Brazil is being overtaken by politicians who think they are above Brazil's constitution, which is quite catastrophic since Brazil seemed to be a good (?) republic.
Brazil's last president was literally an officer in the military dictatorship that ran the country for decades, and he has loudly talked about how that dictatorship should have killed like 20,000 more people. You can disagree with Lula, but idk how it gets more "above the constitution" than your job literally being to kill political opponents.
this ex-military guy attemped a coup, to be appointed as presidente in spite of election results, they literally asked for a "military intervention" , the coup failled because US military was not onboard as they where in 1964 when a violent , blody and corrupt dictatorship was in place , with a US navy ship in Rio de Janeiro harbor. 2022 attempt was much like trump attempted in 2020 but now civil society , and the world reacted and uphold the election
Don't talk as if this guy actually tried something. He ran away to the USA like a coward, like the rat he is. Literally abandoned everyone who ever supported him.
> they literally asked for a "military intervention"
You bet they did.
What are you supposed to do when the supreme court usurps all power and installs a dictatorship of the judiciary in your country?
There's actually a device in brazilian law that lists the military as a superior "moderating power" that's supposed to intervene and bring order to things if the balance between the other three powers gets too fucked up.
Why, that's the exact situation we found ourselves in back in 2022. Hell it's the situation we still find ourselves in. Unelected, unaccountable judge-kings not only censoring political speech but getting away with it.
So they tried asking the military to bring order to this mess. Not only did the military refuse, when the military actually showed up, it was to arrest them.
That's what happened on January 8th. That's the story of the "heroic" brazilian military, and the complete fools who actually believed in them.
So let's drop this silly "coup" narrative. There was no "coup". There was not even an attempt at a "coup". There was a protest where they asked the military to sort this mess out. The result of that protest was the protesters ended up in a gulag.
My friend don't fall for this trap. Every Brazilian with at least half a brain knows that Lula is corrupt, Moraes is authoritarian and Bolsonaro a coward. He is just poorly repeating the talking points of those that deceitfully try to change the subject and justfy the unjustifiable. Bolsonaro is the Left panacea.
He entered military prep school in 73 and graduated in 77. Re-democratization started in 74. Obviously he had no political influence at the time even though he supported the military government as a politician. Anyway it doesn't matter, Bolsonaro being good or bad has nothing to do with X being blocked.
Ah sorry, my bad. Nonetheless, here's a list of sourced Bolsonaro quotes including like three to the effect of "I wish that dictatorship had killed more people." https://jacobin.com/2018/10/jair-bolsonaro-quotes-brazil-ele... (Also he says "I'm favorable to torture" and "It was a mistake to torture and not to kill." Which is it, Jair?)
It's no secret that Bolsonaro made a career on this kind of rhetoric but this is a tangent. Bolsonaro being a good or bad person will not make concrete authoritarian acts from the supreme court less authoritarian.
I don't think the supreme court acted in an authoritarian way, they just don't have the same legal tradition as the US does. Regardless, I was responding specifically to the notion that Brazil was a thriving democracy before Lula took office, which is clearly absurd given that the last holder of that office has built his entire public persona on hating democracy.
> I don't think the supreme court acted in an authoritarian way, they just don't have the same legal tradition as the US does.
What do you mean by that?
The constitution on article 5 and 220 is clear on freedom of expression being a guaranteed right. e.g "manifestations of thought, creation, expression, and information may not be subject to any restrictions"
> responding specifically to the notion that Brazil was a thriving democracy before Lula took office, which is clearly absurd
Brazil has a long history of authoritarian and populist governments yet it's a democracy since 1988 despite the erosion. And certainly more thriving than Cuba or Venezuela. This notion isn't absurd at all. If you think that a party that is part of an ideological block of authoritarians like Castro, Chavez, Maduro, Xi, Putin et cetera and that has stayed in power for 16 of the last 22 years has done nothing to consolidate and perpetuate power you are beyond naivety.
It's not just Elon. Michael Shellenberger & TheFP for example has been reporting on this as well. You might not be impressed by the censorship happening in your country, but it's certainly worrying. I wouldn't know what to think if Canada banned Twitter.
He's in the wrong morally or in terms of following the law?
When the supreme court is the victim, the prosecutor, the law maker, and the law aprover all at once, the only thing you need to do to break the law is not do as they say.
> You might not be impressed by the censorship happening in your country, but it's certainly worrying.
For him the ends justify the means. Such people are more political and emotional than truthful and rational. When the current president, Lula, was (rightfully) arrested for corruption they put a show about right to due process. But clearly they don't care about right to due process and it's just another tool in a political toolbox.
Subsequent examination of the case pointed out the judge conspired with the accusation forging evidence causing many sentences, including Lula's, to be nullified. Lula's was nullified because the judge in question didn't even have jurisdiction over the case, so the forgery of evidence wasn't even litigated. The judge was subsequently named to head the Ministry of Justice for Bolsonaro, who won the election since Lula was unable to run.
You're biased. There was collusion between the judge and prosecutors but there was no forging. Evidence is indisputable, most of the accused made deals and confessed the crimes. The process was nullified by the same authoritarian and corrupt supreme court. I recommend anyone interested to read the page on Wikipedia.
> The judge was subsequently named to head the Ministry of Justice for Bolsonaro, who won the election since Lula was unable to run.
And so? Lula recently appointed his lawyer and minister of justice to the supreme court. Of 11 supreme court judges 7 were appointed by Lula and his party. Another one is a name close to his vice-president (Moraes). And even one of the two Bolsonaro appointees is a man that made career under Roussef.
> while he knows he would get blocked in Turkey in 2 seconds.
I guarantee Turkey is a minuscule revenue source for Twitter and that he doesn't care. His position is that he obeys lawful orders rather than the extralegal and often obviously illegal means centrist administrations have been using to surveil and censor. Starlink may have changed direction simply because the Supreme Court confirmed the dictator's twitter ban.
And how is this different from Turkey? The Turkish constitution court decisions are often not upheld, there are people in prison who are in prison despite the court ruling.
Brazil was a crushing dictatorship for a very long time, precipitated by similar frauds as this one*. The US helped that dictatorship happen by moving ships next to Brazil to back it up, and we're helping this one.
If you're confused by the self-righteous of upper-middle class Brazilians about this, they had the same reaction to disappearances and torture during the dictatorship. You wouldn't dare take over a country without the support of the upper-middle class who will have to administer it. You can convince them of anything that doesn't affect their comfort at all. They supported Bolsonaro's coup, and now they'll support the destruction of freedom of speech in their country to keep Bolsonaro from speaking. They're actually beaming with pride about how they're not free to speak, similar to neocons in the US.
I thought Lula was mostly a good guy, but he seems more a passenger than a president at this point. The administration must be very confident of being able to prevent future elections, because they won my a tiny margin (just as Labour in the UK and the Democrats in the US), but they think they have the mandate to come down hard. Brasil nunca mais?
[*] the evil of Elon Musk being a bit libertarian means that all Brazilians should be censored.
Labour in the UK didn't win by a slim margin. They were +10% of the popular vote and have a landslide majority in Parliament. It hasn't been unusual in the past for a govt in the UK to win while losing the popular vote, so they do have a mandate.
Labour won a majority of the seats but barely increased their percentage of the vote (33.7%) over what they managed in the previous election when they lost handily (32.1%). It was the most disproportionate election in UK history in terms of how popular vote mapped to seats won.
You may be technically correct but the comment above has a point. It’s not a strong mandate, and it’s more fair to emphasize that the Tories collapsed than that Labour won.
Bolsonaro has his supporters and a share of then did ask for a military coup, but those are minority..
Majority of the country was against a coup.. But popular support changed nothing..
The military coup did not worked because the US send messages indicating they would not support it, so the air force and army commanders backed out of it..
brazil is a functional liberal democracy, current presidente is left wing, rightfull elected in 2022 by a process recognized by the world, including USA en EU, China, russia and all. Legislative has a majority of right wing elected deputies, juditiary is choosen by open access civil service examination with some reasonable requirements (law degree), except the ones in suppreme court which are selected by elected president (like in USA), they do not stay for life, although and must quit when reach 75 years old
