Rafa Sales Ross

I haven’t slept a full night in three weeks ahead of the polls opening in Brazil today. I might be shouting into a void here, but if you can spare a few seconds to send good energy towards our elections today and for the largest country in South America to beat fascism, please do so. 🇧🇷

It’s been a wild 24 hours for me on BlueSky and I’m getting so many messages asking what can be learned from Brazil and applied globally on top of the below. Once again, I’m not a political expert but this is what I’ve seen as a consensus amongst specialists and voters so far 🧵

Rafa Sales Ross@rafiews.com

I’m not a political journalist, so was gladly surprised at the community I found here last night. To Americans anxious about the upcoming elections, a key thing we learned in Brazil that might help you: DO NOT engage with the far-right online. Don’t share rage bait. Amplify your people. Ignore them.

- The streets matter as much as online: yes, Janones’ groundbreaking Lula’s Army WhatsApp channel was key in securing the win, but it was the student movements that began less than 24h after the first round that showed the far-right the willingness of the people to fight for democracy. It ballooned.

- Focus on turning one vote: a core message of Janones’s was that each person in the group needed to find one other voter for Lula. Just one person. Engage, debate, inform—calmly. There were 10 million people in the channel when polls opened. Lula gained 10 million votes from one round to the next.

Rafa Sales Ross@rafiews.com

- Disassociate the right/conservatives from the far-right/extremism: those who have been historically right-leaning might think far-right candidates will best serve their interests but during this stark rise in fascism, it’s crucial to differentiate political divergence from totalitarianism.

- It’s not over until it’s over: research only showed Lula reaching a mathematical tie with Bolsonaro less than 48h before polls opened. A campaign must remain strong until the moment polls close. Do not lose steam. Do not let bots and clever far-right peons online demotivate you from your fight.

Rafa Sales Ross@rafiews.com

- Give a voice to young people: incentivise under-24s to get into politics, find new leaderships that can speak to the disillusioned youth that is often targeted by extremism. These elections have shown the rise of key young politicians like Érika Hilton, Rick Azevedo, Ana Elisa and Jones Manoel.

- Do not underestimate the elderly: those 70+ tend to have higher levels of abstention but still comprise a significant and often untapped voting body. Encourage people to assist the elderly to the polls, amplify car sharing & rides oops, speak directly to them about the importance of their vote.

Rafa Sales Ross reposted

Silvana Pereira

@silvana-rp.bsky.social

19h

I second this. And convince one more person to go vote. Organize car rides for people who leave far from where they vote. Go in groups for your safety.

Rafa Sales Ross@rafiews.com

19h

Very good point and very much part of the right’s social media tactics in Brazil, too. Two or three days before the polls opened, several Twitter accounts posing as leftists began lamenting Lula’s inevitable demise and parroting messages of “it’s over.” Don’t fall for it either.

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Another interesting thing that happened in Brazil and might be worth considering in the U.S.: a triumph of the liberal field was to detach Bolsonarism from the right. It wasn’t about left or right anymore; it was both left and right, liberals and centrists, fighting against far-right extremism.

I’m not as privy to the minutiae of the contemporary Republican Party but, even if there’s a small percentage standing against Trump, this is who you want to speak to. In this case, it might not be Democrats versus Republicans but Democrats and Republicans against far-right extremism.

After the first round elections, Congressman André Janones created a WhatsApp channel titled “Lula’s Army.” It ballooned to 10 million people following his commands on how to behave online to counteract Meta’s far-right-favouring algorithms. The right knows how to use socials. We must learn, too.

Some ground rules that have helped us: - Go outside your bubble, try new social media channels - Don’t underestimate the power of WhatsApp (although less so in the U.S.) - Post on the Instagram grid, not just stories - Watch every Instagram video until the end before sharing - IGNORE THEM

Slept for more than four hours for the first time in a month. Woke up blissfully politically hungover, with deep eye bags from crying and a renewed belief in the power of people. So thrilled.

As predicted, Flávio Bolsonaro did not concede. He’ll ask for the elections to be annulled due to extended polling times. The far-right’s anti-democratic processes have begun. A joke by a sore loser, especially given that his own party also asked for polls to be kept open for an extra two hours.

Let it be clear: this is a coup d’état attempt by the far-right.

In his acceptance speech, Lula says he will work to regulate digital platforms in Brazil. “Digital crimes must be dealt with like real-life crimes.” This comes after Meta directly interfered with the Brazilian elections, favouring Flávio Bolsonaro.

And on AI: “I don’t want to depend on Chinese nor American AI. I want to create a Brazilian intelligence.” He also mentioned having Brazilian data centres dealing with our intelligence. “We will no longer be a peripheral country. We want to be central.”

A reminder: Lula’s politics centre the environment, which he mentioned immediately after, so I’m hopeful he’ll thread this issue carefully and with all needed consideration. His current mandate brought down deforestation levels to its lowest numbers since measurements began being taken in 1988.

And, most importantly, thanks to the vital mobilisation of young people. Students took to the streets the day after the first round elections, kickstarting massive movements that saw the largest public demonstrations in Brazil since the days of Diretas Já at the end of the military dictatorship.

George Potter 🔶@georgepotter.bsky.social

It's really important to pay attention to the fact that Lula beat the fascist candidate not by compromising and trying to meet fascist voters in the middle, but by sticking to his guns, promising prosecutions for election interference, and mobilising his own voters to turn out in greater numbers.

Plus strong young leaders in Congress, including Ana Elisa, Érika Hilton, Guilherme Cortez, and Jones Manoel.

Also, because I am a film journalist after all: this new generation coming up has not lived under Brazil’s harrowing dictatorship or felt its terrible after effects in the 80s and 90s, so recent films like I’M STILL HERE and THE SECRET AGENT have been key in helping educate this new crop of voters.

HISTORY 🇧🇷

May we not let the far-right twist the narrative about what happened today! It was a cleverly organised coup d’état attempt by the pro-Bolsonaro movement, meticulously engineered to work in their favour regardless of the results. Don’t fall for it.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who spared a thought for my country today, who amplified information about the coup d’état attempt, and worried about Brazil’s democratic future—the world’s democratic future. We won! Women won! The Amazon won! Young people won! Democracy won! Hope won!

YOU CANNOT SILENCE THE PEOPLE AND THE GREATEST POLITICAL LEADER IN THE HISTORY OF BRAZIL

My immunocompromised dad was told by doctors early in the pandemic that if he got COVID, he’d die. He was secluded for over a year, had severe muscle loss, vitamin deficiency and depression as he watched Bolsonaro make fun of the 700k dead while refusing to allow vaccines into Brazil. NEVER AGAIN.

I am shaking. My blood pressure is off the roof. I’ve been crying for two hours. Oh my god. Oh my god. My people, oh my god.

Rafa Sales Ross reposted

Replying to @rafiews.com

Important statement from another congressman and key youth leader, Guilherme Cortez. Very, very important words right now as the polls have officially closed.

I'm exhausted. I feel like crying. This is horrific. Hoping very, very deeply for a good outcome tonight but starkly aware this is the beginning of a long and tortuous road for democracy in Brazil.

Rafa Sales Ross reposted