Brazilian society has frequently been described as polarized during the country’s recent political and economic crisis. In 2018, a wave of opposition to the centre-left Workers’ Party culminated in the election of Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing populist who portrays the political left as a malevolent force in Brazilian society. In this paper I explore this polarization through drawing on ethnographic research with the Homeless Workers’ Movement (Movimento de Trablhadores Sem-Teto, MTST), a large urban social movement that develops settlements on underutilized land in the city, and a prominent civil society opponent of Bolsonaro. More specifically, I examine a key site of socio-spatial tension in São Paulo, Paulista Avenue, as a new political right came to predominate on the city’s main thoroughfare during the campaign to impeach the Workers’ Party President, Dilma Rousseff. I show how the perceived intolerance of the mobilized right helped to establish new normative codes that regulated the political symbolism which could be displayed in public spaces. Lastly, I consider how the vilification of the MTST in particular and the political left in general by the new right is embedded in broader structures of stigmatization.

在该国最近的政治和经济危机期间，巴西社会经常被描述为两极分化。2018年，一股反对中的中心左工人党在选举中致敬，是一个右翼民粹主义者，他们将政治留下作为巴西社会的恶毒力量。在本文中，我通过无家可归者运动（Movimento de Trablhadores Sem-Teto, MTST)，这是一场在城市未充分利用的土地上开发定居点的大型城市社会运动，也是 Bolsonaro 的著名公民社会反对者。更具体地说，我考察了圣保罗保利斯塔大道社会空间紧张的关键地点，因为在弹劾工人党主席迪尔玛·罗塞夫的运动期间，一种新的政治权利在该市的主要街道上占据主导地位。我展示了被动员的权利所感知到的不容忍如何帮助建立新的规范性代码，以规范可以在公共场所展示的政治象征。最后，我考虑了新右翼对 MTST 和一般政治左翼的诽谤是如何嵌入更广泛的污名化结构中的。