The Amazon is on fire.
And we are very limited as to what we can do about it.
Brazil is on fire.
It is on fire with an Authoritarian leader who is committed to the exploitation of the Amazon forests, and to challenging the indigenous populations that occupy them.
Bolsonaro was elected in a sham election, one where his main opposition was imprisoned before the vote. He is a hateful man, a right-wing authoritarian who wants to persecute the LGBT community in the vilest manner. He has no respect for the indigenous Amazonian natives and feels no need to preserve the Amazon rain forest. They are there to be stripped and terraformed to benefit corporations and the wealthy.
The G-7 conference, without the support of the United States, agreed to send 20 million dollars in emergency aid to combat the fires. That's a pittance, like trying to fight the fires with a damp cloth. Even that money was rejected, as Bolsonaro had his knickers in a wad over things President Macron of France had said.
One of the new motives for cutting away more forest is a result of the tariff war our racist President has initiated against China. China does not want to use agricultural products from the US anymore and is looking for new sources. Soybeans, in particular, is something Brazil can fill in for, but they need new farmland to do it. So Trump's hissy fit is causing the permanent loss of soybean exports, and the slack will be picked up by Brazil, even if they have to destroy the Amazon rainforests to do it. So, ergo, Trump is responsible for the acceleration of the rain forest destruction.
Brazil is just one example of the scariest trend of the 21st century - the rise of authoritarian fascism and the weakening of democracy.
Large swaths of the planet have fallen into the hands of dictators - China, Russia, the Philippines, Brazil, Turkey, Egypt, Poland - just to name a few.
Donald Trump wants desperately to be an authoritarian fascist. There is some resistance in our institutions, but that is slowly being chipped away.
Even Europe is not entirely resistant to this. There are fascist parties in almost every European country, with varying degrees of power. Even the United Kingdom is far on the road to falling, as the Trumpian xenophobe Boris Johnson has taken over, and one of his first acts is to suspend Parliament.
Why is this happening?
I wish I knew a definitive answer. It would be easier to stop.
The internet that was supposed to set us free, with shared communication, has instead turned into a propaganda tool, selectively enforcing some of the most brutal and ignorant beliefs of people.
Globalization failed, as it allowed the concentration of wealth into fewer hands, rather than uplifting all.
People see their lives and culture slipping and instantly blame the other. Thousands of years of Progressive faith is flushed down the drain, as religions become dominated by fundamental extremists.
I don't know. But there is no denying that the world is falling, and with the emergence of the climate crisis, we may continue to devolve and threaten everything.
I love history, and I've looked at quite often the rise of fascism in the 1930s. How could that happen? Why did the people of those countries go along with it?
And now it's happening again, and I still find it confusing. I try to talk to Trumpeteers, and I just get an earful of how bad Hillary and liberals are, nothing to defend the awful things that they are encouraging.
I'm hoping this will burn itself out (hopefully before the rain forest is completely gone, and the coral reefs, and the glaciers) and that we return to a more Progressive age.
But I just don't know.
I am very worried.
I am very discouraged.
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