A South American country, a cult leader, a drug and the deaths of thousands of fanatic followers may sound like the tragic story of the Jonestown Massacre. But these details could just as well serve as the introduction to another devastating chapter in Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's administration, as he leads Brazil into chaos amid the coronavirus pandemic. The eerie parallels between the Rev. Jim Jones and Bolsonaro recall the old adage that history repeats itself — first as tragedy, then as farce. [...] As Brazil's COVID-19 death toll surpasses 600, Bolsonaro is doubling down on his manipulation tactics and motivates his followers to go out in the streets to protest against isolation measures. This brings his own "necropolitics" to a whole new level — in which his political actions are also centralized on the large scale production of the death of his own base — thus setting the stage for a tragedy greater than Jonestown.
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "A South American country, a cult leader, a drug and the deaths of thousands of fanatic followers may sound like the tragic story of the Jonestown Massacre. But these details could just as well serve as the introduction to another devastating chapter in Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's administration, as he leads Brazil into chaos amid the coronavirus pandemic. The eerie parallels between the Rev. Jim Jones and Bolsonaro recall the old adage that history repeats itself — first as tragedy, then as farce. [...] As Brazil's COVID-19 death toll surpasses 600, Bolsonaro is doubling down on his manipulation tactics and motivates his followers to go out in the streets to protest against isolation measures. This brings his own "necropolitics" to a whole new level — in which his political actions are also centralized on the large scale production of the death of his own base — thus setting the stage for a tragedy greater than Jonestown." in the context of "David Nemer, Is Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's right-wing president, the new Jim Jones? (April 8, 2020), Salon" to mean that wisdom is timeless.
