South America culture and politics thread

At least your landlocked, centered in a basin capital city is not depicted as a beach

It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes

That is not really the point. Most Brazilians are not white. A lot of Brazilians love and can and do play football. A lot of Brazilians can samba. Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and the Amazon are, indeed, inside Brazil. But assuming every Brazilian is connected to these things and constantly commenting on them is annoying, which is the point of the video. And then, the first comment after the video is a generalist stereotype. It is annoying.

Also, as Jonnas N and others said, huehue is not even the most common Brazilian laugh. In fact, I have never personally heard it being used except as a reference to the meme.

edited 4th Feb '16 3:24:25 PM by Heatth

The Huehuehuehue BR laugh isn't over how we type, it is over how the other people hear the Brazilian laughter and overall behavior on the voice chat in online games like DOTA and other multiplayer games with voice chat, hence why it is an onomatopoeia instead of representing how laughter is typed.

I see plenty of Brazilian bloggers and posters using this...◊, pretty much it was originated as a sort of mockery towards the average Brazilian gamer and got adopted along the concept of "Zueira".

I got hit with the huehuehue ban in a few games, like Combat Arms, specially because of the number of Brazilian games either hacking, shitting over the chat or raiding the servers. Then after having several accounts from games like Combat Arms and Gunbound moved to the Brazilian Level Up servers, I really developed a distaste for the average Brazilian online gamer, too much cheating too many idiots.

edited 4th Feb '16 4:17:18 PM by AngelusNox

Inter arma enim silent leges

Again, this is completely irrelevant regarding my annoyance to the post. Please read my first and main paragraph instead replying to the side note.

yeah for what I read, brazilian are regard a shitty playrs in online gamming....weird

"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"

Right, that's built around a couple of things.

Most games don't have south american or brazilian servers (or they didn't used to). Naturally this leads brazilian players to play on the north american servers of videogames instead.

On the brazilian's end, this usually means dealing with latency. When I used to play League of Legends, I had to play with 230 ping. I didn't actually realize just how BAD this was until I visited the US and was able to play with like 50-60 ping and noticed the difference. When I got back home it was a real bummer to have to get used to playing at 230 again.

As for the other players, this can go a couple of ways. Some brazilians can obviously speak english somewhat fluently and are decent, polite people, and can play ok despite their higher latency, so odds are american or european players won't notice their nationality unless they can see their ping or something. However, the poorly-behaved brazilians who don't even speak english properly or refuse to communicate in ways the game has available end up giving everyone else a really bad reputation.

edited 4th Feb '16 7:45:28 PM by wehrmacht

I usually play a lot of online shooters, even when there are Brazilian servers the game modes I enjoy are usually either non existent or don't have enough players to be enjoyable, ie Rush mode for Battlefield, still another reason why I avoid Brazilian servers are shitty admins that usually ban you if you break their precious kill streak, players who even though are skilled have no concept of teamplay and above all the amount of blatant cheaters. I quit playing Modern Warfare 3 because the matchmaking would only put me in Brazilian servers and rooms and 7/10 there was a cheater on it.

Still even on foreign servers it was pretty easy to spot another Brazilian, specially when you see the chat being spammed with cussing or noxious comments in portuguese.

Between the lag and the players I'd take the lag. More often than not I've hidden my nationality even on the servers I am a regular and had more than a few online friends I played with for years, simply because I knew the amounts of shitstorm and cheating accusations I'd get over it.

Inter arma enim silent leges

People are blaming the Rockefeller for the Zika virus now.

Inter arma enim silent leges

I didn't see anyone defending or sharing that idea, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of people doing so, nor that it's not a known problem people share whatever they hear without giving two thoughts about it. Very interesting video, nonetheless.

I was going to say maybe I just don't know enough people who buy into these Illuminati-type conspiracy theories, but then I remembered one time the topic came up and the people were something like "well, maybe they aren't real BUT".

Although if I remember correctly, I remember rumours of a teacher of mine belonging to an organization like that (not of the world dominating kind, of course). I can't confirm or deny that claim, but a classmate was a... nibling of them, or something like that, so maybe that's where it sprung from (or maybe it came from another person and that classmate doesn't even know about it).

I follow several news and curiosity websites and bloggers, this one is fairly recent but is beginning to gather its share of click bait chain links sharing.

From mouth to mouth or even facebook likes and shares, I wouldn't say that the number of people who subscribe to a conspiracy theory isn't low, I've have to deal with people thinking the US would invade the Amazon basin for the water or think the US and UN would use environmental policies to confiscate it due to its mineral and biologic wealth.

I used to debunk this kinda of crap but it really wears down your patience, but it isn't something people bring up spontaneously, it is something people don't mention until a topic semi related to the subject brings up. Like the whole Zika virus thing, where people who never heard of the virus a year ago and now think it is everywhere, soon the "look up" what the ruckus is, find a bullshit poorly cited and sourced article or post and think it is the real deal.

Seriously, I've seen people claiming the UN urge for Latin American countries to legalize abortion due to health concerns to be a Illuminatiesque plot for eugenics and the alleged Zika virus connection to the Rockefeller as some sort of proof.

This is the problem when you take your time to read the comments on news and other recent events, there is always an idiot claiming, leftist femnazi gayism plot to destroy the families or fascists right wing extremists plot to oppress the poor or whatever conspiracy theory linked to any group like the Free Masons or powerful political/industrialist/influent families.

edited 5th Feb '16 7:18:40 PM by AngelusNox

Inter arma enim silent leges

I saw an article claiming that Rede Globo keeps 90% of the money raised by telethons for the NGO Criança Esperança. It provides a link to WikiLeaks, and said link contains:

If I'm reading this correctly... isn't it saying that Globo keeps 10% of the money rather than 90%?

edited 6th Feb '16 1:17:41 PM by Victin

Yes, the document claims Globo keeps 10% as a fee, the 90% figure is either mistranslated or purposely manipulated.

I doubt most of the people who read the article even checked the links.

Inter arma enim silent leges

So... Anyone cares about the Bolivian referendum?

1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV

Yes, I did follow some news coverage. Seems like Morales's side lost that one by a wide margin.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

As a whole the Latin American left is having a real bad time.

Christina Kirchner lost all her support and Macri seems to be doing a good job so far, Maduro lost the legislative in Venezuela and is suffering a crisis of his own doing, Dilma and the Worker's Party is hemorrhaging support and now the same thing is happening to Evo Morales in Bolivia.

Bloody typo.

edited 22nd Feb '16 3:16:03 PM by AngelusNox

Inter arma enim silent leges

I don't know the political situation of the rest of the South American countries very well...

• Venezuela is Venezuela.

• Here in Argentina we just got a new president from a different party than the one which ruled for the last 12 years, and I think he's doing well, even though there are one or two things the new government did that I really don't like. It's extremely amusing to see how Kirchnerism/Peronism is self-destroying and getting caught up in infighting over tiny things.
• Uruguay's current president is from the same party as Mujica, and was also the president before Mujica.
• Chile seems to have recently gotten free college/university-level education or is going to do so this year.
• Bolivia is having a referendum about whether or not Morales should be allowed to run for a fourth term as president, and last time I checked, he was losing it by 30 points.
• Haven't got a clue about the rest of the continent. Although I believe Colombia is attempting a peace process with the guerrilla organization in there.

1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV

Not to mention the Zika outbreak...

Chile is apparently going to the left as their social democrats get pressured from that direction. Chilean politics has always been the most 'rich world' in South America, though, so it makes sense that they would see similar pressures as Europe and America.

Argentina's left is in disarray, although IIRC Macri does need some Peronist support from factions hostile to Kirchner. I predict two terms at least for Mac Daddy though.

Venezuela is lurching towards Bolivarian dictatorship or civil strife. The left there is probably the most useless in South America, and the most rapaciously corrupt. Hell mend them.

Uruguay is stable and successful and has a moderate social democratic government. However, the Blancos increased their voteshare at the last election and might do better in 2019. However, I see no great political upheavals there.

Fuck knows about Suriname and the rest of the little 'uns on the northern coast.

In Bolivia, Morales might lose this referendum but he's genuinely popular and I can't see a right-wing alternative doing well. There's the separatists, but I don't think they are particularly strong right now.

Brazil has Dilma's approval in the gutter, but if she can ride out the storm she might look stronger heading into the next round of elections in a few years time.

Colombia seems to be doing OK, although it still has quite a few challenges.

In Central America, Mexico continues to prove General Sherman right, whilst the others seem relatively OK (or at least as OK as they ever are). That said, Ortega might get wobbly, since he's closest to the left-wing democratic strongman model that's falling to bits in VZLA.

In Paraguay, necromancy has been successfully performed, and a the reincarnation of Francisco Solano Lopez rules Asuncion with an iron fist, promising that his invincible armies will soon get their revenge on the Brazilian dogs and the holy Plata will be returned to Best Guay.

Enormous diplomatic opportunities for the United States, if they still care enough about Latin America to capitalize on them. Which they should.

edited 22nd Feb '16 12:24:14 PM by Achaemenid

Schild und Schwert der Partei

What about Guyana and Suriname?

Bolivia, if memory serves has huge issues with poverty and the like, as well as some really dubious privatization efforts in the past. Pretty easy to imagine that right wing politicians may not have it easy there.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

No idea. What I know about Guiana and Suriname could be written in marker pen on the back of a postage stamp.

Schild und Schwert der Partei

IIRC they are going well, nothing out of the ordinary. Sometimes they come up in the Mercosur talks and facts as being exporters of electronics but still too small to make any impact.

Inter arma enim silent leges

2020, Uruguay elects it's president for 5 year terms, not 4 year terms.

which left? Argentina has a center/center-right (Macri and Massa); Peronism/Kirchnerism occupies whichever place in the pollitical spectrum is popular at the moment (Kirchner was Chavez-lite, Menem, who was president with the Peronist party in the 90's, was as right wing as Reagan, and Peron was a fascist, down to the "you have to be affiliated to the party to have a job in the state"), a social-democrat left wing (part of it allied with Macri in the elections, and another part united under a different candidate, getting about 2% of the votes in october), and a bunch of Trotskyist and Communist far-left parties and coalitions (at least 7 different presidential formulas in the last primaries, one of which got to the general election). The right wingers are more or less camouflaged into the bigger parties/coalitions (and look likely to take over peronism throughout this year and the next).

1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV

I didn't know this. Care to elaborate?

"All you Fascists bound to lose."