FAITH, CLICKS AND VOTES: THE EFFECTS OF MEANING OF NEOLIBERAL IDEOLOGY IN RELIGIOUS DISCOURSE

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Networked society is an ancient human practice; however, with the advent of digital technology and the internet, associated with different technological materialities in contemporary capitalism, current society consists of another mass of users, that is, "the digital swarm [...] among users singularized by digital media" (Grigoletto and Galli, 2021, p. 236). In the last Brazilian decade (2014-2024), we observed a growing wave of conservative and moralistic discourses represented in different discourses, such as the political discourse of the far right and the neo-Pentecostal Christian religious discourse. For the composition of the analysis corpus, we selected a post published on the digital wall of the social network "X", dated June 15, 2025, from the profile of the governor of São Paulo - Tarcísio de Freitas. In addition to the statement "It is through obedience that we can experience the power of God. A blessed Sunday to all!" — A 52-second video was attached containing excerpts from a biblical message preached by Tarcísio de Freitas at the Assembleia de Deus do Brás church in 2025. Affiliated with the materialist perspective of Discourse Analysis (Pêcheux, 1988), we engage here in dialogue with studies on Brazilian evangelical neopentecostalism, representative politics (Cunha 2021; Silva and Silveira, 2023), and the digital age (Dias, 2018; Della-Silva, 2015; Grigoletto and Galli, 2021; Han, 2018), considering that the human-machine relationship is already part of the constitution of subjects (Dias, 2018).