Possible Election of a Far-Right Demagogue in Brazil

Another so called populist?

Voters in Brazil head to the polls on Sunday in an election that could reshape the political landscape of South America. Polls show the current frontrunner is the far-right Jair Bolsonaro, a former army officer who has openly praised Brazil’s military dictatorship, which lasted from 1964 to 1985.

How did this happen?  Are Brazilians just that stupid? The following puts this in historical perspective. Both Chomsky and Greenwald who met in Brazil both lay the blame squarely on the corporate/right wing control of the media there as here in the US propagandizing the public.

AMY GOODMAN: Last month, the world renowned dissident, linguist, Noam Chomsky met with Brazil’s imprisoned former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, his visit coming shortly after Lula officially pulled out of the presidential race. Speaking outside the prison after a visit, Noam Chomsky condemned the right-wing media in Brazil. 

NOAM CHOMSKY: — just had the great privilege of spending an hour with Lula. And one of the points that he emphasized was that during his entire tenure in office, there was just a constant flood of attacks from all the media. Constant. Thousands of attacks from every direction, which of course, confuses and undermines public opinion. So, the answer to your question is, something is needed to counter the concentrated power of right-wing media, which particularly in Latin America, just overwhelms everything. 

AMY GOODMAN: So, that is Noam Chomsky. Glenn Greenwald, couple questions about that. How is the media allowed to cover Noam Chomsky visiting Lula in prison, and also the significance of what’s happened to Lula and then who the person, the handpicked successor to Lula is? 

GLENN GREENWALD: So, I met with Noam Chomsky after that meeting in São Paulo, and we talked a lot about the dynamics brought up to this point. This brought us to this point. The dynamics that have brought us to this point. And one of the things that we focused most on during our discussion was the fact that the dynamic is so similar to what’s happening in the US, the UK, and in Western Europe where you see the spread of extremism and this rise of right-wing fanaticism. And the media outlets and the establishment factions that have laid the groundwork for its rise refuse to take any responsibility. And that’s definitely the case here in Brazil, where a very oligarchiacal media is in the hands of a small number of very rich families, and has sewn these seeds and has kind of created the climate in which Bolsonaro’s victory is possible. Even to this very minute, even though these journalists are, themselves, afraid of a Bolsonaro win and are not supporting him, they, nonetheless, continue to endorse this narrative, that is the biggest asset for Bolsonaro, which is the idea that PT, the Workers Party and Bolsonaro are just opposite sides of the same coin. You have left dictatorship or right wing dictatorship and both are equally bad. PT ran this country for 14 years, and whatever else you might want to say about whatever mistakes they made, you certainly had a very free and open press that constantly attacked it. They impeached one of their presidents and put the other one in prison.

https://truthout.org/video/glenn-greenwald-on-the-possible-election-of-a-far-right-demagogue-in-brazil/

The following collection of relevant stories is from John Bertucci posted on Facebook 10/10/18

https://theintercept.com/2018/10/08/brazils-bolsonaro-led-far-right-wins-a-victory-far-more-sweeping-and-dangerous-than-anyone-predicted-its-lessons-are-global/

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-cia-has-its-fingerprints-on-brazils-election/

http://www.latimes.com/business/lazarus/la-fi-lazarus-corporations-are-not-people-too-20181009-story.html

https://consortiumnews.com/2018/10/09/future-of-western-democracy-being-played-out-in-brazil/

RE: Bernie onTrump encouraging authoritarian leaders around the world.  This is of course true but let us not allow the overarching, long standing  US foreign policy of prefering dictators to democracy slip from our minds.  Dictators in the third world are the only way for empires to maintain access to cheap comodities and labor, laxed environmental and human rights rules for global capital.  This is not Donald Trumps invention as perverse as he is.
https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/52747-focus-bernie-sanders-authoritarian-leaders-around-the-world-inspired-by-trump