"From the highest levels of power, there is a legitimization of hate speech."

Within the framework of the Plenary Meeting of Deans of Faculties of Social Sciences and Humanities of Argentina of CODESOC, at the end of May 2024, Julia Smola, Dean of the Institute of Human Development at the National University of General Sarmiento, Argentina, spoke with CLACSO.tv.

Referring to the current situation in his country, Smola stated: “I am very careful about making comparisons that could trivialize certain historical periods. I think we must be careful with that, but I don't believe we have ever lived through historical periods like this one in a democracy, where hate speech is legitimized from the highest levels of power and media (…) and then becomes performative. That is, it becomes action in a very dangerous way in our society. And we are experiencing this in universities, we are also experiencing it in social organizations; there is a stigmatization of all kinds of involvement in the life of our societies, a challenge to the idea of ​​the collective.”

In this regard, he asserted: “There is suspicion directed at all of us who work in administration. For example, there have been attacks on university rectors. I'm referring to a symbolic attack on a television channel, where journalists offered a very fragmented analysis and questioned the careers of our rectors, who were simply fulfilling a public function of political authority. Elsewhere, there are also attacks on student activists, which are, of course, condemned. Students at the National University of Rosario received threatening messages, including bullets being delivered to their homes or to the university, detailing their activities.”

“This harassment (…) I think it’s important to see it as a whole chain of events. We need to be able to recognize the specific situations we’re experiencing and, at the same time, the relationship between these issues,” he analyzed.

Interviewed by Gustavo Lema.