...at least America has no heritage of military dictatorship. Should there ever be a coup in America, it is probably to stop a Trump-like leader who starts showing signs that he wants to kill American democracy and has the means. Jair Bolsonaro seems to love the ferocity of the prior Brazilian military regime and... Agosto Pinochet, someone who imposed Soviet-style repression for 'protection' of Chile from socialist trends that preceded him. Women, indigenous people, LGBT, the poor (the poor in Brazil are really poor) seem to be fair game.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bolsonaro...a713b24bce
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bolsonaro...a713b24bce
Quote:Bolsonaro was widely considered one of the most immediately dangerous of the far-right leaders who have risen to power across the world over the last decade. Though he mimicked President Donald Trump and even embraced the nickname that he was “The Trump of the Tropics,” Bolsonaro assumed control of a much younger democracy with much weaker institutions than exist in the United States.
Bolsonaro, who relentlessly attacked the legitimacy of the press during his campaign, has continued to do so as president, and not just with his ubiquitous cries of “fake news.” He has threatened to cancel government advertising contracts with large newspapers he doesn’t like, and even tried to bar government offices from subscribing to Brazil’s biggest newspaper. He has emboldened supporters to attack journalists, too, both online and in person: Patricia Campos Mello, an award-winning reporter for Folha de S.Paulo, said at a New York ceremony this year that reporters, and especially female reporters, are more at risk now than they have been at any time since the end of the dictatorship.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.