Bulletins and News Discussion from February 12th to February 18th, 2024 - The Prodigal Failson - COTW: Brazil

Image is of Brazilian chuds storming the National Congress building in opposition to Lula winning the election, on January 8th, 2023, in their remarkably even shittier version of the January 6th events in America.

Bolsonaro, who is in the tragic category of pro-US South American leaders who are so awful and uncharismatic that even they can't get the US to help them overthrow a democratically elected left-ish government, has recently been facing that most elusive of things in this current world order: consequences for his actions. Bolsonaro and his friends have been under investigation by the police, and his passport has now been seized, meaning he is unable to leave the country. Alongside the man himself, the leader of the Liberal Party, Valdemar Costa Neto, has been caught up in searches and investigations. Brazilian Army Colonel Bernardo Correa Neto, a former aide to Bolsonaro, was very recently arrested upon his return to Brazil from the US, as well as another colonel.

From the Hexbear South American correspondent (a position I just made up), @Redcuban1959@hexbear.net:

Lol, they are really fucked. Iirc, this is a municipal election year in Brazil, Bolsonaro can't campaign publicly, he can't promote his candidates. The leader of his party is currently in prison. And even if he is released from prison, they are forbidden to communicate with each other. The high-ranking members of the Liberal Party are pretty much fucked because they can't communicate with each other and getting support from Bolsonaro could be very bad, as left-wing candidates will exploit the fact that Bolsonaro will probably be imprisoned for planning a coup.
The FBI seems to have concluded its investigation into Bolsonaro's money laundering scheme in the US and handed over its findings to the Brazilian Federal Police, I don't think Bolsonaro can even go to the US anymore, or any other country. And it could get even funnier, there is a very small chance of the Liberal Party being banned and all its seats in congress and the senate being transferred to other politicians, many of whom, even if they are conservative, will be much more favorable to Lula's social and economic reforms, as it has been proven that Bolsonaro used the party to finance the coup.

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Since Starship Troopers was in the discourse on Twitter, I've come to realize the film basically depicted Israel after seeing all those TikToks
- Satire is just ineffective as a form of agiprop because it gets defeated by "this but unironically." I don't think the number of people who don't get that Starship Troopers is a satire in 2024 is as high as people think. It's just fascists going "this but unironically" at the film and trying to convince people that the film is better understood if viewed sincerely than as a satire. It's like the opposite of how Enlightenment philosophers try to say The Prince should be read as a satirical work instead of a serious work. And this isn't even mentioning the sequels and spinoff media and toys that sincerely portray the Terran Federation as good.
  It's like how the original Rambo movie was actually a critique on how the US throws away their veterans and doesn't do shit to integrate them back to civilian life. Rambo was just some dude suffering from PTSD going postal on a bunch of small cops in some podunk town. But no one really goes, "uh aktually Rambo isn't jingoistic propaganda" because the subsequent sequels and common cultural understanding of the Rambo franchise change all that to the point where even the first film is viewed through a jingoistic lens as well.
- Starship Troopers is framed as a propaganda film in the world in which it transpires, incorporating elements meant to show how seductive a fascistic stratocracy can be on the surface. Some think the seductive elements undermine the criticism because they were manipulated by them.
  Easily the best explanation of the whole thing. It shows how easily liberals fall for fascism, even in one of the most unsubtle satirical movie about the topic. No wonder they support Israel, liberals simply get successfully manipulated my the same elements in the film, but in real life. From IDF thirst traps, to the only democracy in the middle east, to Israelis cultivating barren land, liberals fall for it all.
  
  Listening to Verhoeven explain it I feel like a dummy for not getting it. Like he explains the shower scenes:all these model hot young people, naked, showering together, and not a hint of arousal or sexuality because they're all so patriot-pilled. One woman talks about how she joined the MI to get a license to have a child. When I saw it as a kid all I thought was "boobies!" And then looking back it's like "oh, i get it now!" Or all the high minded shit about citizenship and duty but Johnny is just a dumbass who joins up to go kill people he's never met bc his girlfriend did. And, of course, Doogie Houser, SS

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