I had a feeling of déjà vu when the footage from Brazil emerged on January 8th, 2023. It showed supporters of former president Bolsonaro storming the Capitol, Supreme Court and Presidential Palace - an attack that was quickly compared to the events of January 6, 2021 by the American Media. aro’s approval rating is the lowest of any Brazilian president in the last 30 years with a whopping 77 percent of the population disapproving of his performance and yet he still has a passionate base of supporters who are willing to go to extreme lengths to protect his interests

Some have even gone so far as to call January 6th a blueprint for what happened in Brasilia; the shared imagery from the two events is striking and makes such a comparison tempting. But was this in fact a reboot of January 6th or is it way more complicated? And either way, what are we to make of the parallel events? What’s more, when the U.S projects its own political climate onto other countries, do we all risk losing sight of much broader Global issues? Well, let’s find out in this Wisecrack Edition: did Brazil just reboot January sixth?

Let’s start by addressing the obvious: what happened on January 6 2021 in Washington DC has a hell of a lot of similarities to what went down this year on January 8 in Brasilia. In both cases, mobs of protesters forced their way into government buildings. In both cases, the attacks were spurred by popular conspiracy theories and online misinformation about rigged elections; these conspiracy theories had at the time convinced significant portions of each population. In both cases, rioters attacked police officers standing in their way. Also notably, in both cases some police officers did little to stop the rioters or even encourage them.

After making it into the buildings, both groups didn’t seem to have a clear plan of action; many just milled around on self-guided tours or took flattering selfies that definitely weren’t at all self-incriminating. Many others, though, started destroying property, breaking windows, tearing through lawmakers offices, and generally inspiring vibes of an Animal House food fight. If a food fight had the power to symbolically upend democracy in Brazil, the damage was particularly staggering: priceless works of art were torn from their canvases, marble sinks were ripped out of bathrooms, and there was even an attempt to set fire to the carpet of Congress.

Both attacks were publicized on social media, and rioters used apps like Telegram and WhatsApp to coordinate their efforts. Oh also, the figureheads inspiring both groups, Bolsonaro and Trump, share similar political worldviews; Bolsonaro being called the Trump of the Tropics. They’ve also fostered a well-publicized alliance. What’s more, both of their political careers have relied heavily on weaponizing social media: Trump tweeted his way into the White House, while Bolsonaro’s frequent use of Facebook Live was essential to attracting the zealous support that led to the January 8th riots.

Given all these superficial similarities, it’s not especially surprising that a lot of us saw January 8th as an international reboot of the insurrection that rocked our own country’s political climate. But the differences between the two events might be more illuminating than the similarities. First and most significantly, Brazil is a young democracy: in 1964, it underwent a military coup that, though homegrown, was supported by the United States due to its purported efforts to fight the threat of communism. And this wasn’t even the only military dictatorship Brazil experienced in the 20th century. It wasn’t until 21 years later, in 1985, that the country transitioned into a democracy, meaning plenty of geriatric millennials are older than its democratic institutions (self-included).

If you ever call me a geriatric millennial to my face, I’ll do an insurrection on that… That sounded sexual, I didn’t mean it sexual, but I get that it did. This arguably makes any threat to the success of a democratic election or the peaceful transfer of power more fraught and more dire as compared to the United States. Historian Andre Pagliarini told PBS that in Brazil, democracy is relatively young; this makes the threat of an incident like the Brazilian riot feel more dangerous because there is a living memory of military intervention in a way there simply isn’t in the U.S.

What’s more, the prevailing sense among many elite and working-class Brazilians alike that life was better under the dictatorship adds to the perennial sense that young democracies can be fragile. Also importantly, Bolsonaro’s approval rating is the lowest of any Brazilian president in the last 30 years, with a whopping 77 percent of the population disapproving of his performance. And yet he still has a passionate base of supporters who are willing to go to extreme lengths to protect his interests.