Brazil’s post-dictatorship history produced an ‘embarrassed right’ muted in 2012

Evidence

Throughout 2012, Dilma’s approval rating hovered around 65 percent. Conservative forces were muted. Analysts called this phenomenon the direita envergonhada, or “embarrassed right,” a legacy of the fact that almost everyone agreed that during the military regime, the left had fought for democracy, and the right had defended dictatorship. A colleague at The Economist (who grew up in Poland, where they had a different historical memory of the left) wrote a bemused column during Rousseff’s first term, noting that out of thirty-two registered parties, twenty-six had names that suggested progressive values. The Brazilian political terrain comprised “fifty shades of pink,” someone told the magazine. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 315

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the coinage ‘embarrassed right’ as a Brazilian phenomenon rooted in left=democracy, right=dictatorship historical memory.
• XREF: connects to: Brazil’s extreme inequality in 2010 was taboo in polite discussion — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 169; The Brazilian right muted itself because it had backed dictatorship — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 315; Being called right-wing functioned as a slur in 2014 Brazilian politics — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 539

Broader Connections

• The Brazilian right muted itself because it had backed dictatorship #expands (0.94) — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 315
• Being called right-wing functioned as a slur in 2014 Brazilian politics #corroborates (0.80) — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 539