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1/ Hi, Brazilian biologist and doctor in sociology here. I don't think it is either one. Bolsonaro certainly adopted some of Trump's strategies but what some of us have concluded is that they are products of the same world phenomenon.
1/ Hi, Brazilian biologist and doctor in sociology here. I don't think it is either one. Bolsonaro certainly adopted some of Trump's strategies but what some of us have concluded is that they are products of the same world phenomenon.
2/ For example: Bolsonaro is a Militia man. He BELONGS (there is no past tense in this verb) to murdering Militias, which are very different from the American ones except on the fact that they subscribe to a RW ideology and have popular support.
3/ And when I say "popular support", I mean the same type of support that has put Trump on the presidency and other RW populists in Europe in power positions: a large minority of the country's population is resentful, unethical and willing to support anyone who hurts the "other".
4/ Bolsonaro is a sadistic psychopath, much like Trump. Just observe pictures and videos of his obscene smile as he does the "hand gun gesture", a gesture that inflamed crowds: "bandido bom é bandido morto" (the good delinquent is the bad delinquent).
5/ The Brazilian Militias developed slowly during the RW military dictatorship (and here we have a huge difference between Trump and Bolsonaro: Bolsonaro is working to restore the dictatorship because there was one). They were death squads operating in urban areas.
6/ Both are openly breaking important laws and even violating their respective constitutions WITH the support of this "large minority". How large? Millions. At least 30 million in each country.
7/ How did both accomplish that? Did they imitate one another? No. There is something going on in several countries that gives them the power to confront the rule of law: a type of "new middle class", resentful, enraged and not committed to democracy.
8/ The second thing that both countries had in common (and in common with the European ones taken over by the RW) is a failure of the progressives to negotiate a "democratic front". Their short-sighted bickering is in part responsible for both disasters.
9/ The third thing they have in common is the open support of the evangelical base and organizations. In Brazil, this is a recent phenomenon that we (progressives and scientists) failed to identify as determinant.
10/ All in all, the emergence, empowerment and growth of evangelicals and the militias in Brazil, besides uncontrolled urbanization since the 1960s, brought Brazil closer in public opinion behavior to the USA. And there you go: Bolsonaro and Trump.
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