Comment by dachris
1 day ago
Seems like a false dichotomy, don't see how sacrificing jungle would get Brazil a top-tier semiconductor industry.
And I guess the native peoples living in the Amazon are not university leftists.
I'm not into Brazilian politics, the little I know seems to indicate that it's a choice between a rock and a hard place (both seem to have corruption allegations). The objective aspect I can judge is whom Trump strongly supports. US influence in South America is a pretty bloody chapter in history.
> don't see how sacrificing jungle would get Brazil a top-tier semiconductor industry.
It wouldn't. It was just a rhetorical device to express the fact I care far more about national industrial and economic development than some jungle.
> US influence in South America is a pretty bloody chapter in history.
I agree, but Lula's no paragon here. He's had ~20 years to undo the neoliberal privatization policies enacted as of the Washington Consensus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Consensus
Instead of actually reindustrializing Brazil, he anesthetized the population with handouts and lined his pockets. Meanwhile, banks are literally raking in record profits.