wolftivy said in #5555 9h ago:
One of the most interesting political movements in the western hemisphere is the Movimento Brazil Livre (MBL) and their Partido Missao under Renan Santos. They are young, technocratic, unapologetic, popular, and very clever. They are our guys, and a great example of what we could be doing.
I went down there last November for the launch of their political party and was extremely impressed. They were bold, well-organized, aesthetic, and ready to fight. Renan Santos has built a vertically integrated political machine that offers its own vision, its own power structure, and has its own powerful street movement. Their conference was amazing. I didn't understand much, but everything together left me with the impression that their victory was inevitable in the long run. Here's how it happened:
Back in the 2010s, Renan Santos and his brother got mad at the re-election of Dilma Roussef despite corruption scandals and general poor performance, and created a facebook event to protest. The next morning, the protest event had gone viral and hundreds of thousands of other Brazilians planned to attend. By the time it happened, it was millions in the streets, repeatedly.
Renan seized the moment with a truck and a megaphone, declaring himself leader of the movement. As it developed it became the Free Brazil Movement committed to Dilma's impeachment. This culminated in a grand march from Sao Paolo to Brasilia (over 1000 km) on foot to deliver the impeachment petition signed by millions of Brazilians. The impeachment was successful.
This experience gave them a strong core "mannerbund" and mass of followers with a taste for victory, but as a student of philosophy and reader of Palladium, Renan realized they also needed intellectual sovereignty; the ability to develop their own ideas and priorities. So they built Valete, the media arm and its think tank back-end where they employ their philosophers to write the "little yellow book" of policy solutions for Brazil, and blast it out through print media and online video influencers. This operation now accounts for most of their funding, thanks to their large following.
Their big plan includes treating the cartels as effectively foreign military threats engaged in active invasion ("arrest and kill"), clearing out the favelas and redeveloping them as lawful neighborhoods, centralizing and reforming the government apparatus on meritocratic lines, and industrializing the north of the country. They are determined to "fix brazil".
Last year, they launched their formal political party to house their politicians which had been previously running under other parties. They already had a formal training program for their politicians including mayors, congressmen, and various councillors.
One of their most rigorous commitments is against corruption. Even with the Brazilian political environment and popular bot corrupt candidates that would bring them power, they hold the line and kick out anyone who is caught dealing falsely. This has attracted for them a reputation of high integrity, and made them enemies of the Bolsonaro faction who have been caught up in too much corruption besides the obvious animosity towards the communist Lula.
I don't think they will win this time. Renan peaked at 17% on Polymarket in June but has trended down to 3% now, with Lula in the lead. They also just got banned from running by some corrupt judge. But the MBL has been around for a while and they are young, energetic, and clever, so I think they are going to do better than anyone expects, and they aren't going away soon.
I'm heading down to Rio for the latter third of September until the first round of the election on October 4th. I hope some other Americans will join me. I think we have a lot to learn from "Brazilian style politics", or at least Missao. They are our guys and like us, but way ahead of us in organization. This is our chance to see what we could be doing up close and friendly. Get in touch if you want to come.
I went down there last November for the launch of their political party and was extremely impressed. They were bold, well-organized, aesthetic, and ready to fight. Renan Santos has built a vertically integrated political machine that offers its own vision, its own power structure, and has its own powerful street movement. Their conference was amazing. I didn't understand much, but everything together left me with the impression that their victory was inevitable in the long run. Here's how it happened:
Back in the 2010s, Renan Santos and his brother got mad at the re-election of Dilma Roussef despite corruption scandals and general poor performance, and created a facebook event to protest. The next morning, the protest event had gone viral and hundreds of thousands of other Brazilians planned to attend. By the time it happened, it was millions in the streets, repeatedly.
Renan seized the moment with a truck and a megaphone, declaring himself leader of the movement. As it developed it became the Free Brazil Movement committed to Dilma's impeachment. This culminated in a grand march from Sao Paolo to Brasilia (over 1000 km) on foot to deliver the impeachment petition signed by millions of Brazilians. The impeachment was successful.
This experience gave them a strong core "mannerbund" and mass of followers with a taste for victory, but as a student of philosophy and reader of Palladium, Renan realized they also needed intellectual sovereignty; the ability to develop their own ideas and priorities. So they built Valete, the media arm and its think tank back-end where they employ their philosophers to write the "little yellow book" of policy solutions for Brazil, and blast it out through print media and online video influencers. This operation now accounts for most of their funding, thanks to their large following.
Their big plan includes treating the cartels as effectively foreign military threats engaged in active invasion ("arrest and kill"), clearing out the favelas and redeveloping them as lawful neighborhoods, centralizing and reforming the government apparatus on meritocratic lines, and industrializing the north of the country. They are determined to "fix brazil".
Last year, they launched their formal political party to house their politicians which had been previously running under other parties. They already had a formal training program for their politicians including mayors, congressmen, and various councillors.
One of their most rigorous commitments is against corruption. Even with the Brazilian political environment and popular bot corrupt candidates that would bring them power, they hold the line and kick out anyone who is caught dealing falsely. This has attracted for them a reputation of high integrity, and made them enemies of the Bolsonaro faction who have been caught up in too much corruption besides the obvious animosity towards the communist Lula.
I don't think they will win this time. Renan peaked at 17% on Polymarket in June but has trended down to 3% now, with Lula in the lead. They also just got banned from running by some corrupt judge. But the MBL has been around for a while and they are young, energetic, and clever, so I think they are going to do better than anyone expects, and they aren't going away soon.
I'm heading down to Rio for the latter third of September until the first round of the election on October 4th. I hope some other Americans will join me. I think we have a lot to learn from "Brazilian style politics", or at least Missao. They are our guys and like us, but way ahead of us in organization. This is our chance to see what we could be doing up close and friendly. Get in touch if you want to come.
One of the most inte