🎤 Open Zeitgeist #01: Are you afraid of speaking up?
Intellectual honesty, Freedom of speech, What's Brazil's current freedom status and more
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Disclaimer: I'm No Economist and no lawyer. Apparently, it's important to say that even though I'm just reading and reproducing the laws as they are written. That's how afraid I've become these days.
This is the point of Open Zeitgeist. To open a channel for discussions otherwise connected to one side or the other of the political spectrum. Discussions that are intellectually honest and that are valuable to society. You're invited to contribute with Open Zeitgeist.
Brazil has improved a lot from its military dictatorship years (1964 to 1985), no doubt. However, these past few years have seen some dark events regarding freedom of speech. From "cancel culture", to digital militants in cahoots with the government, we're seeing an increase in fear of criticizing institutions.
As I see it, the markets dictate progress and governments should be out of the way as much as possible - ideally completely out of the picture. And that line of thinking has served me well. I never gave it a second thought about who wins the election. Either choice will have good and bad sides for this or that type of policy. I have little respect for those who use the results of an election as a crutch. My job is to provide value regardless of who's in power.
I do respect people who have it in them to change things for the way they think it's best. But know that I'm not a romantic. I know for a fact that most characters we see in news stories (I'm talking to you Mr. Elon Musk) are not 100% self-made. He's not a no-string-attached kind of guy. He's friends with the kings and kingmakers of our generation and uses institutions at his will. And I'm not sure whether his heart is in the right place.
But it is almost impossible not to root in his favor against another single individual using public money to make himself the real king of Brazil. Alexandre de Moraes has similar powers to what D. Pedro I had. The only thing separating the former and latter is the power to dissolve the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, both of which are strangely watching every Alexandre's move against freedom in silence.
This article is an ambitious one. It tries to synthesize a subject that shouldn't be as complex: freedom. But it is my way of showing how we can help improve our current situation. More so without depending on one or a few individuals, as with this Elon Musk vs Alexandre de Moraes episode.
Our job at I'm No Economist is to transform knowledge into power. And, without hurting others' rights, elevating our own, and maybe, our audience's conscience.
To do so, we'll provide historical data and insights to help Brazil with its potential to be a place for freedom. Let's dive in.
What is Brazil's current freedom status?
Perplexity AI helped me do this research.
A little history, first. Brazil's most recent constitution was enacted in 1988. It came out right after the end of the military dictatorship that lasted from 1964 to 1985. During the military dictatorship, Brazil experienced significant restrictions on freedom of speech.
As an example, here is the "Press Act", Law 5.250 dated Feb 9th, 1967 - Chapter 3:
"The following subjects are considered abuses against free speech and will involve
penalties of up to four years in prison:
[...] c) Publication of false information, or true information that has been cut short or distorted, about public disturbances, or tending to promote a lack of confidence in the banking system or the credit of any particular company, firm, institution or government body. [...]
As I see it, censorship is making a strong comeback with the "Fake News" law. Leaving the government enough wiggle room to chase media professionals, celebrities and other public figures in a predatory manner.
Looking at the latest data, we're seeing press freedom decline in Brazil for the past 2 years. There are many factors for that and, former president Bolsonaro is unanimous in taking the blame for this decline.
Notice, however, that numbers in the past year haven't been moving up as quickly. And although we could blame one president or the other, this has little to do with a single executive power agenda.
RSF (Reporters Without Borders) points to how much a difference in regions can change why a reporter may be in danger:
"During the past decade, at least 30 journalists have been killed in Brazil, the region’s second deadliest country for reporters during that period. Most vulnerable are bloggers, radio hosts and independent journalists working in small- and medium-sized municipalities, covering corruption and local politics [...]"
Why is freedom of speech so important?
It's borderline ridiculous to pose such a question after so much power abuse throughout decades of monarchy, military dictatorship and finally reaching democracy for 40+ years. It is what it is, though.
Freedom of speech guarantees the right to speak up. Bear in mind that a right comes with a duty to respect others' rights. You'll know when your freedom of speech is revoked when you're being an a**hole and engaging in harmful behavior, such as bigotry of any kind.
A neat way of measuring freedom of speech is when we, as the people, feel safe to express opinions against authorities. Collective in Brazil, this doesn't seem the way we feel:
Of course, that's the case. The number of public and private people suffering for arbitrary arrest, and reputation (and likely literal) assassination is becoming more and more apparent:
The Solution is Transparency
@allsidesnow is an Instagram page that rates news on how they are on the political spectrum. They have a methodology that checks on media vehicles and their bias towards one or the other side of the politics straight line.
It's not a perfect methodology, because it takes only right and left into consideration, while the political compass also goes up and down, like this:
Note that I'm not calling out authorities to police what transparency should look like. I know that, unfortunately, we're way past that.
Not to sound too revolutionary, but people need to take matters into their own hands. We do. Otherwise, we'll see progress stagnate more and more. To a point where X.com vs Elon Musk is going to keep happening.
But again, without asking for mommy and daddy (the government) to use their powers to suppress the opinions of people you disagree with. That will take a bad turn on you in the future. Learn how to adult.
Otherwise, civilization will completely shut off communications and broadcasting opinions that will seem harmful to authorities. Which will, in turn, pause progress. Then, messages like this example below will become the norm:
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