Between hate speech and fear: throwing evil across the border

Abstract

This text seeks to problematize a dominant representation about epidemics, pandemics and major catastrophes, which describes its origin as external, exotic and foreign. In general, both from Hollywood catastrophe cinema, to medical-scientific discourses, and from philosophy to conspiracy theories and hate speech, any threat or evil is placed outside of society itself, there is always another, who prosecutes a moral fault that justifies the need to combat, isolate or eliminate them. We propose to analyse arguments that have circulated around the current coronavirus pandemic, especially those that place the possibility of salvation in isolation and fear, to problematize certain ideas naturalized in discourses that are later translated into political practices or actions.