[HN Gopher] Bank Shot: Abe Assassin's Wild Success
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       Bank Shot: Abe Assassin's Wild Success
        
       Author : pessimizer
       Score  : 36 points
       Date   : 2022-08-23 21:46 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (shingetsunewsagency.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (shingetsunewsagency.com)
        
       | MichaelCollins wrote:
       | The media sensationalize murderers hoping there will be copycats,
       | so they'll have more sensational news to get more eyeballs and
       | sell more ads. They _make_ the news. The only way to stop this is
       | to call it out.
        
         | makeitdouble wrote:
         | This of course has nothing to do with the media
         | sensationalizing the murderer, and everything to do with the
         | incredibly dire situation of religion and politics in Japan.
         | 
         | At this point I wouldn't be surprised if people started to
         | forgot who the murderer is, while continuing to be deeply
         | pissed at the wave of revelations around the cult ties in the
         | political sphere.
        
       | rayiner wrote:
       | > And then something odd started to happen: As the Japanese
       | people learned more about Tetsuya Yamagami and what he had
       | experienced in his life, their overwhelming reaction was not a
       | feeling of anger about the loss of the unloved Abe, but sympathy
       | towards his assassin.
       | 
       | Lol no: https://apnews.com/article/shinzo-abe-japan-tokyo-
       | elections-...
        
         | sosborn wrote:
         | Sympathy for the assassin doesn't mean that people would
         | suddenly change their votes.
         | 
         | The fact is that many people in Japan are questioning the role
         | the church plays in politics. This wouldn't have happened
         | without the assasination: https://time.com/6204978/japans-
         | kishida-dumps-ministers-with...
        
           | koheripbal wrote:
           | It's hard not to see this as victim blaming.
           | 
           | No amount of work Abe did with the church justifies his
           | murder.
           | 
           | These articles strike me more as an attempt to curtail the
           | sympathy votes that Abe's party is getting as a result of the
           | assassination.
           | 
           | It's the worst kind of political sleaze.
        
         | Barrin92 wrote:
         | that doesn't mean much given that the LDP wins virtually every
         | election, Japan is functionally a one party state.
         | 
         | The author is (correctly) more concerned with what the
         | assassination means for the ultra-nationalists within the LDP
         | and here even your provided AP article quotes agreeingly:
         | 
         |  _" This could be a turning point" for the LDP over its
         | divisive policies on gender equality, same-sex marriages and
         | other issues that Abe-backed ultra-conservatives with
         | paternalistic family values had resisted, said Mitsuru Fukuda,
         | a crisis management professor at Nihon University."_
         | 
         | Abe was a singularly important figure for the hardline wing of
         | the party and his death is not going to benefit them
         | internally. The most important aspect of that Unification
         | Church story is the association with South Korea, it's hard to
         | imagine anything more embarrassing for Japanese nationalists
         | than be associated with a South Korean cult.
        
         | learndeeply wrote:
         | Meta comment: It's pretty bold for a blog that started a year a
         | year ago to call themselves a "news agency" and to claim to
         | speak for the Japanese people.
        
           | sudden_dystopia wrote:
           | Pretty bold article in general.
        
         | big_elephant wrote:
         | seems like that support reversed course a month later:
         | https://apnews.com/article/japan-fumio-kishida-names-new-cab...
        
       | TeeMassive wrote:
        
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       (page generated 2022-08-23 23:03 UTC)