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[–]LGBTQIAIDSAnally Injected Death Sentence 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I'm surprised at how insignificant the reaction to Lula all is. Brazilians will kill each other almost en masse in endemic drug- and gang-related violence, and yet they're (averagely) almost as passive as Americans when it comes down to politics. Of course, a few thousand is still more than what America could muster up.

(Note, however, that Bolsonaro's government appears to have made the country somewhat more stable: 2021 saw the lowest number of murders in 14 years. 2003 is the year that Lula began his first term, and so he was in power during much of the increase. Regardless, violence of this nature goes back decades; for instance, a violent riot by over 2,000 prisoners led to the 'Carandiru massacre' in October 1992.)

Not to mention that Lula's Partido dos Trabalhadores is worse than the US Democratic Party: Did anyone see criminal gangs firing their weapons into their air in celebration when Biden won? The criminals love Lula because of his softness on crime: videos showed that the usual brown, shirtless (shirtless = tough guy behaviour in Brazil), often tatted-up (also the sign of a tough guy, especially Jesus tattoos) scum inhabiting Brazil's jails were practically partying when news arrived that he won. Instead of flashing the usual gang signs like they do when chopping off a rival gang member's head, they were flashing the 'L' sign: L for Lula. The narcogangs are absolutely partisan.

Since you made this post, Lula has declared a state of emergency till the end of January. Hundreds of arrests have been made. They want to arrest everyone involved, which means a few thousand as yet unidentified people have yet to be detained. (Edit: 1,500+ arrests have been made as of 16 hours after first composing this comment.)

The pigs are remaining loyal to Lula. I don't think these protests will succeed unless large numbers of pigs refuse to fight the Bolsonaristas. It took over a million protesters to oust the government the last time that succeeded in Brazil (1985), and it seems clear that nowhere near a million could mobilize against Lula.

I think it is the same thing in America. If you divide the public into five groups from very pro-government to very anti-government, it is only really that fifth group that will mobilize, and this group rarely ever outnumbers the other four combined. After all, people who are very pro-government, pro-government, neutral and anti-government simply won't commit to a cause like Canada's 'Freedom Convoy' or to these Bolsonaristas. You'll only get some amongst that fifth group of very anti-government people who will—everyone else either supports the government or simply isn't anti-government enough to see the risk of opposing the government as worth taking.