It started in 2019 or so. If I remember correctly, some magazine ran a damning article on some supreme court judge. In response to that, the court gave itself essentially limitless powers to unilaterally censor, investigate and punish anyone they want. In essence they are the victims, the investigators, the judges, the jurors and the executioners now. They claim it's to combat "fake news". They decide what's true, of course.

It reached comical proportions in the 2022 elections. I submitted news of that here as it was happening.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33312582

These judges censored the candidate they didn't want to win. Says on the constitution that censorship is illegal, especially that of a political nature. Yet political censorship is exactly what they did. Hell they bragged about it. They went to public events to showboat about how they defeated him. I have the videos.

The current president is a communist and a socialist. He calls himself a socialist, I have videos of him saying it. They deemed it "fake news" to accuse him of it, and censored anyone who did say it. The current president is friends with the Venezuelan dictator, but it became "fake news" to say he was. He was arrested and convicted for the biggest corruption scandal of this country, I watched him give himself up on live television. They just threw out the entire case over a jurisdiction technicality so ackshually he's innocent and it's "fake news" to say he's a corrupt criminal. And so on. And so forth. Anything that made him look bad was "fake news". Until the right wing president lost in the elections by voting machines. By some silly narrow margin.

Twitter accounts were frequently censored during this time period. They would even censor politicians which theoretically have immunity precisely so they could not be censored in this manner. They're still getting censored but much less frequently now. After all, election's already over.

After the elections, people got fed up and protested it. Over a thousand people were arrested. Normal people, elderly people. They were literally clothed with the brazilian flag. They made some kind of makeshift concentration camp in Brasília and put them all in there. Then they started dispensing 20+ year sentences like candy to these political prisoners. I've seen actual murderers get less time here. Some of those people actually died in that shithole.

Government took full advantage of it, called it a coup attempt and started persecuting the brazilian right. Banned the former president from politics over what was essentially wrongthink. It's only a matter of time before they order his arrest. All while they nullify the sentences of former government officials convicted for corruption and release drug traffickers from prison. They even give them their drug money back.

It's 2024 and the "fake news" inquisition is still ongoing. It's scope has apparently expanded to be nearly unlimited. They're basically judge-kings now. This is not a democracy. They did not receive a single vote from anyone and yet they rule. What is a people supposed to do when the supreme court seizes power like this? I watched my countrymen literally beg on their knees for the military to save them. The military heroically arrested them.

Sometimes I wonder if dang's gonna get a letter from one of these guys one day over my comments.