[HELP] my native language is developing a new phonological process and I hate it

Loss of /ʒ/ in Brazilian Portuguese as [ʑ → ç → x~h] might be happening in the next 300 years! I don't want my great-great-great-grandchildren to just speak nonsense Spanish, whether it's in a sci-fi or a post-apocalyptic dystopia!

Previously, debuccalization of coda /s/, of /v/ and of /ʒ/ was restricted to certain mostly rural registers of Northeast Brazil, and "rr" becoming [x χ h] in practically the whole country in a certain way halted the /v/ and /ʒ/ versions from spreading. The coda /s/ one otoh spread throughout Brazil, which is why you now may hear mesmo as [ˈmeɦmʊ] here in Rio. It's cute and doesn't do any damage. The OG ones might even pronounce it as [ɹ̝̊ ~ ɻ̝̊] which is 100 aura.

The thing is that I am now hearing SOUTHEAST Brazilians who employ [ɕ ʑ] for all positions of /ʃ ʒ/ pronounce gente as [ˈçẽ̞j̃t͡ʃ]. I was feeling whatever hearing it from paulistas for at least a while because they say "pra eu vim" (vir) and "quer que eu faço?" (faça)... but ... it happened... I heard ryente from a carioca YouTuber that I absolutely adore...

And it's all happening because Gen Z in this city is indeed losing the isqueiro-chiqueiro minimal pair like outsiders say we lack. No. Wtf. /ʃ ʒ/ ARE [ʃ ʒ] before unrounded vowels (like the [ɪ̥]/underlying /i/[∅] in chiqueiro)!!! When I was a child in the 2000s only women from certain favelas had the Minas Gerais and São Paulo [ɕ ʑ] everywhere situation! It sounds excessively childish, like going out of your way to be kawaii, hence their nickname "nem" (babe)!

It never happens to [ɕ] because /ʃ/ is produced a little longer than /ʒ/ and quite frankly it's weakly aspirated just like /p t k s/. Or, at least here in Rio, I feel like they are. If you're Brazilian, put your hand ahead of your mouth saying saco, porca, sujo, cuia and chato (strong puff of air from /p t k s/), then say mulher, lerdo, guerra and bigorna (air will come out warm where we have /ʁ/ but the rest of the word will not produce puffs), notice we may have breathiness in final unstressed vowels that feel just like the [ɦ] in bigorna and even the sonorants and /ʒ/ preceding them, sujo for me is [ˈsʰuʊ̯ʑ̊ʱʊ̤]. (OTOH, my /z/ doesn't get breathy.)

So we are safe from outright turning into Spanish. It seems this never happens to voiceless consonants.

But... why? Can't we develop a Great Vowel Shift with [ʉ ~ ʏ] instead so we sound really annoying, pretentious and French? Do we always need to be easily confused with our neighbors? Have we been angry at gringos for saying Rio de Haneiro (in their languages [not Spanish], trying to act cultured!) for nothing????

And if you're hispanohablante, Swedish or whatever other language that lacks anything like [ʒ] and new to Portuguese, well, try [ç] for /ʒ/. It sounds better than the devoiced sibilant, in fact I think I am the only one noticing people are now talking like that. 😐 The [ʃ̬ ~ ɕ̬] y'all use is too long and effortful, to the extent that it's jarring. "You still couldn't vibrate your vocal cords in time? Poor dear". No hate, my /r/ is almost always [r̥ː] and might sound jarring to you too.