Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Japanese government dismantles freedom of the press

freedom.press

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 115 posts

Re: Japanese government dismantles freedom of the press

#41

Post by thanksgiving »

gozur88 wrote: post #40
scribu wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If only the people of Japan stood up for their rights.. As mentioned in the article, there already are massive protests around this issue. What more could they do? Try to take down the government by force? Even if they succeeded, I'm sure the U.S. would be happy to step in to "calm the waters" and impose martial law outright.

They don't need to have a violent revolution. They can just vote for a different party in the next election cycle. If the votes aren't there, revolution wouldn't succeed anyway.

Revolutions do not need a majority. I think our best guess is that fewer than a third of the then colonists (USA) supported the proclamation of independence.

It is true though that with FPTP, you don't really need a majority to win elections either so it might be a wash.

Re: Japanese government dismantles freedom of the press

#42

Post by PlzSnow »

webkike wrote: post #11
mtgx wrote: post #8

Why does it look like democracy is on a declining trend all over the world, even as the Internet is more used by more people than ever?

Observer bias

Indeed, we live in a time of unprecedented democracy. But confirmation bias reigns supreme, people read from news sources which confirm their preconceived notions of the world. The Hacker News community is as susceptible to this as anyone else.

Re: Japanese government dismantles freedom of the press

#43

Post by hackuser »

Alupis wrote: post #39
hackuser wrote: post #31

Neo-nationalism seems to be on the rise everywhere. Look at the UK (Scotland trying to secede, the crazy extreme right-wing party getting seats in Parliament, etc.), France (the National Front did very well in recent elections), South Korea (IIRC, textbooks are edited to replace history with nationalist propaganda), Israel, Turkey, Russia, China, Donald Trump, etc. etc. When is the last time you heard someone stand u…

While I agree with the spirit of your post, your premise is wrong. Being nationalistic has nothing to do with being conservative; there is no correlation there. Many liberals are blindly nationalistic as well. Intense nationalism does cause conflicts (look at the US and Russia relationship at the moment), often fabricated for pure political gain by controlling/power individuals. Very few individuals look at the core…

> Being nationalistic has nothing to do with being conservative ...

I disagree strongly with this point: The more nationalistic parties, pushing nationalistic and nativistic (e.g., anti-immigrant) plicies, are always conservative: The Republicans in the U.S., the Tories and the right-wing extremists in the UK, the Republicans and National Front in France, the LDP in Japan, Likud in Israel, etc. Internationalists, international cooperation, and international organizations are the province of the left and of moderates.

In the U.S., a common conservative criticism of liberals is that they are unpatroitic and 'don't love America'.

> Intense nationalism does cause conflicts ... often fabricated for pure political gain by controlling/power individuals. / Very few individuals look at the core of an issue, but instead follow the example set forth by people in authority positions

Agreed. That's what I was referring to when pointing out the lack of response by liberals and moderates in authority positions - why are they silent?

Re: Japanese government dismantles freedom of the press

#44

Post by DonaldFisk »

hackuser wrote: post #31

Neo-nationalism seems to be on the rise everywhere. Look at the UK (Scotland trying to secede, the crazy extreme right-wing party getting seats in Parliament, etc.), France (the National Front did very well in recent elections), South Korea (IIRC, textbooks are edited to replace history with nationalist propaganda), Israel, Turkey, Russia, China, Donald Trump, etc. etc. When is the last time you heard someone stand u…

The SNP (Scottish National Party) isn't nationalist in the usual sense of the word. It's well to the left of, and more liberal than, the other UK parties, with the exception of the Greens, and potentially Labour if Jeremy Corbyn remains leader.

It's better described as separatist.

Re: Japanese government dismantles freedom of the press

#46

Post by RightWingRabble »

hackuser wrote: post #31

Neo-nationalism seems to be on the rise everywhere. Look at the UK (Scotland trying to secede, the crazy extreme right-wing party getting seats in Parliament, etc.), France (the National Front did very well in recent elections), South Korea (IIRC, textbooks are edited to replace history with nationalist propaganda), Israel, Turkey, Russia, China, Donald Trump, etc. etc. When is the last time you heard someone stand u…

Nationalism doesn't lead to wars, massacres and other oppression and brutality. That's tribalism leading to that. Tribalism is one of those built in human behaviors we have that we can't get rid of. People have tried with globalism, with cultural marxism, with communism. The pendulum always swings back toward tribalism because genetics is a powerful force. Nations are the people, not the dirt, as is pretty obvious to see after 3 decades of mass immigration.

If you want real danger, you should want to curb and reverse the mass immigration we're still seeing. History is very clear on this point; if immigration continues unabated, eventually the immigrants will become targets. Hopefully it's just expulsion that they're targeted for, but genocide isn't unheard of in these situations.

Re: Japanese government dismantles freedom of the press

#47

Post by cryoshon »

hackuser wrote: post #31

Neo-nationalism seems to be on the rise everywhere. Look at the UK (Scotland trying to secede, the crazy extreme right-wing party getting seats in Parliament, etc.), France (the National Front did very well in recent elections), South Korea (IIRC, textbooks are edited to replace history with nationalist propaganda), Israel, Turkey, Russia, China, Donald Trump, etc. etc. When is the last time you heard someone stand u…

Nationalism is a disease of the mind that is among the most pernicious. I am vocal about this whenever the issue arises.

The trick, of course, is convincing the proles. For the most part, people understand tribalism, but not humanism. Perhaps intellectually a small fraction of people will agree that strong moral feelings about their country may lead to brutality, but most will not assent to the idea that any tribe is as vulnerable to committing genocide as any other.

Re: Japanese government dismantles freedom of the press

#48

Post by cryoshon »

Alupis wrote: post #39
hackuser wrote: post #31

Neo-nationalism seems to be on the rise everywhere. Look at the UK (Scotland trying to secede, the crazy extreme right-wing party getting seats in Parliament, etc.), France (the National Front did very well in recent elections), South Korea (IIRC, textbooks are edited to replace history with nationalist propaganda), Israel, Turkey, Russia, China, Donald Trump, etc. etc. When is the last time you heard someone stand u…

While I agree with the spirit of your post, your premise is wrong. Being nationalistic has nothing to do with being conservative; there is no correlation there. Many liberals are blindly nationalistic as well. Intense nationalism does cause conflicts (look at the US and Russia relationship at the moment), often fabricated for pure political gain by controlling/power individuals. Very few individuals look at the core…

It's mostly right wingers who favor authoritarian and moralistic social policies worldwide. I understand that the concept of patriotism is abundant and malignant within the American mind on both sides of the aisle, but elsewhere, it's not as evenly distributed.

Compassion is a forbidden concept in geopolitics as it is currently practiced, though I wish we'd force room for a little more.

Re: Japanese government dismantles freedom of the press

#49

Post by Alupis »

hackuser wrote: post #43
Alupis wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree with the spirit of your post, your premise is wrong. Being nationalistic has nothing to do with being conservative; there is no correlation there. Many liberals are blindly nationalistic as well. Intense nationalism does cause conflicts (look at the US and Russia relationship at the moment), often fabricated for pure political gain by controlling/power individuals. Very few individuals look at the core…

> Being nationalistic has nothing to do with being conservative ... I disagree strongly with this point: The more nationalistic parties, pushing nationalistic and nativistic (e.g., anti-immigrant) plicies, are always conservative: The Republicans in the U.S., the Tories and the right-wing extremists in the UK, the Republicans and National Front in France, the LDP in Japan, Likud in Israel, etc. Internationalists, int…

> criticism of liberals is that they are unpatroitic and 'don't love America'

Being patriotic has nothing to do with being nationalistic. It's one thing to love your country, support it, etc... but it's another thing entirely to believe your country is so great, all others fail in comparison, everyone's out to get you (because you're so great), your nation must always be "top dog" and set all global policies, etc...

Being ultra-nationalistic could be paralleled with a phobia of sorts.

> lack of response by liberals and moderates in authority positions - why are they silent?

They aren't silent. The US Executive Branch is currently liberal (as is the State Department, and Secretary of Defense... all foreign policy makers), and certainly has aided the growing sense of extreme nationalism with all the anti-non-european-countries rhetoric. The general message often conveyed is, if you aren't part of North America or Europe, then you're out to get us.

This instead of saying "We may have our differences, but we have worked together in the past and achieved great things, and we can work together now to achieve great things."

> The more nationalistic parties, pushing nationalistic and nativistic (e.g., anti-immigrant) plicies, are always conservative: The Republicans in the U.S., the Tories and the right-wing extremists in the UK

This is extreme partyism, and just as wrong as extreme nationalism.

All parties are guilty. As are all ideologies. They just have different ways of showing it.

Re: Japanese government dismantles freedom of the press

#50

Post by mhurron »

DonaldFisk wrote: post #44
hackuser wrote: post #31

Neo-nationalism seems to be on the rise everywhere. Look at the UK (Scotland trying to secede, the crazy extreme right-wing party getting seats in Parliament, etc.), France (the National Front did very well in recent elections), South Korea (IIRC, textbooks are edited to replace history with nationalist propaganda), Israel, Turkey, Russia, China, Donald Trump, etc. etc. When is the last time you heard someone stand u…

The SNP (Scottish National Party) isn't nationalist in the usual sense of the word. It's well to the left of, and more liberal than, the other UK parties, with the exception of the Greens, and potentially Labour if Jeremy Corbyn remains leader. It's better described as separatist.

> It's better described as separatist.

Nationalism is not part of the political spectrum. You can easily have right and leftist Nationalists.

They're separatists because of the belief of a strong Scottish identity. That is basically the definition of Nationalism.

Post reply on HN