Comments by "XSportSeeker" (@XSpImmaLion) on "Brazilians Plead for Coronavirus Help While the President Downplays the Pandemic" video.

  1. Brazilian here. While I fully agree with the sentiment of the video, the subtitles of the woman shouting in Manaus are entirely and completely wrong, Vice (2:24 - 2:45). Her last two statements translates to: "If we had the conditions, we wouldn't be here. The car is borrowed from our neighbor". Almost everything else she said is also probably wrong... notice how you never hear she saying coronavirus, which in brazilian portuguese sounds very close to english. It's really hard to understand what she is saying, but she definitely did not say what the subtitles translated to. The rest of subtitles are fine. Now, for the situation, yes, it is indeed getting to that point. Manaus, along with several northern states capitals are all in acute crisis right now. Rio and Sao Paulo are also getting close to that. But similar to the US, what is mostly happening in Brazil is that governors and mayors have the final saying in each city and state. And the vast majority of them are going against the president's opinion, as are most brazilian citizens. I have personally been in strict lockdown and self quarantine since the first cases appeared in my city, not leaving the apartment together with my mom for... almost 3 months now? 2 and a half? Brazil is almost like a poor man's mirror version of the US. Most of the initial bullshit Bolsonaro said in the beginning was directly mirrored from Trump and the shit Republicans were saying up there. Bolsonaro also diminished the pandemic severity initially, also predicted it'd pass quickly, also made speeches about miraculous hydroxicloroquine cure, also keeps hammering on the false dichotomy between lockdown measures and "the economy", and it is very likely that his sources, coming from his son Flavio Bolsonaro, are basically the same as Trump's. A network of right wing fake news production that is anti-scientific, pro-business and wholly ignorant. Bolsonaro's strategy for governing is also becoming eerily similar to Trump's. He fired the ministry of health for disagreeing with his stance, put someone else of his choosing, the new guy limited himself to keep mute on controversial topics instead of actively contradicting the president, but not even that was good enough, so he also got fired, and we are now without a ministry of health because the president is a stupid sore fucking loser. Oh, and he is also starting to look as corrupt as his predecessors, replacing people because his son was under investigation for corruption charges, and a whole lot of other crap starting to show up. Alas, lets be clear about something here: the main reason why northern states capital are in the situation they currently are, is because the northern states in Brazil are also the poorest and most ignored in the country. They are the most economically deprived. Manaus health system, overall hygiene, economy, and population was already in a sore state. The absolute vast majority of Manaus' population already did not have any conditions to stay in a lockdown situation, because most people there already live day by day. A day without working is a day with either mounting debt, or even more likely, no food on the table. This added to poor education, lack of mental capacity to comprehend a viral pandemic, lack of access to information, lack of education, and several other things, this all leads to the situation it's currently in. It's exactly the type of people prone to fall for authoritarian personalities, unfounded beliefs, conspiracy theories, hoaxes, fake news stories, and stuff like that. And it is a sad situation. Because the northern states in Brazil used to be the richest, and the people living there have no guilt of things being that way. This all has to do with a long history of exploitation. For the southern states, which are the richer brazilian states nowadays, the pandemic has hit way less so far, with notable exceptions of Sao Paulo and cities like Rio de Janeiro. Rio is an easy one to understand - the city and state was already bankrupt before the pandemic hit. It has been bankrupt since the Olympics. The state was robbed left and right by corrupt politicians, and it has been struggling to make ends meet since then. It also has the world famous favelas smack in between city centers due to geography, and that contributes for the virus to spread around fast and easy. Sao Paulo is the largest city in Brazil. It has an extreme urban density, with tons of favelas too, which makes the spread of virus happen fast and easy too. Mind you, this is not to discriminate against favela citizens, this is just a cruel fact of the pandemic: people living in favelas or on the streets just don't have the money for self quarantine, and the workers who lives in favelas are also likely the ones working in essencial services such as food delivery, police, supermarket staff, public transport, cargo, etc. So not only the living conditions are not ideal for self isolation, they are also likely the types of workers that are exposed the most. So while I do agree that Bolsonaro's and his blind followers attitude is just plain stupid and makes the crisis worse, truth is, the situation would likely not be a whole lot better without him, unfortunately. I have always been of the opinion that the guy is an asshole. But out of all hsi buffoonery, there is one thing that surprised me a bit. The fact that most governors and mayors decided to completely ignore him and go with WHO guidelines instead, including governors that were total Bolsonaro supporters during the election. Bolsonaro also recently lost a key figure that was the reason lots of brazilians voted for him - Moro. So reality is, personal opinion, that Bolsonaro already does not have a whole lot of supporters anymore. Much like Trump, fanatics will always be there. And lately, it kinda looks like Bolsonaro only wants to talk and be a president for those. It's a guaranteed way to lose the next elections. People can scream and shout all they want, in Brazil voting is obligatory and elections are direct, majority wins.
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