Isn’t this the same Brazilian Supreme Court that is basically making up laws and judgments as they go to suppress speech and political opposition, despite constitutional guarantees of speech? Yes I think they deserve sanctions just like other authoritarian states. But consistency would be nice - the US should sanction all states that don’t have some minimum level of free speech protections, not cherry pick them based on ideology or trade or whatever.
matheusmoreira · 17h ago
The very same! They have been relentlessly grabbing power since at least 2019.
I waited years for today's news. My only complaint is they sanctioned a single judge rather than the entire supreme court.
tuesdaynight · 16h ago
I find truly baffling reading your comments everytime you show up. I know you are not dumb, but you have a belief so out of reality that it makes me aware how smart people can get disillusioned the same as dumb people. I agree with some of your points, then you go on about how you are afraid of being arrested for commenting on Hacker News and I start questioning myself if someday I will get in that place mentally if I don't take care of what I look through the internet.
matheusmoreira · 12h ago
I'm curious about what's so "out of reality" about my beliefs.
It's really simple. I looked up the brazilian constitution on the internet. I read it. When I tried to reconcile the text with what the judges were doing, I couldn't. My conclusion was that they were and still are engaging in blatantly unconstitutional acts. The constitution says something can't be done but they keep doing it. How can you possibly reach any other conclusion?
These judges are effectively writing a new constitution and a new set of laws. They have not been elected. Therefore, Brazil is not a democracy. It's a dictatorship of the unelected judiciary. How can you possibly reach any other conclusion?
I have found the people who tried to debate these matters with me utterly unconvincing. I would love to be shown that this country is not what I believe it to be but that seems increasingly unlikely.
I'm tired of being told everything I know and remember is "fake" or whatever. I feel like I'm being constantly gaslit. Pretty much everything these judges censored as "fake news" was either true or became true literally months into Lula's mandate. Literal Ministry of Truth.
And my fears are not at all unfounded. They've prosecuted completely normal people who criticized them in the past. They've gone after teenagers over online comments. I'm taking risks by posting here because of my sense of justice. I'm just too disgusted and disillusioned by what's happening in this country to keep quiet about it.
tuesdaynight · 8h ago
I drafted an answer to your questions, but I deleted it because there's nothing that I can say that you would not find searching about the subject and trying to ignore your bias. It's not productive, you know how to find different opinions about it. I would just unproductively repeat things here. It's enough to say that I agree with your starting point but disagree with your conclusions. However, I can talk about the gaslighting part.
>I have found the people who tried to debate these matters with me utterly unconvincing. I would love to be shown that this country is not what I believe it to be but that seems increasingly unlikely.
There's nothing that I can say that you aren't going to ignore, because you are smarter than me and you cannot think that your conclusions are wrong, either because you think you are 100% logical or because you don't see how your emotions are clouding your thoughts. I was exactly like that some years ago, before therapy. I would suggest the same for you, but you will probably consider that gaslighting. Again, you are smart, which makes hard to accept that you are not being rational as you think you are. A good therapist would have the tools to help you realize that.
>And my fears are not at all unfounded. They've prosecuted completely normal people who criticized them in the past. They've gone after teenagers over online comments. I'm taking risks by posting here because of my sense of justice. I'm just too disgusted and disillusioned by what's happening in this country to keep quiet about it.
I know people who spend most of their online time posting about this topic on public social media, some of their posts getting very close to death threats, every day, and nothing happens to them. Some of them works as public legislative servants, what makes them an easy target for censorships. We have elected people posting all day about it, some of them asking for military coups, and nothing ever happens to them. The probability of you getting arrested because of comments on Hacker News are so low that I cannot see that thought as something different of delusion.
TrackerFF · 17h ago
Trump, being a champion of free speech, seems awfully hypocritical on this - with how intensely he's gone after anything related to DEI and LGBTQ.
This is about one wannabe tough-guy looking out for his wannabe tough-guy pals.
jqpabc123 · 17h ago
The force of the US government has been fully subverted to serve the political wishes of one person.
> Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is sanctioning Brazilian Supreme Federal Court (STF) justice Alexandre de Moraes
> De Moraes has targeted opposition politicians, including former President Jair Bolsonaro; journalists; newspapers; U.S. social media platforms; and other U.S. and international companies.
> U.S.-based journalists and U.S. citizens have not been spared from de Moraes’ extraterritorial overreach.
> De Moraes has imposed preventive detention on and issued a series of preventive arrest warrants against journalists and social media users, some of whom are based in the United States.
> He has also directly issued orders to U.S. social media companies to block or remove hundreds of accounts, often those of his critics and other critics of the Brazilian government, including U.S. persons.
> De Moraes has frozen assets and revoked passports of his critics; banned accounts from social media; and directed Brazil’s federal police to raid his critics’ homes, seize their belongings, and ensure their preventive detention.
bigyabai · 17h ago
Seems like Trump is just upset that Bolsonaro's misdeeds are still being investigated.
> Trump can do whatever he wants for whatever reason he wants
So you don't oppose god-kings after all, huh? I could've guessed as much.
matheusmoreira · 17h ago
I really could not care any less about Bolsonaro. I just want the reign of these judge-god-kings to end. Trump can do whatever he wants for whatever reason he wants, I don't care. I just want him to end the judiciary dictatorship I'm currently living under.
> So you don't oppose god-kings after all, huh? I could've guessed as much.
As far as I'm concerned, Trump's helping me and my country as a whole. He's not our problem, it's up to the americans to deal with him however they see fit. As a brazilian, I literally do not have a vote in the matter.
stfp · 15h ago
Paraphrasing: “I like actual dictator wannabe A and actual dictator wannabe B and I’m glad they’re working together to punish people who are trying to fighting them”
matheusmoreira · 12h ago
The real dictators are these unelected judges. I've had actual lawyers tell me "judges = gods" to my face. It's just how things are in this shithole. Attempts to protest them resulted in thousands of arrests and 15+ years of imprisonment. People routinely get less jail time for cold blooded murder. And they're the supreme court so there's no possible recourse against them.
So I'm glad some foreign power outside their jurisdiction is doing something about it regardless of their reasons.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39966382
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36543423
Every thread about this subject I go out of my way to recount what I saw and reference similar comments.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44619572
I waited years for today's news. My only complaint is they sanctioned a single judge rather than the entire supreme court.
It's really simple. I looked up the brazilian constitution on the internet. I read it. When I tried to reconcile the text with what the judges were doing, I couldn't. My conclusion was that they were and still are engaging in blatantly unconstitutional acts. The constitution says something can't be done but they keep doing it. How can you possibly reach any other conclusion?
These judges are effectively writing a new constitution and a new set of laws. They have not been elected. Therefore, Brazil is not a democracy. It's a dictatorship of the unelected judiciary. How can you possibly reach any other conclusion?
I have found the people who tried to debate these matters with me utterly unconvincing. I would love to be shown that this country is not what I believe it to be but that seems increasingly unlikely.
I'm tired of being told everything I know and remember is "fake" or whatever. I feel like I'm being constantly gaslit. Pretty much everything these judges censored as "fake news" was either true or became true literally months into Lula's mandate. Literal Ministry of Truth.
And my fears are not at all unfounded. They've prosecuted completely normal people who criticized them in the past. They've gone after teenagers over online comments. I'm taking risks by posting here because of my sense of justice. I'm just too disgusted and disillusioned by what's happening in this country to keep quiet about it.
>I have found the people who tried to debate these matters with me utterly unconvincing. I would love to be shown that this country is not what I believe it to be but that seems increasingly unlikely.
There's nothing that I can say that you aren't going to ignore, because you are smarter than me and you cannot think that your conclusions are wrong, either because you think you are 100% logical or because you don't see how your emotions are clouding your thoughts. I was exactly like that some years ago, before therapy. I would suggest the same for you, but you will probably consider that gaslighting. Again, you are smart, which makes hard to accept that you are not being rational as you think you are. A good therapist would have the tools to help you realize that.
>And my fears are not at all unfounded. They've prosecuted completely normal people who criticized them in the past. They've gone after teenagers over online comments. I'm taking risks by posting here because of my sense of justice. I'm just too disgusted and disillusioned by what's happening in this country to keep quiet about it.
I know people who spend most of their online time posting about this topic on public social media, some of their posts getting very close to death threats, every day, and nothing happens to them. Some of them works as public legislative servants, what makes them an easy target for censorships. We have elected people posting all day about it, some of them asking for military coups, and nothing ever happens to them. The probability of you getting arrested because of comments on Hacker News are so low that I cannot see that thought as something different of delusion.
This is about one wannabe tough-guy looking out for his wannabe tough-guy pals.
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0211
> Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is sanctioning Brazilian Supreme Federal Court (STF) justice Alexandre de Moraes
> De Moraes has targeted opposition politicians, including former President Jair Bolsonaro; journalists; newspapers; U.S. social media platforms; and other U.S. and international companies.
> U.S.-based journalists and U.S. citizens have not been spared from de Moraes’ extraterritorial overreach.
> De Moraes has imposed preventive detention on and issued a series of preventive arrest warrants against journalists and social media users, some of whom are based in the United States.
> He has also directly issued orders to U.S. social media companies to block or remove hundreds of accounts, often those of his critics and other critics of the Brazilian government, including U.S. persons.
> De Moraes has frozen assets and revoked passports of his critics; banned accounts from social media; and directed Brazil’s federal police to raid his critics’ homes, seize their belongings, and ensure their preventive detention.
> Trump can do whatever he wants for whatever reason he wants
So you don't oppose god-kings after all, huh? I could've guessed as much.
> So you don't oppose god-kings after all, huh? I could've guessed as much.
As far as I'm concerned, Trump's helping me and my country as a whole. He's not our problem, it's up to the americans to deal with him however they see fit. As a brazilian, I literally do not have a vote in the matter.
So I'm glad some foreign power outside their jurisdiction is doing something about it regardless of their reasons.