The Brazilian Politics Thread

That pushback resulted in a three-year long (thus far) campaign by the government to trash public education. They have, and still are cutting funds in every possible way, are conducting smear campaigns on public education, particularly universities, and have taken several actions to worsen the conditions of people working in that sector.

Makes me think of this quote from Becker - "There's no money because the federal government cut taxes, which is all anybody seems to care about anymore. That means less money for the state, which means less money for the city, which means we had to cut services, which means fewer cops, fewer firemen, bad air, bad water and crappy schools which will turn out yet another generation of voters who are too stupid and greedy to care about anything else besides cutting taxes!"

... Someone please tell me there's a feasible non-violent way to fix this sordid mess in Brazil over the next decade or two. Just because I decided to put "Let justice be done, though the world perish" as my forum motto here does not mean that I like seeing that the world is doing more and more to make that motto justified in my eyes.

Edited by MarqFJA on Sep 14th 2019 at 12:50:54 PM

Well, I think the chances of Bolsonaro losing re-election aren't that bad so we might be able to start fixing his mess in 2 years...assuming that we have someone popular enough to beat him. That's kind of the problem atm.

Would replacing Bolsonaro with someone else be enough, though? The man logically couldn't have done what he's doing without being enabled by the rest of the government.

Really? What gives you that idea? From what I hear, he remains pretty popular

Edited by MrHellboy on Sep 14th 2019 at 5:44:10 AM

I haven't checked out any popularity polls, but a lot of his initial support has waned as the economy continues to get worse and he isn't really doing anything particularly helpful, and just keeps embarrassing himself.

Since this country never learns long-term I wouldn't be surprised if he won re-election, but his popularity certainly hasn't remained as it was before the election.

Just to inform me: how long are term limits in Brazil?

We've got less than two years of Trump left, how long do the poor people of that country have to keep on keeping on?

Edited by MrHellboy on Sep 14th 2019 at 5:53:00 AM

Four years. Every World Cup year is also a presidential election year for us.

That is not a coincidence.

Also, we alternate with the United States by two years: at our president's second year, the United States have their presidential election. At the United States president's second year, we have ours. I don't know why it fits like that, but it does.

So now, we have this until 2022.

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Sep 14th 2019 at 8:00:54 AM

Christ. Still leaves him time to do a lot of damage

By the time he's gone, the entire Amazon could be nothing but dust and ashes

Which is why we need a Democratic president to come into power in the US to remove him by force.

not going to happen, even with a dem because he Was elected by Brazil.

Im saying this because "the US need to remove him" Is not a good thing.

There's good chances that Bolsonaro will be taken from office before he finishes his first term.

I'm not being over-optimistic, here: the man has burned through almost his entire political capita already, and even his own vase is starting to get fed up with him.

The problem, as it stands, is that his devotees are unbelieviably fanatical and loud. They think he's the second coming of Jesus and nothing will covince them otherwise.

They're not the majority, but they're certainly big enough to be an issue.

Yeah, “remove him by force” is unambiguously not the answer here.

Doesn't "drastic times, drastic measures" apply here?

I mean, literally all of human life is at stake

"Lungs of the planet" and all that

Edited by MrHellboy on Sep 14th 2019 at 6:54:26 AM

That would apply, if a violent solution had even the slightest chance of making the situation better.

It does not.

Explain, if you please

Also, it isnt him Alone, Maduro and Evo are fucking with amazonas too.

Also, "he Is bad we need to remove" Is bordeline neocon speak honestlty.

That's a insult to neocons. Bolsonaro is still a Democratic leader acting in his term. Say whatever of Bolsonaro, but he isn't Saddam Hussein.

Heck, Evo Morales is far more undemocratic de facto.

Don't forget my country BTW

Edited by KazuyaProta on Sep 14th 2019 at 7:00:12 AM

Also I think you'll find a lot of us aren't going to be particularly sympathetic towards the idea of the US meddling in our politics given their questionable history of backing military dictatorships, and generally broadening their sphere of influence at our expense.

Is there any solution left other than "Just let them get away with destroying our planet and killing innocent people 'cause democracy"?

Edited by MrHellboy on Sep 14th 2019 at 7:03:57 AM

Realistically, how do you think a violent intervention in Brazil would go?

Do you think it would leave behind a stable, functioning country? One that wouldn’t turn to the very next strongman who came along, as countries that suffer violent interventions often do?

Or are you advocating for an unlimited military occupation of Brazil?

The first upswing we might have would be the US electing someone sane. The US and China account for "the big two" of Brazil's economic partners, and out of those two the US still has way stronger political ties, so a left-leaning US president (like, say, Elizabeth Warren) could hypothetically exert enough influence to contain Bolsonaro's worst accesses. Likewise, Bolsonaro is only as bold as he is because he is also keenly aware that Donald Trump has his back (Hell, he publically credited Trump with inspiring him to run). A Democrat President could, if he/she wants to, nip some of Bolsonaro's worst international excesses down (i.e the Amazon being on fucking fire), but that President might need to bring the big guns (i.e trade war).

I don't think even Bolsonaro is suicidal enough to go on a trade war against Brazil's number one geopolitical partner, and if he is, he'd probably be impeached. One way or another, the US still holds a lot of sway over our country. For good and for ill.

Like, to use a brief example, our dictatorship partially started its redemocratization due some pressure from President Jimmy Carter's government on the issue of human rights, which is part of what led to the "softening" process of the early 80's and the end of the roughest period of the dictatorship.

I also don't think Bolsonaro will be a two term president. Even setting aside the issue of impeachment, his popularity has been taking a nosedive since he was elected. The corruption scandals, the worsening of the financial crisis and his taking the hammer to anything vaguely public have scared away the stupid centrists.

The latest polls (from early this month) on his government say that the disapproval ratings for his government are somewhere along 38-40% of the populace, which is abysmal given how early in his tenure he is.

He tried to recoup his losses during 7th of September (our indepedence day) with some naked jingoism but got nowhere.

Of course I don't want those things. Believe me, I hate it that, as you said, I'm sounding like a neocon. I'm just terrified for the future of my planet

I sincerely hope what the poster above me says comes to pass.

Edited by MrHellboy on Sep 14th 2019 at 7:22:35 AM

An 8 year old girl was shot in the back by accident by a police officer in Rio and died, during a confrontation with drug dealers in one of Rio's favelas. She's the fifth accidental child death by gunfire this year. Outside of the public backlash, the police has reacted to this mostly with indifference.

I couldn't find any news about this in english, so I'm linking a Brazilian Portuguese one.

I felt we should acknowledge this, since it has gone largely ignored by the politicians over here, which does some wonderful contrast to the recent political upheaval about a gay kiss on a comic book.

So Bolnaro's speech to the UN is tomorrow.

I'm well stocked up on Smirnoffs, what is your alcohol of choice?

Edited by HailMuffins on Sep 24th 2019 at 9:32:49 AM