Isn’t it a little early to be so sure exactly why this happened?
The Crime That Killed Shinzo Abe
261–270 of 494 posts
Re: The Crime That Killed Shinzo Abe
#262Earlier 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…
Most synagogues aren't cult-like. Quite the opposite, really. However, there definitely are some forms of Judaism which deserve the label. Even my Israeli friends think the Haredi are batshit crazy. You would not accuse the people who made this film of being anti-semites:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_of_Us_(2017_film)
It's fair to call out the wackiest religious cults, and Christendom offers many to choose from.
Re: The Crime That Killed Shinzo Abe
#263Nobusuke Kishi was a class A war criminal hmmm
Re: The Crime That Killed Shinzo Abe
#264"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." Because they aren't stupid. When you name names and provide ample details you have given the killer things that encourage others - infamy, a platform to spread their message, etc. In the US, w…
Throwing out a possible issue with this idea: it lets political parties assassinate rival politicians without losing popularity (in the case where the link isn't strong enough for a conviction but IS strong enough to say the killing was done by that party).
Maybe. But if you have a lone individual assassinating someone, then you've given them a platform to spread their message. It seems this was a case of an individual. If there was any evidence that this was organized by a party, then it could be appropriate to name the party but still withold the individual's name to prevent notoriety.
Re: The Crime That Killed Shinzo Abe
#265Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 in…
your second point was the main point in my admittedly overly cryptic comment.
Narrative control + amplification power + even brand awareness = revenue opportunity. For example, The Epoch Times, the media mouthpiece of Falun Gong, promotes Shen Yun, the Chinese Dance troupe showcasing the 'beauty of China before Communism'. Propaganda and Profit need each other
Re: The Crime That Killed Shinzo Abe
#266Earlier 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…
>They are apocalyptic/UFO/meditation cult
I didn't see anything like you describe[1].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong#Central_teachings
Re: The Crime That Killed Shinzo Abe
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
In a news report about an individual crime?
Lets say a hate crime was committed against Jews. Do you assume it was a Nazi, or an Islamist? This pops up all the time in Europe, usually it is Islamists but sometimes it is Nazis, and that makes a huge difference when interpreting what the crime means. Or for this case, lets say the perpetrator was of Chinese origin instead of Japanese. Do you think that wouldn't be relevant at all?
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Re: The Crime That Killed Shinzo Abe
#268As 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 a disturbing trend and indicative of failing health / vibrancy of political systems. Same with running Hilary Clinton. Half of the entire point of the democratic turn in western states after the enlightenment and the French revolution was to attempt take power away from powerful families and abolish heritable power. I found it very alarming when Trudeau Jr was plucked out of relative obscurity and turned into a…
Politicians don't really need to be good at policy. They have people to do that. They just need to be charismatic - able to capture the imagination of a constituency, and able to persuade other politicians to support their platform.
Of course it'd be nice if our politicians were well-educated in the details of the policies they are championing, and if they could independently reason about the pros and cons, but realistically that's not what they're there for. They're like the sales guys at work - they might have some personal interest in techy details, but it's not what they're hired to do or what they excel at. They're hired to make the sales, not the product.
I think the party strategists who picked a pretty face and a familiar name to represent the party did a decent job. Trudeau continues to have the confidence of most of his party, which is why he's still in the leadership position. He's clearly inoffensive enough that he can maintain support inside the party while also not igniting enough of a backlash amongst the voting public to indisputably defeat his party in 2021. He might be a milquetoast character representing an ideologically unadventurous party, but perhaps that's all he's meant to be?
Re: The Crime That Killed Shinzo Abe
#269Nobusuke Kishi was a class A war criminal hmmm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobusuke_Kishi
> After World War II, Kishi was imprisoned for three years as a suspected Class A war criminal. However, the U.S. government did not charge, try, or convict him, and eventually released him as they considered Kishi to be the best man to lead a post-war Japan in a pro-American direction.
Re: The Crime That Killed Shinzo Abe
#270Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not about "licenses to exist", but access to the press clubs (kisha clubs). Basically, if the government doesn't like what you print/say, you get frozen out the clubs and hence out of all government news. https://freespeechdebate.com/discuss/an-impregnable-fortress...
> It's not about "licenses to exist", but access to the press clubs (kisha clubs) Its the same in the UK. UK "political editors" working for the larger media outlets are granted lobby passes, which they guard like some precious gem stone. Lobby passes grant the journalists free access to certain parts of the Parliament buildings, in particular the lobby (hence the name of the pass !). It also grants them access to th…
Which is why "Prime Minister's Questions" time is so valuable and entertaining.