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Shadowing practice: To fight authoritarianism America should look to Brazil

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  1. On the left, rioters breached the US Capitol.0:04
  2. On the right, a mob storms Brazil's highest court.0:08
  3. Two capitals, two insurrections, similar playbooks.0:12
  4. Chaos in Brazil.0:17
  5. As thousands storm the country's capital, protesting October's election results.0:19
  6. This is an incredibly dangerous situation that's unfolding here in the United States.0:23
  7. Two years after the January 6th attack in the US, thousands of supporters of right -wing former President Jair Bolsonaro smashed their way into Congress, the Supreme Court, and the0:28
  8. Presidential Palace.0:38
  9. The parallels are unmistakable.0:40
  10. An insurrection, mob violence, and a losing candidate who refused to concede.0:42
  11. Jair Bolsonaro refuses to say he lost his country's presidential election despite the fact that he lost his country's presidential election.0:47
  12. You don't concede when there's theft involved.0:55
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  1. Yet today, one leader sits in prison with a 27 -year sentence, while the other, well...0:59
  2. Congratulations, Mr.1:05
  3. President.1:06
  4. So how do two democracies facing similar threats end up here?1:08
  5. And what can the US learn from Brazil about how to stop the rise of authoritarianism in Trump's second term?1:13
  6. Jair Bolsonaro is known as the Trump of the Tropics.1:23
  7. He's a special man doing very well.1:26
  8. We have a lot in common.1:30
  9. Both presidents denied all responsibility for the insurrections.1:32
  10. Bolsonaro, who landed back in Brazil at the end of March after three months in the US, has denied any involvement.1:37
  11. Is there anything you regret about what you did on that day?1:44
  12. I had nothing to do with the Trump campaign.1:47
  13. But their two governments responded very differently.1:48
  14. In the US, the Democratic -led House moved quickly.1:51
  15. Tonight, the historic moment in the House voting along party lines to impeach President Trump.1:54
  16. But while many Republican senators spoke out in the immediate aftermath...2:00
  17. They tried to disrupt our democracy.2:04
  18. They failed.2:07
  19. We saw a terrorist attack on the United States Capitol.2:08
  20. It was despicable.2:11
  21. It was an assault on the citadel of democracy.2:12
  22. Most voted, not guilty.2:15
  23. And in the end, the Senate fell short of the 67 votes needed for a conviction.2:17
  24. And in Brazil, Congress didn't provide an effective check against the former president either.2:22
  25. An impeachment against Bolsonaro was never really in the cards.2:27
  26. That left just one institution with the power and the will to hold Bolsonaro accountable.2:32
  27. The Supreme Court.2:37
  28. At first glance, Brazil's Supreme Court looks a lot like America's.2:40
  29. Justices, robes, class photos.2:44
  30. But its courts' powers are slightly more broad, in a way that's pivotal to this story.2:47
  31. Brazil's constitution was written in the wake of a military dictatorship that ran the country from 1964 to 1985.2:52
  32. Its authors included extra protection against potential abuses of power.3:00
  33. So they gave the Supreme Court an authority America's does not have.3:04
  34. The ability to try criminal cases involving high -ranking officials, including the president.3:07
  35. Brazil also has another powerful federal body that doesn't exist in America.3:12
  36. The Superior Electoral Court, or TSE, which enforces election law and regulates campaigns.3:17
  37. And in 2023, the same man sat at the top of both courts.3:24
  38. Justice Alexandre de Marais.3:28
  39. Marais had been a longtime adversary of Bolsonaro and his supporters since 2019, when the court launched an investigation to crack down on election misinformation spreading online.3:31
  40. That made him the sort of antagonist to the Bolsonaro movement and made lightning rods for far -right vitriol.3:41
  41. So when the insurrection happened on January 8th, Marais and the court were very well positioned to act quickly and forcefully.3:53
  42. Within hours of the attack on the Capitol, the Supreme Court began an investigation into efforts to undermine democracy.4:00
  43. And by the next day, the court and federal police were already issuing mass attentions and search warrants.4:06
  44. Bolsonaro was quickly put formally under investigation for inciting the riots.4:14
  45. Meanwhile, the electoral court banned Bolsonaro from holding office again for eight years.4:21
  46. The Supreme Electoral Court found Mr.4:26
  47. Bolsonaro guilty of abuse of power.4:28
  48. And months later, the federal police made a huge discovery that Bolsonaro wasn't just inciting an insurrection.4:30
  49. He was actually planning a full -on military coup.4:36
  50. Investigators found thrones of documents and even one plan to assassinate Marais, to assassinate then -president -elect Lula and his vice -president Gerardo Alcami, was printed out in a computer4:40
  51. within the Presidential Palace by a former military aide of Bolsonaro.4:56
  52. Everything was very well documented and poorly disguised.5:01
  53. It was that evidence that allowed Brazil's Attorney General to bring criminal charges against Bolsonaro and his co -conspirators.5:07
  54. The Supreme Court tried the case with Marais's presiding judge.5:26
  55. The trial took five days and was broadcast nationwide.5:30
  56. And in September 2025, in a 4 -to -1 vote, former president Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to more than 27 years in prison.5:33
  57. So what Marais did was change completely the way to handle Bolsonaro.5:43
  58. And many of his critics say that he was overreaching.5:48
  59. But many of them recognize that at that particular moment, the goal of saving democracy was far more important than anything else.5:52
  60. Quick but important interruption.6:04
  61. I just want to take a second to thank our Vox Patreon members.6:06
  62. Their financial support is what makes reporting and stories like this possible.6:10
  63. Reporting on a sensitive topic like this one takes time, care, and real resources.6:13
  64. Support from our members gives us the independence to take on difficult stories and the responsibility to get them right.6:18
  65. Supporting us on Patreon is how this type of reporting continues.6:24
  66. If you can't support us on Patreon financially right now, you can still follow us for free and stay connected with our reporting.6:28
  67. And now, back to the video.6:34
  68. But let's slow down for a moment, because this part is important.6:37
  69. We can't give the Supreme Court all the credit here.6:41
  70. If you say they played a crucial role, I think that's undeniable.6:44
  71. But they were not acting in isolation.6:49
  72. Marais may have led the charges against Bolsonaro, but he needed the backing of his fellow justices every step of the way.6:51
  73. And those justices didn't get there by chance.6:59
  74. They were appointed by presidents and confirmed by the Senate.7:01
  75. So why weren't the other justices more loyal to Bolsonaro or the ideological right?7:04
  76. That's in part because Brazil's political system isn't divided into two opposing camps the way that America's is.7:09
  77. The dynamics of Brazilian politics are not as clearly left versus right, and we have more than a dozen parties represented in Congress.7:16
  78. The sheer volume of parties in Brazil encourages negotiation and constant coalition building over rigid loyalty to one party or one president.7:27
  79. In the US, if you're a member of Congress, either in the House or the Senate, and you get kicked out of your party, there's essentially nowhere else to go.7:35
  80. So any Republican politician, if they go against Trump, they are essentially risking political death.7:45
  81. And in Brazil, it's not like that.7:51
  82. That same logic applies to Brazil's Supreme Court.7:54
  83. We have 11 justices, and they don't necessarily vote across party lines.7:57
  84. And actually, what history has proven is that the more they are on the bench, the less attached they are to the parties that put them on the bench in8:02
  85. the first place.8:13
  86. In the US, Supreme Court judges are incentivized to act as proxies for political camps, even though they're supposed to be nonpartisan.8:14
  87. And you can see that play out clearly when the criminal case against Trump reached the Supreme Court.8:23
  88. The six justices who were appointed by Republican presidents voted to increase presidential immunity, while the three appointed by Democratic presidents voted against it.8:28
  89. So all the charges against Trump were dropped.8:37
  90. I think that can only be understood through the pretty inarguable fact at this point that Supreme Court justices are partisan players.8:40
  91. That's the ultimate difference between the two outcomes.8:51
  92. Brazil's court constrained presidential power, while America's court actually expanded it.8:53
  93. Brazil's response to Bolsonaro didn't come out of nowhere.9:03
  94. It was shaped by the experience of living under a military dictatorship that didn't end that long ago.9:07
  95. And that recent history meant the warning signs of authoritarianism were easier to recognize because they'd seen them before.9:12
  96. MULTIPLE!9:19
  97. MULTIPLE!9:20
  98. MULTIPLE!9:21
  99. Americans often take democracy for granted and think that authoritarianism is something that cannot happen to them.9:23
  100. And Brazil reminded us that authoritarianism is still a very alive threat and that we have to keep on fighting to protect democracy the best way we can.9:30
  101. The U .S.9:45
  102. has been a democracy for over 200 years, and that stability can sometimes work against it.9:45
  103. Checks and balances and constitutions do not enforce themselves.9:51
  104. They are not magical documents that will protect us if we only recite them by heart.9:55
  105. Brazil's government is far from perfect.10:04
  106. Brazil protected and saved democracy, but it did not fix democracy.10:06
  107. Political polarization remains rampant.10:12
  108. The courts are still contested, and we still have an unhealthy level of political calcification.10:15
  109. But that just proves the point that it is something that we have to keep on doing day in and day out.10:22
  110. And it is a task that will never end.10:31
  111. So what happened in Brazil matters?10:35
  112. Not because it offers a perfect model, but because it shows that democratic institutions only work if the people inside them decide to act.10:38

American accent training with a Vox news analysis on Brazil and the US

This clip is a Vox narration comparing the January 6th attack in Washington with the storming of Brazil's Congress, delivered by an American narrator at a clipped, newsroom pace: 167 words per minute. That speed is what makes it useful for american accent training rather than a slow explainer read. The narrator moves through short declarative sentences, then cuts to on the ground interview clips, so you get two different registers of the same accent inside one clip.

The level is B2, and the rare vocabulary shows why: words like impeachment, constrained, contested and rioters sit inside otherwise plain sentences, so you are not fighting the grammar, only the news register. It suits learners who already handle everyday conversation and want english speaking practice on political and current affairs vocabulary specifically.

The language in this Brazil versus US insurrection narration

A few lines are worth slowing down on before you shadow this line by line. Listen for how the narrator compresses parallel structure into a single breath.

  • "On the left, rioters breached the US Capitol." A flat, stressed opening built for a split screen. Practise landing hard stress on "left" and "Capitol" and nothing else.
  • "Two capitals, two insurrections, similar playbooks." Three noun phrases in a row with no verb. The rhythm depends on even spacing between the three beats, which is a good drill for english shadowing practice b2 level material.
  • "Jair Bolsonaro refuses to say he lost his country's presidential election despite the fact that he lost his country's presidential election." The same clause repeats itself for effect. Notice the narrator does not slow down on the repeat, the second half is delivered just as fast as the first.
  • "They tried to disrupt our democracy." followed by "They failed." Two separate lines, two separate sentences, and the second one is a hard stop. That contrast in length is doing the persuasive work, and it is worth matching in your own delivery.

How to shadow this Vox Brazil and US clip

Work the opening in order rather than jumping around, since the first ten lines build the comparison the rest of the clip depends on.

  • Start on line 1, "On the left, rioters breached the US Capitol.", and line 2, its Brazil mirror. Shadow both back to back until the stress pattern feels identical on each side.
  • Move to line 3, "Two capitals, two insurrections, similar playbooks." Say it without pausing between the three phrases, the way the narrator does, then check your recording against the clip.
  • Take line 11 on its own. It is long and the clause repeats, so break it into the two halves and shadow each half separately before joining them.
  • Pair lines 29 and 30, "They tried to disrupt our democracy." and "They failed." Practise the drop in energy between the two, that is the actual skill in this pair, not the words themselves.
  • Once those four spots are solid, run the full opening straight through at the clip's own pace. This is english listening practice as much as speaking practice, since keeping up with 167 words per minute is half the task.
  • If a line beats you, replay it at normal speed rather than slowed down. Slower audio changes the vowel lengths the narrator is actually using, and this recording has no reduced forms to fall back on, every word is said in full.
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