@john8670 Good morning,
It is totally normal. People are revolted because their hero Bolsanaro lost. It is no big deal and it will all die down soon. Just try to focus on your job and life will continue as normal. You will get used to these things here. You need to learn to just ignore it and continue focusing on making money to survive. It will go away soon. The new president will take charge in January and people will have to swallow their pride, like it or not. Just like in the USA.
What you should NOT do is talk about politics with Brazilians as it is a very heated subject that can cause you to lose clients if you own a company depending on what side they think you are on. Some Bolsonaro fans are actually boycotting businesses that are pro Lula. So when a Brazilian asks you what you think.. just tell them you don´t have an opinion. You are not from here and can´t vote anyway.
Everything will be okay. I´ve been here for over 10 years. Brazilians are not agressive in general. They put on a big show and dance but lose their energy quickly.
Devorah- American
-@devorahmichaela
Completely and wholeheartedly agree.
If you study the last coup we had, this in 1964, as far as I can remember people who i spoke to , this a long time ago, the upheaval was palpable.
You had a President who was leaning to the left ( Joao Gourlart, aka Jango ), in a similar fashion to Allende. You had the middle class supporting the coup, a Congress in disarray, you had students and labor unions pressing for reforms, land invasions. It was chaos...
The "joint Chiefs of Staff" had the support from the US ( Lyndon Johnson ) for the coup, who was about to dispatch a naval task force ( never materialized ). This was a time the US had its fingers all over the world in a containment against the rise of communism. Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa all had the attention of the US Department of State, the CIA.
At that time, in Brazil, the most vocal right wing politician became virulent against the establishment, starting with Juscelino, and all the way through Jango, not even sparing the empowered post coup President and Moderate General, Castelo Branco. This was Carlos Lacerda. It was Lacerda's antics from the right and Brizola from the Left. Lacerda had the same vitriol as the incumbent, otherwise it had, at very least, better public speaking skills ( he was an attorney engaged in politics ). Same circus ring then, same as now.
What you see nowadays pales in comparison to the 60's., All there is to see is a ragtag bunches here and there making noise, blocking roads, acting like total jerks. Notice, most of these protests are taking places on rural areas, along highways. it's the Ruralist ( the Agribusiness Exporting Lobby ) wing that has been endorsing the incumbent, trying to maintain the status quo on concessions they got from the waning Government, who bankrolls these yokels. They want to continue to clear land in the Amazon for grazing ( a lot of whom have been levied heavy fines from the Ibama, btw ) , no taxing on export commodities.
Oddly enough, even one of the most vocal supporters of the Ruralism has turned himself against their interests, former congressman and now Goias Governor, Ronaldo Caiado. He is for taxing agribusiness exports. So , it is safe to say they are not a cohesive group.
The other group giving standing to the current administration, and at fear of losing their standing privileges, are the folks who had the finger on the liquidation of Government Public Concessions ( the financial markets might be co participants on this ). The elected had a history of not going through with the sale of Government entities, reversing a trend starting with Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
What you see now is a group who does not want to relinquish their standing, and have paid people to do their bidding, and some folks the Urban Upper Middle Class endorsing a reversal of the presidential election results (. The US is hardly interested on their agenda, specially when these folks were trading, US sanctions aside, with sanctioned Governments ( iran, Russia, China ).
The Urban upper middle class, and the business class blames the elected for losing a lot during his tenure. Only they forget to realize a lot of what they lost was due in great part, as result of globalization ( decimating Sao Paulo''s manufacturing base ) . Pro labor policies started well before Lula, this going through the Constitution change ( Constituinte ), and spurred by the 80's labor movement.
Also, it is noteworthy to point, the incumbent never made rank, not all of the Brass trust him enough to handle him the reigns, if a coup ever took place. And I am sure he has been told so. He would get the same fate as Carlos Lacerda, who stirred until he could do no longer, hoping to get the nod, and at the end was pushed aside ( even thought he bribed the rank ) . That pretty much explains why he is so morose. So, If ever these is a coup, which needs to be sanctioned by the Brass , my money is they will shut the Congress, appoint a President ( certainly not the incumbent ).
Oddly enough, it was during Dilma's Administration that the three branches of the Militar got budget increases to better equip the Armed Forces. The incumbent only conceded pay raises towards the ranks. No sizeable budget allocation for the Armed Forces.,
But don't take my word for it.
If you want to understand current events , my advice is to grab some books from some Brazilianists ( American Scholars who studied Brazilian's History ). You will need to look into the past to make sense of the present.
Here's a list of some of them...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilianist
Aside from that, my educated advice is to act like the Japanese did in Brazil. ( and so do the Chinese who migrated here nowadays ) Smile, keep your nose in the grindstone, ignore the idiots, and move on. A lot of this is Water Cooler talk ( Conversa de Botequim ).
Trust me, you won't get into a self self enlightening dialogue with Brazzers. Unlike our American Conspiracy Theory Nuts, they can't stick to the conversation as soon as they realize they are losing the argument. They are mostly spouting and shouting their nonsense.
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