"In preparation to join US wars, Japan dismantles freedom of the press". What US wars? Populist hogswaddle. Such assertions should be backed up if you're going to make them. As for the supposed rise of "nationalism", to the average liberal, ANY movement in the direction of national security, or any display of pride in one's country, is not just nationalism but fascism, racism, and worse.
Japanese government dismantles freedom of the press
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Re: Japanese government dismantles freedom of the press
#62Neo-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…
Evolution is our friend here. Keep non-tribalism more adaptive than tribalism, hold out for a few centuries while rewarding non-tribalism and penalizing tribalism, and the problem will evolve away.
Re: Japanese government dismantles freedom of the press
#63"In preparation to join US wars, Japan dismantles freedom of the press". What US wars? Populist hogswaddle. Such assertions should be backed up if you're going to make them. As for the supposed rise of "nationalism", to the average liberal, ANY movement in the direction of national security, or any display of pride in one's country, is not just nationalism but fascism , racism, and worse.
@sprucely -- thanks for the downvote -- you prove my point.
Re: Japanese government dismantles freedom of the press
#64I wish this post gave a better treatment to the discussion. By presenting such a stark claim on a blog, with little justification it leads to polarization that may make some who are open-minded to the issue actually take such concerns less seriously.
I don't have any answers myself, I'm learning a lot but here's what I glean:
- Reporters without borders (RWB) is a neutral cause dedicated to investigating freedom of the press in various countries, they explain their methodology on their website.
- RWB has moved Japan down to 61 on the list of nations with the most free press. However, the US is at 49 for comparison, so saying Japan has "Dismantled freedom of the press" because they are 61 seems to be an overstatement
- The piece presents a theory that America is trying to use Japan's military. Time will tell.
- The style comes across as vaguely rambly
If anybody who's not too emotionally involved in the topic has some recommended reading I'd love to hear more.
Re: Japanese government dismantles freedom of the press
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
I'm certainly no fan of tribalism; but if you think in terms of "convincing the proles," you can probably answer your own question as to why you can't persuade anyone.
The concept of proles is just a convenient shorthand that I used; I assume most people fit the bill as selling their labor for a living, the conventional definition of proletarian.
The admission that most people can but won't think for themselves drives my thoughts on this matter. There is a large segment of the population whose media diet consists of middlebrow newspapers, talk radio, and primetime television-- these media will absolutely never divest them of a tribal mindset.
Re: Japanese government dismantles freedom of the press
#66So, as an average citizen in the country, what should I do?
I'm just a tech geek guy. I write software at work, and I teach sometimes (for CS related topics). I write OSS. I occasionally write a blog, but feel terribly helpless for spreading my view with that. I don't think going to a rally helps the cause that much (because I feel it only pleases the curious media). I'm probably a bit more politically aware than the average people here, but I don't want to devote myself to much political activities.
Probably I should continue to do the small things that I'm currently doing (e.g. occasionally bringing up the topic to friends and advocating more openness of the society, etc.), but what else? Does anyone have any idea?
Re: Japanese government dismantles freedom of the press
#67[deleted]
Re: Japanese government dismantles freedom of the press
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm certainly no fan of tribalism; but if you think in terms of "convincing the proles," you can probably answer your own question as to why you can't persuade anyone.
The concept of proles is just a convenient shorthand that I used; I assume most people fit the bill as selling their labor for a living, the conventional definition of proletarian. The admission that most people can but won't think for themselves drives my thoughts on this matter. There is a large segment of the population whose media diet consists of middlebrow newspapers, talk radio, and primetime television-- thes…
If only it were that simple. A fair percentage of the ultra-rightwing voters in NL are university educated. You're not going to get too far if you label everybody that votes for these parties as people that 'won't think for themselves'. They do, they just end up with the wrong conclusions for all the right reasons.
Re: Japanese government dismantles freedom of the press
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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...…
In many countries other than the US, patriotism is seen to be crass at best and dangerously close to nationalism at worst. The dearth of national flags adorning houses in Australia, England and Germany are part of this.
Re: Japanese government dismantles freedom of the press
#70Earlier 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…
Nationalism has a strong component of devotion, an emotional attachment, to the state. Its a derivative of statism, which itself is a derivative of tribalism. You can have either liberals or conservatives subject to such an emotional appeal to the state. Due to the strong emotional appeal in nationalism, the political ideology is more nuanced. In classic liberalism, power comes from the individual who then grants a revocable delegation of that power to form a state (government). In conservatism, power comes more broadly from society, culture, and affinity for stability. The Bolshevik revolution is an example of a left of center revolution, it certainly was nativist, nationalist, and was not conservative. The Cultural Revolution, likewise a left of center revolution, its ideology was very centered on empowering the individual, it was nationalistic, nativist (the purging of "impure elements" of Chinese society), and certainly not conservative.
There are many examples of liberal and conservative nationalist movements. I think it requires some research to demonstrate if one or the other is more inclined to nationalism, or jingoism.