Brazil’s Disastrous 2018 Presidential Race Teaches Key Lesson For All: Demagogues Thrive Only When Establishments Fail

"Threats to liberal democracy and the erosion of political liberties are possible only when the population loses faith, trust and confidence in institutions of authority. That is when societies become vulnerable to appeals by those who threaten – or who promise – to burn it all down. That is when media outlets and experts lose their ability to warn the public of lies and dangers: because the public, for good reason, sees those institutions and those experts not as guardians against dangers, deceit and suffering but as prime perpetrators of them.

When the population sees those authorities as the author of their suffering, then denunciations of Trump, Brexit, Marine LePen and Bolsonaro are not just ineffective but counter-productive. The more someone is hated by the once-elevated-but-now-despised precincts of elite authority, the more attractive their targets of scorn become."

read the analysis by Glenn Greenwald and Victor Pougy

Brazil’s Disastrous 2018 Presidential Race Teaches Key Lesson For All: Demagogues Thrive Only When Establishments Fail: Brazil's establishment, after feigning anger over corruption, now backs two of Latin America's most corrupt parties, showing why it is hated.