6 ms·

For context, it's useful to remind that after the last presidential election, Brazil withstood a coup attempt similar to USA's January 6th. Since then, the cour

by ufo 1y ago

For context, it's useful to remind that after the last presidential election, Brazil withstood a coup attempt similar to USA's January 6th. Since then, the courts have taken a tougher stance against social media, including a country-wide blockage of X/Twitter last year. We can expect that social media companies will lobby against this. In Brazil they find allies in the far-right which are also interested in moderation-free social media. For instance, two weeks ago Meta and Google sponsored an event from Bolsonaro's PL party about social media and AI, including lectures to train party members into how to effectively employ social media and AI tools. https://oglobo.globo.com/politica/noticia/2025/05/21/pl-anuncia-seminario-de-comunicacao-com-bolsonaro-e-michelle-e-apoio-do-google-e-da-meta.ghtml https://oglobo.globo.com/politica/noticia/2025/05/21/pl-anun...

matheusmoreira 1y ago
The real coup was perpetrated by the supreme court itself. Judges have always been "gods" in this country, and the supreme court in particular has been blatantly grabbing power since at least 2019. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39966382 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39966382 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36543423 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36543423
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago
  > real coup was perpetrated by the supreme court itself The side that storms the capital sort of gives up its ability to call the other illegitimate in a democracy. That doesn't mean they're right. Just that the situtation in Brazil clearly escalated to the point that suspending the status quo is if not merited, highly historically precedented.
  - matheusmoreira 1y ago
    Occupying the government buildings is essentially the standard brazilian protest. It's happened many times before and will happen again. This "storming" amounted to little more than a protest. If only that had been enough to fix things. I watched those judges censor political speech as "fake news" throughout the entire 2022 election. Then they showboated in public about how they had been personally responsible for the former president's defeat.
    - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
      > Occupying the government buildings is essentially the standard brazilian protest. It's happened many times before and will happen again Brazil also has a history of military coups, something that mob explicitly sought to provoke [1]. It makes sense for the system to learn from past failings. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8_January_Bras%C3%ADlia_attacks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8_January_Bras%C3%ADlia_attack...
      - matheusmoreira 1y ago
        Not a problem. They wanted to be ruled by the military. That's a valid political stance which should not be censored. A military coup is attempted when armed forces actually show up to overthrow you. When the heroic brazilian military showed up, it was to arrest the protesters.
        JumpCrisscross 1y ago
        > Not a problem. They wanted to be ruled by the military. That's a valid political stance which should not be censored. Wat. (EDIT: Sure? In a country with a history of not managing this well, however, it’s also dangerous. When manifested as a riot, that danger becomes clear and present.) > it was to arrest the protesters who were begging the military on their knees to save them Rioters who broke into the federal buildings housing each branch of the Brazilian state… I appreciate your directness. But respectfully, I don’t think there is anything this Supreme Court could do that would meet your approval, or vice versa, those “protesters” which would find your judgement.
        matheusmoreira 1y ago
        > Wat. Plenty of people out there who enjoyed the military dictatorship. Did you know the Lua programming language was born in it? The military wanted to replace technology imports with native products. That gave rise to industry and technology. We even tried making our own computers once. That bit of history has been posted to HN at least once. I can totally see why they'd prefer that to the current Brazil which is essentially the world's soy farm, to say nothing of the endless corruption scandals and crushing taxation. > Rioters who broke into the federal buildings housing each branch of the Brazilian state Protesters from the current ruling party have set fire to those buildings before. It's nothing new. > I don’t think there is anything this Supreme Court could do that would meet your approval I would approve of their resignation.

by ufo 1y ago

matheusmoreira 1y ago

The real coup was perpetrated by the supreme court itself. Judges have always been "gods" in this country, and the supreme court in particular has been blatantly grabbing power since at least 2019. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39966382 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39966382 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36543423 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36543423

JumpCrisscross 1y ago
> real coup was perpetrated by the supreme court itself The side that storms the capital sort of gives up its ability to call the other illegitimate in a democracy. That doesn't mean they're right. Just that the situtation in Brazil clearly escalated to the point that suspending the status quo is if not merited, highly historically precedented.
- matheusmoreira 1y ago
  Occupying the government buildings is essentially the standard brazilian protest. It's happened many times before and will happen again. This "storming" amounted to little more than a protest. If only that had been enough to fix things. I watched those judges censor political speech as "fake news" throughout the entire 2022 election. Then they showboated in public about how they had been personally responsible for the former president's defeat.
  - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
    > Occupying the government buildings is essentially the standard brazilian protest. It's happened many times before and will happen again Brazil also has a history of military coups, something that mob explicitly sought to provoke [1]. It makes sense for the system to learn from past failings. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8_January_Bras%C3%ADlia_attacks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8_January_Bras%C3%ADlia_attack...
    - matheusmoreira 1y ago
      Not a problem. They wanted to be ruled by the military. That's a valid political stance which should not be censored. A military coup is attempted when armed forces actually show up to overthrow you. When the heroic brazilian military showed up, it was to arrest the protesters.
      - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
        > Not a problem. They wanted to be ruled by the military. That's a valid political stance which should not be censored. Wat. (EDIT: Sure? In a country with a history of not managing this well, however, it’s also dangerous. When manifested as a riot, that danger becomes clear and present.) > it was to arrest the protesters who were begging the military on their knees to save them Rioters who broke into the federal buildings housing each branch of the Brazilian state… I appreciate your directness. But respectfully, I don’t think there is anything this Supreme Court could do that would meet your approval, or vice versa, those “protesters” which would find your judgement.
        matheusmoreira 1y ago
        > Wat. Plenty of people out there who enjoyed the military dictatorship. Did you know the Lua programming language was born in it? The military wanted to replace technology imports with native products. That gave rise to industry and technology. We even tried making our own computers once. That bit of history has been posted to HN at least once. I can totally see why they'd prefer that to the current Brazil which is essentially the world's soy farm, to say nothing of the endless corruption scandals and crushing taxation. > Rioters who broke into the federal buildings housing each branch of the Brazilian state Protesters from the current ruling party have set fire to those buildings before. It's nothing new. > I don’t think there is anything this Supreme Court could do that would meet your approval I would approve of their resignation.