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Noah (who recently praised Taiwanese politicians for the extremely materialistic point of them sometimes being cosplayers) is not much of a deeper thinker than
by rtpg 4y ago
Noah (who recently praised Taiwanese politicians for the extremely materialistic point of them sometimes being cosplayers) is not much of a deeper thinker than most stuff in Jacobin.
Abe is in Nippon Kaigi. He is a nationalist. He pushed for revising the constitution to remove the purely self-defense nature of the SDF. This is not a popular idea in Japan. It is barely a popular idea in his party! The guy also liked the idea of picking a fight with China.
Now of course there are more intense people in Japan, but the guys a nationalist, and would push for unpopular ideas along that axis!
Is he a fascist? He supported more nationalist education reform that minimized wartime questions, was involved in a personal scandal with a far right school, pushed for more expansive police powers… I mean a lot of the stuff aligns. The label itself doesn’t matter, but you can look at the details and judge based on that.
Noah’s analysis is that he got more people into jobs and got the military to be bigger.
- rayiner 4y agoHe’s a nationalist (who isn’t?) and he wants to re-arm Japan. Sounds like the right approach in a world where China is digesting Hong Kong, is eying Taiwan menacingly, and where the US is showing clear intention to abandon its role as world police.
- rtpg 4y agoSomeone's political ideology is their political ideology, you might think it makes sense given the context but (for example) socialist economic policies don't become less socialist by being popular or making more sense or less sense in the economic context. You might think that Abe's positions are correct or the norm, I don't believe that changes the judgement that he's a pretty heavy nationalist. Nationalists are willing to torpedo economic relationships with neighboring nations out of national pride. Loads of people are not nationalists!