© Copyright(L) President of Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court Alexandre de Moraes [yes, that's really him] (R) Elon Musk
President of Brazil's Superior Electoral Court Alexandre de Moraes has become infamous in recent days after Elon Musk rebelled against his dystopian censorship demands of X. Musk had hitherto pledged to comply with national legislation across the world but said that "The final straw was we were being given demands to suspend sitting members of the parliament and major journalists" within two hours "or face major fines". He also objected to Moraes' demands to lie about why they were being suspended.
Brazil's top justice then accused Musk of waging a "disinformation campaign" against Brazil, which was echoed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The billionaire businessman shot back by accusing Moraes of violating the Marco Civil law and the Brazilian Federal Constitution. This issue has sharply divided observers into two diametrically opposed camps: those who believe that Musk is the one meddling in Brazil and those who believe that it's actually Moraes.
The first is led by Brazil's ruling "Workers' Party" (PTI), which hates Musk because they consider anyone to the right of their putatively "leftist" (but nowadays liberal-globalist) movement to be "fascist". Their supporters point to Musk boasting that "We will coup whoever want! Deal with it" in response to Bolivia's 2019 regime change to claim that he's doing the US Government's (USG) bidding. This approach ignores that the USG is investigating his takeover of Twitter and Lula's own history of pro-USG remarks.
Regarding the former, the USG has fully embraced liberal-globalism under the Biden Administration, hence why it hates Musk just as much as the PT does for the same ideological reasons. As for the latter, the PT's online troll army aggressively "cancels" anyone who brings up that Lula condemned Russia in a joint statement with Biden and ordered his diplomats to continue voting against Russia at the UNGA. They know that their standard for smearing Musk as a USG agent also implies that Lula is one too.
Another point to make is that the PT claims that "Operation Car Wash" from the mid-2010s was a "lawfare"-driven US-backed rolling regime change operation aimed at bringing multipolar Brazil back under Washington's unipolar umbrella. This interpretation of those scandalous events makes it shamelessly hypocritical that they're now cheering on the state's own use of "lawfare" against their opponents on the right after the PT returned to power with the US' blessing.
About that, the Biden Administration despised former President Jair Bolsonaro for the same ideological reasons that they despise Musk, but the first-mentioned was the national leader of one of the world's largest and most resource-rich countries with the ability to influence the global systemic transition. He was also insufficiently anti-Russian since he refused to sanction Russia and/or arm Ukraine despite voting against it at the UNGA, the policy of which Lula continued, and way too sovereign for the US' liking.
The US preferred Lula since they saw how the PT morphed into a liberal-globalist one since his imprisonment and would therefore promote a much more closely aligned worldview than the conservative-nationalist one under Bolsonaro if Lula returned to power. The American Prospect even bragged about "How Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders Helped Lula Win" on 1 November 2022 right after the Biden Administration's preferred candidate won, which readers should review if they haven't already.
The US also endorsed Lula's story about the January 8th incident, which suspiciously mirrored the US' own similar January 6th one that's considered by many to have been a federal set-up for smearing the right in order to accelerate the imposition of a liberal-globalist dictatorship. These two still disagree on trade with China and de-dollarization, but they work hand-in-hand on the climate agenda, COVID, countering "disinformation", LGBT+, and persecuting political opponents on "national security" pretexts.
The author's book-length analytical series about Brazil that was published over the past 18 months will be shared at the end of this one in order for interested readers to review if they'd like to learn more about the PT's transformation into a largely US-aligned liberal-globalist movement under Lula 3.0. Moving along after having described the first of the two camps that have formed over Musk's rebellion against Moraes, it's now time to describe the second one.
These folks are a mix of free speech absolutists, conservative-nationalists, and a sprinkling of dissident leftists, the latter of whom are believe that the PT lost the moral high ground that they were thought to have had after "Operation Car Wash" by hypocritically waging "lawfare" against the right. Given their ideological diversity, they have different views about Moraes' demands, with some acknowledging the state's right to censor but disagreeing with how far it's gone while others are against it in totality.
What they all seem to agree upon though is that Brazil's top justice is violating the law by censoring sitting members of parliament and journalists without due process. They're also disgusted by Moraes demanding that X can't tell them the real reason why their accounts are being suspended, instead ordering the company to lie that it was due to unspecified violations of the terms of service. In their view, Brazil has quietly returned to its dictatorship past, albeit this time it's a liberal-globalist one.
Back then it was the military persecuting left-wing members of society that were deemed to constitute a national security threat, but now it's the judiciary led by Moraes that's persecuting conservative-nationalists on the same pretext to the thunderous applause of Lula's "leftist" PT. The hypocrisy is undeniable and those supporters of the ruling party who gaslight that no double standards are being applied inadvertently expose their side's pursuit of power even at the cost of their own morality.
Musk would have continued complying with Moraes' demands if only he had provided due process to those sitting members of parliament and major journalists in line with the Brazilian Federal Constitution, not to mention never demanded that X lie about the reasons why their accounts are being suspended. Moraes went too far in his witch hunt and that provoked Musk to rebel despite the economic costs in order to defend his own morality after he sincerely felt that complying with these demands was illegal.
With all this in mind, it's Moraes and not Musk that's meddling in Brazilian democracy. Moreover, the former represents a government that's in bed with the Biden Administration while the latter is one of its top ideological opponents. The PT's online troll army also aggressively "cancels" anyone who shares facts about Lula's close alignment with the US during his third term, let alone wonders about the "Faustian deal" that he must have made with it while in prison in order to secure his release and their support.
That's why few other than the Brazilian conservative-nationalists who come across this analysis probably never had any idea that the putatively "leftist" PT transformed into a liberal-globalist movement over the past decade and is now little more than a cheap knock-off of the US' Democrats. Lula and Biden still disagree on trade with China and de-dollarization, but these differences are minimal compared to their newfound similarities. What follows is the promised book-length analytical series that documented it all:
* 31 October 2022: "The Geostrategic Consequences Of Lula's Re-Election Aren't As Clear-Cut As Some Might Think"
* 6 December 2023: "Putin Is Unlikely To Attend Next Year's G20 In Rio Since Lula Can't Guarantee His Safety"
* 20 February 2024: "Lula's Holocaust Comparison Is Historically Inaccurate Even If One Agrees With The Gist"
This analytical series comprehensively proves that Lula's worldview is a US-aligned liberal-globalist one, not pro-Russian or truly multipolar, thus meaning that those of his online sycophants who still claim otherwise are lying.
Comment: See also: Musk lifts restrictions on X accounts in Brazil despite country's 'fake news' court orders