Online organic intellectuals: shoring up neo-liberalism in Brazil

Abstract This article analyses the role of online organic intellectuals in the consolidation of Bolsonarism within Brazil's ongoing neo-liberal order. Drawing on the Gramscian concept of passive revolution, it argues that far-right digital influencers act as key ideological mediators, channelling popular discontent, resentment and anti-systemic affect into cultural and moral narratives that ultimately stabilize the existing political economy. Rather than disrupting neo-liberalism, these figures repackage its legitimacy crisis through nationalist, anti-globalist and culturally conservative frames. The analysis traces this process in Brazil's recent political trajectory, from the gradual exhaustion of Lulism to the rise of Bolsonarism, showing how elite economic interests have been rearticulated through new forms of digital ideological production. By foregrounding the cultural work of Brazil's far-right influencers, the article highlights how neo-liberalism is able to renew itself through its crises. The findings speak to broader trends in contemporary capitalism, offering insight into how far-right media ecosystems help to (re)forge hegemonic stability across other liberal democracies facing similar political circumstances.