Addfwyn @ Addfwyn @lemmygrad.ml

Marxist-Leninist. Tankie. Based in the imperial vassal state of Japan.

---

Read more

Posts

2

Comments

483

Joined

2 yr. ago

You don't hear the DPRK Army Orchestra in your head as you read this? Weird.

Happy to answer, though sadly I can't say that there is any secret widespread ML organizations that you missed.

I think it's not quite true to say that there are no Marxist-Leninists in contemporary Japan (I am one!) but that they are at a much more grassroots level. In local circles and academic circles, I see a lot more of it. Members of the party that are winning seats in government, much less so.

I will say that your perception of the parties as a whole are accurate though. It isn't the same party that it was under Fuwa. The Kyosanto of today does lean pretty socdem in a lot of ways, as they ran away from a lot of their fouding principles after the red purge. The sudden 180 support of the Emperor is a particular sticking point for me recently, because they used to be very staunchly against the imperial family. The desire to distance themselves from the CPC also seems short-sighted, as they could easily be a great ally for us. There are many areas that the party needs work. It feels like constant concessions towards being practical has just served to undermine the party as a whole.

On the other hand, they do still have some good positions such as being opposed to the historical revisionism we see so often from Japanese politicians and being opposed to the US occupation. The latter of which I think is a necessary first step before basically anything else.

I would still encourage comrades here to reach out to their local chapters though, because I often find them much more left-oriented in their ways of thinking than the party as a whole might be. I think it is important to realise that a lot of the Kyosanto's run away from Marxism is very recent, within 20 years or less. There are a lot of members who predate that and still believe in a lot of core marxist tenants. I don't think it is out of the question for the party to course correct, but it will take a lot of effort.

I look forward to the next couple months, when the NYT will be writing an article about the counteroffensive stalling out because nobody could have predicated how cold the winter would be.

In Japan I would say not great, but outside of a short-lived revolutionary surge that was put-down thanks to the US we have existed pretty much as a US lapdog since WW2. So nothing too surprising.

Yen has absolutely plummeted thanks in part to our joining sanctions against Russia. There was a period a couple years back that the yen was roughly equal to the dollar, 100 JPY was about 1 USD. Now we are hovering around 150 JPY to the dollar and it looks to be trending even weaker.

Electricity costs have close to doubled thanks to said sanctions too, especially since we refuse to restart nuclear power in most areas. Almost the entire country's electricity costs have increased by 50% or more and we had a wave of deaths over the summer of people dying of heat stroke. When I moved into my current flat, the rental company suggested we try taking cold baths to save costs.

Ukraine, people seem to be mostly over. People were very outspoken on it right at the start, Japan never wants to be behind on the latest Cause, but once it started affecting them negatively people's opinions started to shift. I actually saw a program on public TV the other night talking about the 2014 coups that precipiated everything.

Oh and one of our few good politicians (the governor of Okinawa/Ryukyuu) is currently in the process of being overruled by the government because he refused to approve the relocation and construction of the US bases in okinawa because nobody there actually wants them. So the government is pushing it to the supreme court to just bypass him, which of course they will do.

So yeah, things are just dandy. The one good thing I hope to see out of all of this is there is a growing contingent of people who want to be free of US occupation. Some people because they are just tired of being the US lapdogs, some people are tired of the occupiers assaulting the locals, and others worried about making Japan a staging ground for aggression against China.

There's an absolutely obscene amount of waste, I had a friend who used to work at a defensive contractor and they grossly overcharge on every item on every contract. Even replacement bolts and screws were marked up hundreds of times. In many cases the exact itemized bill isn't given to the government as the contractor prefers to keep it confidential (I can't imagine why). All of that excess probably ends up in the executive level pockets on one side or the other.

They might spend more than the next several countries combined in defense spending, but I would be honestly surprised if they got more value out of that spending than any of them.

What are the odds that he doesn't introduce himself as a past president of Venezuela to his classes every time?

I have it on good authority that Russia is launching artillery shells from trebuchets, because they are out of everything else. Ukraine is about to win this time, really!

Yup. That's not even counting the landlords who refused to rent to me because I am a foreigner. Even if I have permanent residency. Despite the discrimination being illegal technically, it happens so much that the government is trying to politely ask them to actually rent to foreigner. They usually give some BS reason like being worried about communicating with the tenant, but will think up another excuse if it turns out you speak fluent Japanese.

I didn't think landlords could do much to make me think less of them, but introducing themselves as a "housing provider" would manage it.

That's actually a thing where I am. There is a fee (usually one month rent) tacked on when you sign a new lease/renew your lease that is basically thank-you money to the landlord for letting you stay there. Yet we don't tip anywhere else. In addition to the security deposit (that virtually nobody gets back), agency fee., and first month rent. It isn't uncommon to pay 5 months rent upfront when you move.

I hate it and usually only rent places when I can negotiate that particular fee away. Which you can, because it isn't legally required anywhere.

They seem to be going with "He joined them AFTER they did those things, so it's totally cool". Like after literally burning people alive they just gave away milk and cookies for the rest of their military duty.

Hard to say, my first instinct would just be that the dog is not being trained properly by the Bidens. German shepherds are very intelligent, but also tend to be very protective of their owners. If they haven't been socialized properly, they could definitely lash out at anyone they think is a threat.

Beautiful dogs and properly trained they can get along just fine with kids and strangers, but you don't just buy one as an accessory.

It's literally everywhere. I expect it from the mainstream news coverage, but it finds its way into everything.

Forum about board games? Anti-China rhetoric (I saw this one very recently). Cooking blog? Better believe somebody will find a way to snipe at Chinese cuisine in there. Tech stories will definitely be covering the horrors of Chinese chip production.

If I could go just one day without being inundated with anti-chinese lines I would be surprised.

My country rolls in with a stunning...18%. Honestly, higher than I thought we would be.

Which, depressingly, is still close to double the US.

If you ever visit China, they have all kinds of programs where you can see them and even help out with volunteer work. Don't have to worry about if they are being well cared for either, they definitely are.

After the zoo that famously starved one of the Panda on loan from China, that makes sense. I still think it was intentional to take out their sinophobia on panda.

Comrades were warning people that Ukraine had a serious Nazi problem and that ignoring it to support Zelensky’s government would normalise fascism

Libs themselves were even reporting on it prior to the war. Every major western newspaper was talking about the issues with fascism and corruption in Ukraine until they realised that they had to quiet down in the war runup.

He is supporting the domestic makeup industry, should really be applauded!

Coincidentally Canadian Swastikas Inc. is seeing a huge increase in orders too.

Probably a test to see how much they can get away with. Support nazi affiliated regiments overseas? Totally fine, there is enough plausible deniability there that the public seems to largely swallow it and hey, it isn't their country anyway.

Standing ovation at home? Still too much for most people. However, enough people bent themselves into pretzels trying to justify it that it has some promise. They may want to revisit it in a couple years.

There is a fair number of people who are operating under the assumption that any and all commerce is capitalism. If you buy something, you must be a capitalist!

It isn't, but that seems to be a very common assumption.