Last Week Tonight with John Oliver talks Brazilian elections, operation car wash
Basically, what’s going on at the moment can be described as this: Chaos. Extreme chaos. You’ve got a number of different candidates running who have varying viewpoints, and beyond that, also a massive scandal in operation car wash. Basically, this may be one of the largest corruption scandal in the history of modern-day politics. There are so many people who have been caught up in it to date, including one of the most-noteworthy candidates who actually had a chance of winning … even if he was able to remain a candidate while behind bars. (Now, that party is trying to sell its new candidate as basically a carbon copy.)
Then, Oliver also focused on Bolsonaro, who may be one of the most alarming, extreme candidates currently running for public office. This is a man who may have aspirations of becoming a dictator because of some of his views, and believes very much in everything from torture to excessive police force to basically causing all sorts of violent, dangerous carnage. This guy is being compared by some to the Brazilian version of Donald Trump, but his views may be so much more extreme than even that. (He also has a history of making offensive, misogynistic, and racist comments.)
Basically, Oliver has a history of doing these sort of segments about foreign elections, but this one feels especially welcome. There are so few people in America who pay attention to Brazil, which is somewhat shocking given that this is one of the world’s largest countries.
In the end, we give the Last Week Tonight writers a lot of credit just for being able to take on a situation this complex in the relatively short amount of time that they had. There is more that could be said here, and we hope that viewers do pay more attention to world politics in the future.
For those wondering, Jair Bolsonaro and Fernando Haddad will compete for the run-off, as Bolsonaro did not get enough votes to advance (which was Oliver’s worst fear).
What did you think about the main segment of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and the specific focus? Be sure to share right now in the attached comments below. (Photo: HBO.)