Jair Bolsonaro, Enemy of Books, Now in Brazil’s Prison Reading Program

Jair Bolsonaro, Enemy of Books, Now in Brazil’s Prison Reading Program

In 2020, Brazil’s then-president Jair Bolsonaro criticized grade-school didactic books for having “too much written in them.” Apparently the Left, influenced by the late educator Paulo Freire, had planted ideological content in them. He wanted to see the Brazilian flag and the national anthem lyrics in each and every book—because, of course, flags and anthems are not ideological.  In 2021, three years into his tenure, his administration’s Minist…