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The Crime That Killed Shinzo Abe

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Re: The Crime That Killed Shinzo Abe

#251

Post by photochemsyn »

hunglee2 wrote: post #113
cuteboy19 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it a requirement for every Asian cult to own a few American newspapers? I know of two others

no requirement, just smart business

Last I checked American newspapers were not profit centers, so business is likely not the motivation - other than perhaps the value of controlling media in terms of propaganda, i.e. narrative control, which may be of value to other businesses owned by the entity. (Jeff Bezos buying the Washington Post, for example, is only a 'good business decision' in the context of providing a platform that enhances the business interests of Amazon (which seeks to avoid unionization) and AWS (which seeks expanded government contracts)).

Re: The Crime That Killed Shinzo Abe

#252

Post by ksaj »

shp0ngle wrote: post #126
edvards wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you tell about the two others?

The Epoch Times is owned by Falun Gong. (They are apocalyptic/UFO/meditation cult, they have been banned in China and, if you believe their claims, organ harvested. I don’t know how much to believe those claims, but China does keep a lot of things with organs weirdly secret. FG are present at every anti-Chinese protest. They also do the Chinese ballet which name I forgot now…. ah yeah Shen Yun) I don’t know any other…

In Toronto (probably also everywhere) FG tend to hijack parades by having 100s of marchers, regardless of what the parade itself is celebrating. I find it quite obnoxious, since it makes every parade except for Pride look like it's Falun Gong Day.

They must pay a lot into the parades in order to even be accepted in such large numbers.

Re: The Crime That Killed Shinzo Abe

#253

Post by mlyle »

donatj wrote: post #227
NikolaNovak wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you on "replace it with any religion" but I don't find it bigotry necessarily - I am averse to any and all religious influence on anything, and I'm happy to see it brought up to attention and awareness everywhere. As to the frequent Venn diagram overlap of locally predominant religion with corresponding country / nationality / ethnicity / etc, while that frequently the case, I agree we should focus on th…

> think twice before giving them money because you'd be supporting the late George Bush Sr's 2nd-favorite cult. > They also own The Washington Times and United Press International (UPI). > And True World Foods, which runs a major portion of the sushi trade in the US. > Numerous other innocent-sounding organizations in many, many sports, interest groups, and industries. Like if someone wrote any of that about Jews, th…

I think one can be particularly legitimately concerned about religions that:

* directly accumulate controlling ownership interests in key businesses.

* use dubious fundraising and recruitment practices.

* form complex webs of not-obviously-related entities to use in influence operations.

* have acted as a pseudo-cult of personality of a figure in living memory.

* are possibly abusive to their members in various ways.

Re: The Crime That Killed Shinzo Abe

#254

Post by [deleted] »

Jensson wrote: post #166
rramadass wrote: post #157

I don't completely buy the "religious group" reason given by the assassin. It might just be a convenient cover story for any "State Actors" behind the assassination. Shinzo Abe had been a real thorn in the side of China and North Korea by pushing a hard-line approach towards them. He had tremendous worldwide political/economic clout and was instrumental in establishing the "Pacific Quad" as a real challenge to China…

How would China or North Korea convince a Japanese soldier to openly kill his leader and face death penalty? There is very little social exchange between these countries, extremely few foreigners speaks Japanese, I just don't see how they could indoctrinate him to such a degree that he would give up his own life for that cause. Extremely few people give up their life for a cause even when they grew up in that society…

[deleted]

Re: The Crime That Killed Shinzo Abe

#255

Post by Apocryphon »

jmcgough wrote: post #188
cvccvroomvroom wrote: post #100

The Moonies, often represented in America by some unfortunate Korean boy or girl, beg for money at American universities in exchange for food and lodging. It's essentially human trafficking and indentured servitude because they're trapped in a foreign country. So, if see someone who doesn't speak English who shoved a photo montage flip book clipboard of deprivation in front of you, think twice before giving them mone…

They aren't nearly as influential as you might think, especially in modern times. Maybe they were during the cold war or when they protested in support of Nixon. Their media reach is pretty limited, The Washington Times has a small number of readers. Edit: to the comment about $2B: that's almost mostly belonging to the founder who takes his money from followers. $2B is 130k a person when we're talking about 15,000 fo…

They might not be as wealthy or powerful as other religious sects, but them being a cult is still of concern because by nature they are 1) secretive and non-transparent, 2) capable of fierce organizational discipline including taking advantage of members, 3) operate via proselytizing including underhanded means, 4) open to extremist and authoritarian beliefs. That's in the very nature of cults. Add that to their historically-potent political influence from the Cold War, and they're still worthy of investigation.

Re: The Crime That Killed Shinzo Abe

#256

Post by fitzoh »

donatj wrote: post #227
NikolaNovak wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you on "replace it with any religion" but I don't find it bigotry necessarily - I am averse to any and all religious influence on anything, and I'm happy to see it brought up to attention and awareness everywhere. As to the frequent Venn diagram overlap of locally predominant religion with corresponding country / nationality / ethnicity / etc, while that frequently the case, I agree we should focus on th…

> think twice before giving them money because you'd be supporting the late George Bush Sr's 2nd-favorite cult. > They also own The Washington Times and United Press International (UPI). > And True World Foods, which runs a major portion of the sushi trade in the US. > Numerous other innocent-sounding organizations in many, many sports, interest groups, and industries. Like if someone wrote any of that about Jews, th…

And if they wrote it about scientology it would be entirely uncontroversial

Re: The Crime That Killed Shinzo Abe

#257

Post by rtpg »

suction wrote: post #150

Japanese people I know are adamant that Abe had no ties or did ever voice support for the Moon sect, ever. I am now wondering if Abe had kept it secret and the shooter somehow found out.

I know loads who know about this. The guy was in a publicly published video last year, it’s not a massive secret.

Re: The Crime That Killed Shinzo Abe

#258

Post by giantg2 »

dmix wrote: post #215
yucky wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>After all, we know that this will save lives. There are lots of things that we know will save lives. Banning driving of all non-emergency vehicles. Banning vices and handing out 50 year prison sentences for any violation. Banning skydiving. Banning soda. We can make a very long list of things we can do to save lives. But there is a price to pay, and that price isn't worth it. Banning free speech and the free flow of…

Do we in fact know that if a few big news orgs dont mention the shooters names that it will motivate them to not do it? I doubt you could ever control such a thing even if you tried (Wikipedia will have to have so it's just one more step to google it). Plus the shooters often care about change via harming their targets (creating fear in a particular group is what makes something a hate crime or terroism) which happen…

There's evidence in the linked study as well as in anecdotal admissions by some perpetrators (eg Columbine murders expected mass coverage and hoped that it would inspire others). Is there any evidence to refute this?

Re: The Crime That Killed Shinzo Abe

#259

Post by duxup »

hsn915 wrote: post #16
tkgally wrote: post #5

The linked article ends with this: “Why the Japanese media has refused to identify the ‘religious group’ that formed the motive for the killing must remain as speculation at this juncture, though it reflects very poorly on Japan’s status as a democratic nation.” It’s important to note that the Japanese media is not monolithic. It’s true that the major newspapers (Asahi, Yomiuri, Mainichi, Nikkei, etc.) and the broadc…

It's not really any different than the US. Lots of information tends to be "widely known" online to those who care to dig, but the mainstream outlets stick to some narrative that is best described as "half truth".

I find a lot of that information is in the mainstream media… just that you have to pay attention.

Re: The Crime That Killed Shinzo Abe

#260

Post by stevenjgarner »

savanaly wrote: post #200
dav_Oz wrote: post #165

As an incidental remark: I find it remarkable that on the surface I now know of three G7 countries / liberal democracies where the PM/President is the (grand)son of a PM/President himself. Bush Sr - Bush Jr Pierre Trudeau - Justin Trudeau Nobusuke Kishi - (Shintaro Abe; FM) - Shinzo Abe [Honorary mention: France with "Le Pen" both father & daughter made it to the second round in the presidential elections (2002; 2017…

It's important to keep in mind that this might be less sinister than it first appears (or more...there's that interpretation too). The "Great families" idea reaches beyond politics into science and art as well: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/secrets-of-the-great-f... .

Thought provoking. I would love to see that article extended to include artists - e.g. musicians like Johann Sebastian Bach, whose father Johann Ambrosius Bach was a violinist employed in Erfurt (who was twin brother to Johann Christoph Bach another great Baroque musician). These brothers were the sons of Christoph Bach, court musician in Germany. On the descendent side, Johann's fifth child and second surviving son Karl Philipp Emmanuel Bach (C. P. E. Bach) - the "Hamburg Bach" - was a musician and influential composer. His brother, Johann Christian Bach, or the "London Bach" (the 18th child of Johann Sebastian!), was music master to the Queen of Great Britain. There's more [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bach_family

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