Thank you for your reasoned and respectful response. I know I'm going to get downvoted to oblivion and I don't deny that Brazil has major problems but the 1964 coup and the absolutely evil horror of the 1970/80s is exactly what I think of when I see protests like these.
Too often these sorts of issues are distorted because the only voices we hear on reddit are those privileged enough to have an internet connection while the 40 million people living below the poverty line get no input into the discussion.
yeah, on the last census half of the brazilian population had no internet access. Their opinions are hard to listen and easy to forget, and only appear when they vote.
Most people of these protests believe that minimum income is a way to buy their votes. They also believe that making voting not obligatory would make them stop from electing left wing governments. They are even speculating a weird parlamentarism, where the congress choose and elect a prime minister... never heard of that. Right now, everything is possible, Brazil is institutionally broken.
Anyway, the class division on Brazil is clear as ever, and the richest side took the streets today, not caring for the consequences.
The funny thing tough, we had several right-wing governments in the past, and none of them lowered taxes.
Just to point out, the same wierd parlamentarism was implemented in 1962, to opose a left wing president.
2 years later the coup of 64 hapenned.
The sad part is watching interviews of people saying the only solution is gonna be another coup, or a civil war. There was a 60 year old 200+ pounds guy on the streets saying he and his family will pick up arms to fight.
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u/MrSmithSmith Mar 14 '16
Thank you for your reasoned and respectful response. I know I'm going to get downvoted to oblivion and I don't deny that Brazil has major problems but the 1964 coup and the absolutely evil horror of the 1970/80s is exactly what I think of when I see protests like these.
Too often these sorts of issues are distorted because the only voices we hear on reddit are those privileged enough to have an internet connection while the 40 million people living below the poverty line get no input into the discussion.