Alejandro Agostinelli

Alejandro Agostinelli Alejandro César Agostinelli (born April 29, 1963) is an Argentine writer, journalist, screenwriter and TV producer. Quotes My “Página/12” article in August 1991 functioned not as a prophecy but as a catalyst for the “cult invasion” climate that erupted the following year. In July 1992, when the police chief of Paraná, Brazil, accused Valentina de Andrade, the leader of the group Lineamento Universal Superior (LUS), of an alleged ritual crime, I, acting as a co-creator of news with my colleague [Alfredo] Silletta, rushed to steer public debate under the stigma of the “destructive cult.” My responsibility was limited because I made clear that I knew nothing about the case, but the Brazilian leader had written in her book “The Truth About God” (La verdad sobre Dios, 1989) that “children born after 1981 have a harmful energy.” Guilt by association was thereby established.… Today I would be even more ashamed of my hasty activism were it not for the fact that three years later I wrote the article “The Fiasco of the Accusations Against Valentina” (“La Maga,” May 4, 1994). Not every journalist has the good fortune to become friends with a patient academic such as Dr. Alejandro Frigerio, who provided me with the readings that put me back on course.In that article, I acknowledged that my earlier conclusions had served an anti-cult interpretive framework: “Far from being an objective description of the internal life of the groups, [that article was] an excellent X-ray of my prejudices, my fears, and my personal opinions.” I also wrote that brainwashing theory lacked scientific support— a “cliché that allows people to wash their hands of responsibility”—a convenient label that allows former members to evade responsibility for their own actions or families to justify ruptures and departures from home. The systematic use of such labels, I added, “serves only to stigmatize and, through media and judicial persecution, to provoke the very isolation that one seeks to prevent.” Starting from such biases, “the outcome was predetermined before the process even began”: speaking of “cults” “has more to do with ideology than with sociology,” because these groups “are more religious than dangerous.” Under that logic, social scientists, former members without grudges, and journalists seeking neutrality become “accomplices,” “cover-up agents,” or outright victims of “coercive persuasion.” "Cults, Moral Panic, and the Press: How to Construct a Perfect Enemy", Bitter Winter (September 19, 2026) External links Category:1963 births Category:Living people