john555 Wrote:Socialism has failed in every country on earth where it has been tried

Incorrect. Socialists countries such as Denmark, New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands and so on are quite successful and don't have people going into debt to fix a broken arm, poor people without healthcare, education being a privilege for the rich, and so on.

john555 Wrote:

ryuudou Wrote:

Stansfield123 Wrote:The New York Times is left wing propaganda.

Reality has a left-wing bias.

The USA became the greatest country in the world (with, unlike other countries, a huge prosperous middle class) precisely because of its conservative capitalistic traditions.

Incorrect. The America middle-class is declining, and income equality is the worst it's been since the great depression precisely because of capitalism and the rampant abuse of the .01%, Wallstreet, the billionaire class, and greedy corporations. Minimum wage is less than it was in the 50s after being adjusted for inflation, but yet the prices of common items and food are much much much higher.

The reason that America had such a prominent middle-class back then is because the US actually had more socialist policies in the 50s.

Roketzu Wrote:Americans always say this, have you never noticed it? I've grown up with American media, which admittedly I do consider to be the best in the world, and I've noticed this for years - they always say their country is the best. I'd be surprised if anyone else who has been exposed to it for years hasn't noticed it too. I dunno if I'd feel the same if I were American, but I can't imagine ever saying my own country is the greatest country in the world, seems much too difficult to remain partial.

On most measures the US is the greatest. It's GDP is as high as every country in Europe combined. Mere cities in the US are more economically valuable than entire leading European countries. US pop culture leads the entire world and US presidential elections are followed globally.

At the same time though the US has a lot of stupid problems and plenty of flaws that it shouldn't. For example the US is falling behind many countries in education and infrastructure because Republicans would rather buy 7 billion dollar jets that never see combat instead of investing in our children.

Conservatives love to brandish nationalism as some type of silly excuse to avoid reflection and as a tool to avoid criticism for their often stupid, destructive, and anti-productive policies.

@nihonpoi

Keep in mind that these protests and such are very recent and a result of Abe crossing a line. Up until a couple of months ago he could do basically whatever he liked and people would just quietly whinge to themselves (because no one wants to talk politics in Japan) and vote for him anyway, because the opposition is pathetic.

There's no blatant censorship, but the pressure for the media to conform to the government line is well documented. https://www.google.com/search?q=japan+pr...8&oe=utf-8

The word "socialism" is used to mean so many things today that I don't think it means much at all. More traditionally, socialism refers to a system in which the government control the means of production to a strong degree, and competition is avoided in favor of central planning. By that definition, socialism has done poorly in terms of producing a high standard of living. None of the Western European countries currently qualify as "socialist" under this definition, as far as I am aware.

[Zgarbas]

Stansfield, if you want right-wing propaganda instead of facts, you can look up the anti-abe right-wing conspiracies. Somehow he managed to make himself hated by the nationalists as well for being a 'slave to the USA', which I think is quite impressive. (btw, the 'everybody's opinion should be heard' and quota system is totally the 'left-wing propaganda' you seem to hate. If you can shrug off the NYT as left-wing propaganda, the NYT can shrug off the right-wing one)

Was the government's push for censorship of the media ever under any doubt? Even the more non-political people I've met seemed aware and concerned about it, even if they shrugged it off with a '詳しくない' afterwards. The protests have been going on for a long time, it's just that they weren't covered by the media at all until recently, and SEALDS has been doing an amazing job making themselves noticed. After the secrecy law, the bullying of Asahi for the comfort women article, and other problematic things that went by unnoticed, it's great to see so much attention from the locals.

I like Abe. He's doing a great job at being so terrible that he's pushing Japanese people towards political awareness; if he doesn't manage to go dictator, his legacy will be quite positive.