Hey Duplode

[BonzaiJoe]

What is your take on this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIBYEXLGdSg&feature=youtu.be

?

[CTG]

I hate this kind of videos: the wise guy is talking 342345789876753825 minutes about the big nothing. Bah... Watch porn instead!

[BonzaiJoe]

I think that's what the world is doing. That's the whole problem.

[CTG]

I think that's what the world is doing. That's the whole problem.

Are they really watching porn?

[alanrotoi]

The protests are getting bigger.

[Duplode]

What is your take on this

I find it awesome. There is much to cheer even one doesn't buy the big narratives (i.e. analogies with Turkey, change hashtags, etc.).

This wave of protests started last week, with smaller scale demonstrations against the latest rises to expensive bus fares led by Movimento Passe Livre (an activist group focused on mass transport issues). Over time, and specially after police thuggery here in São Paulo last Thursday, the marches begun to attract more people, as well as act as a lightning rod to all sorts of issues (as you can see in the video BJ linked to).

As I said above there are several things to like in what is going on. I would highlight how the protests started from an issue close to the daily lives of most people (I mention that in contrast to vague demands about corruption or urban violence, which all too often degenerate into anodyne handwringing here), the refreshing spontaneity of the Monday protests and the inversion of narrative as the movements grown (it was funny to see the TV stations stumbling as they realized their usual platitudes wouldn't cut it any more). If anything, it is not unreasonable to see the unfolding events as pointing to a change towards a more positive attitude about what should be the implications of living in a democracy, something that is seriously necessary in this country...

[Chulk]

something that is seriously necessary in this country...

And in many other countries, too