Infodemic and Signic Construction – Responsive Movements Under the Rhetoric of Post-Truth

Abstract

Under the rhetoric of post-truth, infodemia and misinformation reached large proportions, with negative impacts on the social sphere (KALIL; SANTINI, 2020; ORGANIZATION MUNDIAL DA SAÚDE, 2020), generating a scenario of instability, marked by imprecision, fear, marginalization and prejudices. Aiming to contribute to reading literacy practices in formative instances, especially educational ones, in this article we will explore the phenomenon of misinformation (ALLCOTT; GENTZKOW, 2017; WARDLE; DERAKHSHAN, 2017), taking as an analytical object the opening speech of the President Jair Messias Bolsonaro, at the 75th General Assembly of the United Nations, delivered in September 2020. Most of this speech consists of inaccurate information and devoid of substantiated arguments, especially with regards to the context of the Covid-19 pandemic in the Brazil and the destruction of Brazilian biomes of extreme importance to the world ecosystem. Considering the enunciative event under analysis, we seek to understand and problematize how the evaluative positions of the speaker, crossed by the ideological values ​​of the place(s) it occupies in the socio-historical context, may be able to affect the dialogue with society. In order to achieve the proposed objective, we resorted to the theoretical support developed by the Bakhtinian Circle, especially the concepts of responsiveness, axiological positioning and refraction (BAKHTIN, 2011; 2017; VOLÓCHINOV, 2013; 2017), and considerations about the controversial discourse constructed under the bias of dissent (AMOSSY, 2015; 2017).