The response to the protests should not be gratuitous violence.

Bolsonaro lost the election, but he had the second-highest presidential vote count in history, naturally losing only to Lula. 58,206,354 Brazilians voted for the current president, and not all of them are Bolsonaro supporters, angry and fascist. Of course, Bolsonaro is undeniably a fascist born from the 2016 coup, but a good portion of his voters were pulled to the right of the polarization, some we could even say were pushed by the misguided and sectarian behavior of the left.

Polarization is an inexorable consequence of the global political and economic crisis; both the far-right and the far-left are growing. Faced with a decaying political regime, only one that presents a change, even if only in appearance, can grow. Bolsonaro, however closely linked he may be to the coup plotters who sank Brazil, has a strategy of rebelling against Brazilian and, at times, global political institutions and regimes, even opposing imperialist policies on certain occasions. This is why he has managed to unite so many sectors of the population.

The reactionary views of the population were fueled for years by the bourgeois press to attack the PT (Workers' Party). The traditional right-wing parties, although they orchestrated the entire process, perished along the way, throwing a segment of the population—workers and the petty bourgeoisie—into the lap of the far-right, since the attack on the PT was very harsh.

Now, with over 58 million Brazilians defeated in an election that was not only extremely polarized but also highly irregular, with the Supreme Federal Court (STF) and the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) committing a series of irregularities throughout the year, it was to be expected that there would be demonstrations and challenges to the result. Note that it wasn't the top of the Bolsonaro movement that started the strikes, but rather a segment of the population. Of course, today we have the participation of Bolsonaro-supporting congressmen and businesspeople, but this is a consequence of the demonstrations rather than their cause.

The left's policy cannot be to push these people further to the far right. Fascism must be confronted in the streets, with violence if necessary, but this is not about any fascist movement, but rather a confusion within a sector of the masses. When the left applauds the unnecessary use of violence against these protesters, and worse, celebrates the brutality of institutions that are persecuting and censoring figures of Bolsonaro's supporters in a completely irregular manner, we are once again stimulating the reactionary reflexes of the people, but also giving a stamp of approval to the repressive forces that have already turned and will turn against the left, thus reversing the roles. For the uninformed, the way things are going, the left defends censorship and dictatorship, and the far right defends freedom and democracy.