidadão: o Cidadão como Unidade do Estado
Lula y la Máquina de Desgaste Interno
Lula and the Internal Wear-Down Machine
Lula e a Máquina de Desgaste Interno
La Izquierda y “Conquistar Corazones y Mentes”
The Left and “Winning Hearts and Minds”
A Esquerda e “Conquistar Corações e Mentes”
La Derecha y el “Dios Enviado”
The Right and the “God-Sent” Narrative
Poder Judicial, STF y Reforma de Flávio Dino
Judiciary, STF, and Flávio Dino’s Reform
Judiciário, STF e Reforma de Flávio Dino
Golpes, Congreso y Cosas de Rico
Coups, Congress, and the Things of the Rich
Golpes, Congresso e Coisas de Rico
Estado Psicópata y Cosas de Rico
Psychopathic State and the “Things of the Rich”
Estado Psicopata e Coisas de Rico
Cuerpo-Territorio Antes de la Colonización
Body–Territory Before Colonization
Corpo-Território Antes da Colonização
La Mentira de que el Ser Humano es Malo por Naturaleza
The Myth That Human Beings Are Evil by Nature
A Mentira de que o Homem é Mau por Natureza
Machosfera, Red Pill y Mujeres Iroquesas
Manosphere, Red Pill, and Iroquois Women
Machosfera, Red Pill e Mulheres Iroquesas
La Muerte de la Verdad y la Política como Caos
The Death of Truth and Politics as Chaos
A Morte da Verdade e a Política como Caos
Redes, Juegos y el Rapto de la Atención
Networks, Games, and the Capture of Attention
Redes, Games e o Rapto da Atenção
Jiwasa Herido: Cuando el Cuerpo Ya No Consigue Sentir el “Nosotros”
Wounded Jiwasa: When the Body Can No Longer Feel the “We”
Jiwasa Ferido: Quando o Corpo Não Consegue Sentir o “A Gente”
Senador Deputado Federal Estadual Senadora Presidente
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