Bolsonaro at UNGA: disappointed but not surprised

As is tradition, Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro opened the debates of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Tuesday morning. Those hoping for a moderate, conciliatory speech were left wanting; those who expected chaos were vindicated.

In a little over 30 minutes of oratory, Jair Bolsonaro—constantly squinting his eyes to read the distant teleprompter—unleashed wave after wave of bizarre rhetoric, with healthy doses of aggression and misinformation, and a pinch of pure insanity.

UN General Assembly: Half an hour of madness

Mr. Bolsonaro started as he meant to go on. “Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you a new Brazil, one which resurges after being on the brink of socialism.”

Plainly unaware of the difference between socialism and 13 years of reformist center-left governance, Brazil’s president beat on. “Socialism … put us in a situation of widespread corruption, severe economic recession, high levels of criminality and uninterrupted attacks on the family and religious values that make up our traditions.”

Speaking on the Amazon rainforest, he minimized deforestation in Brazil (“[the Amazon] is practically untouched”), and this year’s uptick in fires (“the dry climate and wind favor spontaneous fires”),...