Bolsonaro's anti-vaccine stance in the face of more than 180,000 covid-related deaths in Brazil may strike many observers as political suicide, but a lot suggests the president's gamble may not hurt him politically. 🧵👇
First, remember that Bolsonaro must keep his loyal followers mobilized and society polarized. Deepening polarization is mandatory, no matter in which context. The anti-vaccination stance is just another reiteration of the same old pattern: the more polarizing, the better.
Supporting the anti-vaccine movement is particularly useful to fuel the battle between the globalist and arrogant elite vs. the common man. Even Bolsonaro voters who are neutral about the vaccine realize that elites often regard them like hillbillies stuck in the Middle Ages.
Second, the anti-vaccine strategy allows Bolsonaro to dominate the debate and keep the opposition stuck in a maddening circle of whether to call Bolsonaro "assassin", "genocidaire" or if he should be taken to The Hague. Bolsonaro supporters love the spectacle.
Third, the vaccine rollout will the frustratingly slow. Mistakes will be made. By not leading the effort, Bolsonaro can deflect all the political blame if anything goes wrong. He can sit back and retweet fake news, for ex about people who supposedly died after getting the vaccine
Bolsonaro's message is totally consistent with his denial of the threat the pandemic poses to public health - a strategy that, so far, has been politically successful. In a recent poll, only 8% of respondents thought Bolsonaro to be primarily responsible for the 180,000 deaths
Fourth, while Bolsonaro embraces an anti-vaccine rhetoric and speaks about supposed risks and dangers of the vaccine, his stance is carefully calibrated: he won't actively hinder its purchase & distribution, allowing more moderate supporters to dismiss this rhetoric as secondary.
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Amazing article on how Russia stands to benefit from climate change, turning it into an agricultural powerhouse. Since the year 2000, the country's agricultural exports have multiplied sixteen times. nytimes.com/interactive/20…
Since 2015, Russia’s wheat exports have jumped 100 percent, to about 44 million tons, surpassing those of the United States and Europe. Russia is now the largest wheat exporter in the world, responsible for nearly a quarter of the global market.
Crop yields from Texas to Nebraska could fall by up to 90% by as soon as 2040 as the ideal growing region moves toward the Canadian border.
Brazil's president Bolsonaro is no longer trying to hide the fact that he regards his vice-president, general Hamilton Mourão, as a major rival. 🧵👇folhadelondrina.com.br/politica/bolso…
While Mourão has done much to protect the president, his many corrective measures have led him to contradict Bolsonaro so frequently that a growing number of hard-core Bolsonaro supporters now regard Mourão as a traitor who is overtly sabotaging his boss, plotting to replace him.
Given how personal the attacks by anti-globalists against Mourão & his fellow generals have become, and how deafening the president’s silence has been in response, it seems unlikely that the relationship between Bolsonaro & his vice president can recover. americasquarterly.org/article/how-bo…
How is it possible that Maduro is still in power, despite Venezuela's collapse? While it’s tempting to describe him as crazy or erratic, a closer analysis reveals that Maduro operates according to a clear – and effective – set of principles. 👇🧵 americasquarterly.org/article/why-ve…
It of course also helped that the US government has, paradoxically, done everything possible to strengthen Maduro. Trump never cared about regime change in Venezuela. The goal of his Venezuela policy was to win in Florida in 2020. He succeeded.
Maduro has achieved a remarkable feat: most leaders in the region and elsewhere have grown tired of paying attention to Venezuela. Even better for him, there's a consensus that even his departure would not really change much. americasquarterly.org/article/even-a…
Quem espera que a vacina encerre o pesadelo da pandemia de uma hora para a outra vai ter uma surpresa e tanto. A chegada do medicamento a hospitais e postos de saúde deve iniciar uma reação épica por parte dos movimentos antivacina.👇🧵
Prepare-se para fake news surreais. Histórias de ataques epilépticos logo após a vacinação, gente q se transformou em morcego, cidadão de bem que gritou “Viva Che Guevara” assim q foi imunizado, pessoas q descobriram ter um chip implantado com os dizeres “propriedade da Huawei."
A campanha global de vacinação terá uma proporção e uma agilidade inéditas. Dezenas de milhões de idosos receberão suas doses. Mesmo que o imunizante funcione e não tenha efeitos colaterais relevantes, é claro que alguém pode falecer de outra causa e acabar associado à vacinação.
The Bolsonaro government seems to be engaged in an extraordinary foreign policy experiment: rather than remaining neutral or siding with one superpower, it is confronting both Xi Jinping (communist who spread the Wuhan virus) and Joe Biden (globalist who stole the US elections).
Bolsonaro also undermined ties to Argentina, France and Germany, successfully transforming a country that once prided itself for being on good terms with everybody into a pariah -- within less than 2 years. That requires a lot of hard work, focus and discipline.
However, as long as Poland and Hungary are governed by far-right populists, Brazil can always count on diplomatic support from Budapest and Warsaw. Plus, we're part of the Ostrich Alliance with Nicaragua, Turkmenistan and Belarus.
Bolsonaro diz q nunca chamou covid-19 de"gripezinha", embora essa declaração tenha sido dada em pronunciamento oficial gravado. Mentir descaradamente acaba sendo uma demonstração de poder: mostra q a verdade ñ é páreo para o presidente e q pode escapar de qq coisa impunemente🧵👇
Para populistas com tendências autoritárias, mentir sistematicamente é uma estratégia central. Ela serve não só para anestesiar a população como para expandir pouco a pouco os limites do politicamente aceitável.
Os seguidores dessas figuras entendem que defendê-las mesmo diante de provas incontestáveis é um teste de lealdade. É preciso ser contra ou a favor do movimento, sem nuances nem vacilos.