Bolsonaro wins Brazil

[_Kevin Graham]

Why do you think he won the election by such a wide margin? Are you suggesting most Brazilians are crypto Nazi-loving homophobes?

- Doc

It is more complicated in Brazil than here. Brazil doesn't have two primary political parties vying for a spot, they usually have a few dozen, and candidates frequently shift around.

Most Brazilians I know want him elected because the former PT party has been in power for so long and their past is mired in corruption scandals. Bolsonaro represents change, and they've been praying for this for so long that they're willing to overlook his incendiary remarks. He's taking photo ops with homosexuals and minorities now and his supporters are posting them on social media saying, "See, he's not racist or homophobic at all. That was just FAKE NEWS." So they actually treat him the way Christians treated Trump during the campaign, as if he had a come to Jesus moment and no longer holds those views.

If you want a basic understanding of Brazil's current corruption crisis you can check out the recent Operation Car Wash, which the FBI started four years ago and has resulted in many politicians being convicted. Their former President Lula is currently in jail. I was in Brazil over the Spring when the news broke out that he would be convicted. Most people didn't think it would actually happen because the system was corrupt and some of the federal judges were expected to rule in his favor. If Lula were allowed to run for office he would probably win, which is why so many people there were desperate to see him convicted.

When I lived in Brazil ten years ago it was just one story after the next of PT politicians getting busted for stealing billions and getting away with it. They were using their petrol company as their personal piggy bank. Brazil produces its own oil and has so much of it that it exports it, but the people still pay about $6 per gallon. It is cray cray.

I remember one story the people like to tell was when a politician's son was arrested at the Miami airport with cash stuffed down his underwear.

[_EAllusion]

Why do you think he won the election by such a wide margin? Are you suggesting most Brazilians are crypto Nazi-loving homophobes?

- Doc

I linked an article that tries to make the case that social media is driving the new axis of global authoritarianism and this happened in Brazil. It's worth a read. I'm less interested in why Bolsonaro won in Brazil, which there's lots of commentary on, than I am in why local authoritarian movements that bear more than a little resemblance to fascism have gained so much ground in the past 10 years in so many different countries involving issues idiosyncratic to those countries. Historically, this doesn't end well.

[_SteelHead]

Why do you think he won the election by such a wide margin? Are you suggesting most Brazilians are crypto Nazi-loving homophobes?

- Doc

I linked an article that tries to make the case that social media is driving the new axis of global authoritarianism and this happened in Brazil. It's worth a read. I'm less interested in why Bolsonaro won in Brazil, which there's lots of commentary on, than I am in why local authoritarian movements that bear more than a little resemblance to fascism have gained so much ground in the past 10 years in so many different countries involving issues idiosyncratic to those countries. Historically, this doesn't end well.

Those who do not understand history, are doomed to repeat it.

[_Kevin Graham]

I linked an article that tries to make the case that social media is driving the new axis of global authoritarianism and this happened in Brazil. It's worth a read. I'm less interested in why Bolsonaro won in Brazil, which there's lots of commentary on, than I am in why local authoritarian movements that bear more than a little resemblance to fascism have gained so much ground in the past 10 years in so many different countries involving issues idiosyncratic to those countries. Historically, this doesn't end well.

When I lived in Brazil what struck me were the conversations I had with the wealthier, more educated folks. They all hated Lula because he was a poor man with no education and in their aristocratic worldview, you don't deserve to be rich unless you're rightfully born into it.

I was surprised that some of them actually WANTED Brazil to go back to a military dictatorship. And if you lived there and saw how incompetently the country was run, you'd probably sympathize a little with their view on that.

"At least SOMETHING would get done" they would say. And of course, a military dictatorship wouldn't be permanent, just a temporary fix to get rid of all the corrupt politicians.

[Guest]

Fascism as Per Emilio Gentile:

1. a mass movement with multiclass membership in which prevail, among the leaders and the militants, the middle sectors, in large part new to political activity, organized as a party militia, that bases its identity not on social hierarchy or class origin but on a sense of comradeship, believes itself invested with a mission of national regeneration, considers itself in a state of war against political adversaries and aims at conquering a monopoly of political power by using terror, parliamentary politics, and deals with leading groups, to create a new regime that destroys parliamentary democracy;

2. an 'anti-ideological' and pragmatic ideology that proclaims itself antimaterialist, anti-individualist, antiliberal, antidemocratic, anti-Marxist, is populist and anticapitalist in tendency, expresses itself aesthetically more than theoretically by means of a new political style and by myths, rites, and symbols as a lay religion designed to acculturate, socialize, and integrate the faith of the masses with the goal of creating a 'new man';

3. a culture founded on mystical thought and the tragic and activist sense of life conceived of as the manifestation of the will to power, on the myth of youth as artificer of history, and on the exaltation of the militarization of politics as the model of life and collective activity;

4. a totalitarian conception of the primacy of politics, conceived of as an integrating experience to carry out the fusion of the individual and the masses in the organic and mystical unity of the nation as an ethnic and moral community, adopting measures of discrimination and persecution against those considered to be outside this community either as enemies of the regime or members of races considered to be inferior or otherwise dangerous for the integrity of the nation;

5. a civil ethic founded on total dedication to the national community, on discipline, virility, comradeship, and the warrior spirit;

6. a single state party that has the task of providing for the armed defense of the regime, selecting its directing cadres, and organizing the masses within the state in a process of permanent mobilization of emotion and faith;

7. a police apparatus that prevents, controls, and represses dissidence and opposition, including through the use of organized terror;

8. a political system organized by hierarchy of functions named from the top and crowned by the figure of the 'leader,' invested with a sacred charisma, who commands, directs, and coordinates the activities of the party and the regime;

9. corporative organization of the economy that suppresses trade union liberty, broadens the sphere of state intervention, and seeks to achieve, by principles of technocracy and solidarity, the collaboration of the 'productive sectors' under control of the regime, to achieve its goals of power, yet preserving private property and class divisions;

10. a foreign policy inspired by the myth of national power and greatness, with the goal of imperialist expansion.

brasil acima de tudo deus acima de todos

Bolsonaro campaign slogan

[_Kevin Graham]

Yes, Bolsonaro being a hardcore Nationalist is no minor point and I'm surprised we didn't mention that already.

[Guest]

I linked an article that tries to make the case that social media is driving the new axis of global authoritarianism and this happened in Brazil. It's worth a read. I'm less interested in why Bolsonaro won in Brazil, which there's lots of commentary on, than I am in why local authoritarian movements that bear more than a little resemblance to fascism have gained so much ground in the past 10 years in so many different countries involving issues idiosyncratic to those countries. Historically, this doesn't end well.

When I lived in Brazil what struck me were the conversations I had with the wealthier, more educated folks. They all hated Lula because he was a poor man with no education and in their aristocratic worldview, you don't deserve to be rich unless you're rightfully born into it.

I was surprised that some of them actually WANTED Brazil to go back to a military dictatorship. And if you lived there and saw how incompetently the country was run, you'd probably sympathize a little with their view on that.

"At least SOMETHING would get done" they would say. And of course, a military dictatorship wouldn't be permanent, just a temporary fix to get rid of all the corrupt politicians.

During the military dictatorship in Brazil there was no free press. Dissenters disappeared. Torture was common. Yet crime was no where near as prevalent as today. I have family that lived through it - some of them concurred with Bolsonaro's longing for its return. At least then they argue they could walk down the street without being assaulted.

[_Kevin Graham]

During the military dictatorship in Brazil there was no free press. Dissenters disappeared. Torture was common. Yet crime was no where near as common as today. I have family that lived through it - some of them concurred with Bolsonaro's longing for it's return. At least then they argue they could walk down the street without being assaulted.

Yes, which is why I was surprised I didn't hear much negativity about it.

by the way, I highly recommend a Netflix series of 8 episodes called "The Mechanism" which is basically a quasi-documentary of Operation Car Wash.

[Guest]

I actually find this topic interesting and relevant since my wife and I seriously considering moving to either Porto Alegre or Novohamburgo for a year when she wraps up her studies at the U. I want to go for language immersion, and she wants to go because it's cool.

- Doc

[_SteelHead]

Porto is nice. Look at Florianopolis too if you are looking at Brazil for study abroad.