I have been busy all of October, in part because twice this month I had to drive over 70 miles to SF to vote in the Brazilian elections. Brazilians must vote by law and if we live abroad we are obligated to vote for president.
Brazilian elections are in two turns, the first one to pick two candidates among our several parties and the second is to choose between the two finalists.
As many might already know, the finalists this year were “almost” the same as four and eight years ago: some representation of Bolsonaro and our forever president Lula.
Not excited about voting for either one, I watched a pitiful display of idiotic memes on Facebook trying to convince everyone else to vote for one of the candidates because the other is the pure representation of evil. I watched family members severing their relationships and friends threatening to and perhaps unfriending those who don’t agree with them.
Then I woke up this Monday to crowds of people dancing on the streets of Brazil celebrating the “victory of good over evil” while economists give the bad news that the average Brazilian woke up 25% poorer today: the dollar is up, the IBOVESPA (the primary benchmark stock market index for Brazil) is substantially down, and the new old government is about to announce higher tax aliquots and new interest rates before Christmas.
Of course they had all the bad news reserved for now, after the election, and before the new, by the way conservative representatives majority, replaces the current, more liberal congress and house.
And I am here scratching my head, wondering, when did people become so stupid? I do recall a time when political ideas were broadly discussed, when family and friends were more important than being right or left, or better saying, more important than “being right”.
Am I becoming one of those old people who think we have witnessed a better world?
Anyway, turbulent times when people think that they value one thing when they seem to value another, are easily manipulated by non-sense Ai-generated graphics and algorithm, and are ready to judge and attack those who are important to them in the name of being righteous. Above all, it bothers me that most have lost the capacity to look at the whole and evaluate the consequences of their choices in a broader context.
Turbulent times.
As a side note, Point Lobos State Park has beautiful ocean landscapes that are perfect for photography using filters.
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