WEBVTT - Who Really Controls Japan's Far Right? 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:04.680 From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:09.080 riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or 0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:12.119 learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:13.880 production of iHeart Radio. 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:28.680 Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, 0:00:28.760 --> 0:00:29.720 my name is Noah. 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:32.400 They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:36.720 super producer Dylan the Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly, you 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:40.320 are you. You are here. That makes this the stuff 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:43.519 they don't want you to know. Guys, you remember that 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:48.000 it's an observation that only grows more relevant over time. 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:53.000 People say, no one wants to be living through the 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:55.600 times of which history is made, right. 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:57.880 Yeah, kind of impossible though, because I guess history is 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:01.080 sort of always being made in it we're working live 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:03.000 well now. 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:05.480 I think it means people want to not have the 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:09.280 stress and maybe fear and all of the things that 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:11.560 come with a big historical event. 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:15.160 Right too bad suckers, where you find yourself. 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:19.399 We want smooth sailing, I think I think generally that's 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:23.000 what human beings want. But we've also got this thing 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:26.240 where in our media and things, most of the stuff 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:29.400 really interested in is the exciting, crazy. 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:33.320 Stuff from the past. But also from the present as 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:36.600 long as it's not touching us. Yeah, and the future 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:39.880 as long as it's not over the horizon quite yet. 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:43.280 And history proves time and time again. We've seen this 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:47.960 on every show we have touched, as EPs, as voice actors, 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:51.880 as writers, as hosts. History proves that in chaotic times, 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:55.240 the public will look for alternatives to the status quo, 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:58.560 whatever that status quo may be. Sometimes this leads to 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:02.560 things that history calls good revolutions, the French and American 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:07.200 Revolution right when the rejection of monarchy, and then sometimes 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:10.440 you know, it gets a little sith lordie. Chaos can 0:02:10.600 --> 0:02:15.079 lead to a search for alternatives like fascism or dictatorships 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:19.320 or coups. Chaos reigns, Chaos reigns, and chaos is a 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:20.640 ladder for better or worse. 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:24.000 I watched a Mister Robot episode where one of the 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:27.160 characters use that term and used it in that way. 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:30.720 It was robot fun twist on a child's board game 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:32.120 would be coups and ladders. 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:37.720 I love it. Yeah, I think it's brilliant. What we 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:40.560 also see here is that, just like our discussion with 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:46.040 governments and AI, the modern information age hasn't really changed 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:49.280 this tendency. Instead, it's ushered in a new toolbox, a 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:52.240 new way to escalate this pattern. That's why there are 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:56.320 so many world governments accused of interfering with elections and 0:02:56.440 --> 0:03:01.160 sovereign domestic politics. And tonight's story. First off, yes, this 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:04.280 is a story about political conspiracies, but also it's a 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:07.519 story about patterns. This is about a country that might 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:11.480 be facing something similar as we record the rise of 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:15.720 the far right in Japan and the growing allegations that 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:18.080 there may be a conspiracy powering it. 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:21.600 Absolutely, But first we're gonna hear a quick word from 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:22.200 our sponsor. 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:32.160 Here are the facts, all right, We've talked about this 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:34.960 a lot. I don't want to sound like a wiyaboo, 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:37.640 and we're going to keep any personal anecdotes to a 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:38.520 bare minimum. 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:41.080 Not me, I'm putting it all out there. 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:45.760 Can I just say I think your experience, Ben, in particular, 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:48.640 would be extremely helpful for this episode. I feel a 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:50.800 bit in the dark as we're going into this, but 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:51.680 just really. 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:53.840 In terms of on the ground experience of this kind 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:55.920 of thing, because you know, a lot of these things 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:58.600 don't even make the news over here. A lot of 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:00.000 the things that we're going to be talking about today, 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:02.400 let alone being available for us to you know, set 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:04.440 our very eyes on and see the way of functions. 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:07.480 I just think your input and or any anecdote you've 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:10.920 gotten could be extremely helpful for me personally to understand 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:11.840 this a little better. 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:13.280 Ah. 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:16.440 I think we'll I hear you and appreciate it. I 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:22.560 think will also be darkly surprised by how many parallels 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:26.040 are going to be in this story. Across the Ocean's blue, 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:29.719 Across the Ocean's blue. I'm of a maritime sort of mind. 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:34.600 What are we talking about? We're talking about the crime cruise, right, 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.320 so that's called but it's sort of like that. We're 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:41.120 doing a Virgin Mega Cruz True Crime. Theend are going 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:43.160 to be on the high seas coming up pretty soon. 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:44.680 I think you could still buy your tickets, y'all. 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:49.520 I believe so. Yeah, this is our organic mention, and 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:53.000 we're being so smooth with it. October tenth through the fifteenth. 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:58.200 Join us for smooth seas, you know, that's the hope. 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:01.560 And look, if you come on this thing, you might 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:05.560 go snorkeling with us. Weird, there might be sharks involved. 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:07.240 Trivia, you know. 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:10.680 Yeah, you might see a shipwreck. You'll definitely go through 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:13.920 the Bermuda Triangle with us, where we have hatched up 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:18.279 the bride idea of recording our Bermuda Triangle episode live 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:19.359 from the location. 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:23.320 No tempting fade there. It's gonna be fine. Join us. 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:25.239 You can hold hands, guys. 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:28.160 I've got the first version of the video and I'm 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:30.400 working on the sound design and music. Right now. That's 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:33.400 gonna play. I guess people are coming in. We're gonna 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:39.080 make people feel so freaking uncomfortable and scary people. 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:40.880 We're gonna bring people together. 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:42.920 This is not sanctioned by the Version Corporation. 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:47.080 Matthew and like the decembers said, you know, if worst 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:48.960 comes the worst, we'll both go down together. 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:51.880 Also said, I'm a jolly little chimbley boy. 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:55.360 Is that a veiled if we're both going down together? 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:58.599 Is that a I think that one's about jumping off 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:01.840 of a building. It's metaphor. Laden's okay. There's a lot 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:04.760 of possibility there, and this will be This will be 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:07.800 great because it will get all of us together in 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:10.360 this one place and we'll be focused on one thing 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:14.200 and we'll probably agree what the revelations we discover. And 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:17.839 that's cool because it doesn't usually happen anywhere else in 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:22.800 human society. Right outside of a focused show or exploration. 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:26.560 You're just outside of our particular friend group. Never does occur. 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:28.039 We'll fight all the time. 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:30.120 In the end, we're going to explore mysteries and you'll 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:31.560 take away whatever you take from it. 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:34.400 Right, But in the end, possibly you're a souvenir. 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:37.200 Yeah, but you'll be in the Bermuda triangle. 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:39.640 It's gonna be sick. I'm excited. I haven't been on 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:41.919 a cruise before, and I'm really really looking forward to 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:44.479 hanging out with you guys on the high seas and 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:46.320 talk about some some spooky stuff. 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:51.120 And with that, the reason we're emphasizing this idea of 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:55.200 agreeing being on the same page, and why that is 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:58.359 so important is because pretty much any other place you go, 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:01.840 or any other human endeavor you counter, you will see 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:05.200 that everyone disagrees. And Japan is no different. Japan is 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:09.440 full of competing ideologies and political parties. This is not unique, 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:10.600 it is not unusual. 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:12.400 Well, and it's funny. I was just gonna ask, maybe 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:15.120 this is a dumb question, but like we're talking about 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:17.760 the right and the lefts like obviously, when when I 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:20.080 ask to the right or left of what the answer 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:24.640 is center? But who determines, like culturally, which ideology is 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:26.760 represented by which side of zero? 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:29.960 You know, that's an interesting question. That's when we'll get 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:34.000 to because every center party, you know, as a your 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:39.120 mileage may vary situation, and historically we'll get into this 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:44.000 a little bit. Historically you call Japan more or less 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:48.400 culturally conservative, and a lot of a lot of East Asia, 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:51.480 to be fair, is that way. But in Japan, you know, 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:53.920 just like anywhere else, anywhere you go, you're going to 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:58.120 find a spectrum of groups with priorities and values that 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:02.960 sometimes combine and converge and then sometimes contradict and people 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:06.440 get at loggerheads. Here in the United States, for example, 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:10.080 speaking of centrism, there are two big political parties. You 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:13.560 got the Democrats, you got the Republicans. But each of 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:17.800 those terms, as we've discussed before in some pretty cool stuff, 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:21.360 each of those terms is like a it's an umbrella 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:26.920 phrase because within under the umbrella of democracy you'll find, 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:30.560 you know, the little umbrellas of Democrats, little umbrella Republicans, 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:35.600 and under that a monopoly of tinier umbrellas, tighier movements. 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:40.360 And ultimately it all represents campaign finance donations, right, and 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:44.800 which which primary corporations and entities donate to which of 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:47.400 those two parties, and then how is that divided up 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:49.319 amongst individual candidates? 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:51.320 And not to mention that I mean you're talking about 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:53.720 campaign I mean we're talking about a collection of campaign 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:57.000 promises and sort of treatises that are put out there 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:00.959 exclusively in the form of rhetoric, you know, and let's 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:03.400 just call it what it is, propaganda that doesn't always 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:05.800 add up to the way things actually end up, you know, 0:09:05.880 --> 0:09:07.959 when folks are elected from either side. 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:10.360 Absolutely, I just want to make that point that it's 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:13.359 it ends up those cliques that we're talking about inside 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:16.760 like the bigger umbrella groups, often those are divided up 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:20.480 amongst groups of people, groups of what appear to be 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:24.600 independent let's say representatives or people from certain states or 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:27.840 a scattering of states. You can use money and like 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:32.000 CARDI B make money moves to create like clicks and 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:37.640 movements of belief of you know what a group is 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:40.559 all about within this umbrella. And all you got, all 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:42.839 you have to do is inject enough money to get 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:45.440 enough candidates to believe the same thing. Then you can 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:47.240 push that and push it and push it and grow 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:50.760 it and make it larger until it potentially can take 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:52.880 over one of these umbrellas. 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:55.240 Mm hmm and becomes the establishment. 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:57.000 And it's so cynical, I know, but I mean, I 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:59.000 can't help but think that the only true belief is 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:00.840 in the money, that a lot of the other ones 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:02.520 are just sort of weaponized. 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:03.720 Beliefs that are used. 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:06.280 To sort of manipulate the populace. Like I just have 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:09.640 a real hard time believing in true believers in governments, 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:10.199 you know. 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:14.440 Yeah, I hear you. The one thing we would add 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:17.040 as an asterisk to this is that money is a 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:21.520 representation of resource, right, it's labor over time. So there 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:26.720 are historically massive upheavals in social dynamics where people are 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:30.480 starving and someone comes along and says, I'll feed you, right, 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:33.160 and you can worry about the other stuff. We can 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:36.520 talk about that later. But wouldn't you like to eat 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:39.240 something when you like some rootabagas, some squash, et cetera, 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:41.439 and please. 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:46.120 That's a good way to get loyalty, right. 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:50.160 Right exactly. And so money then is an escalation of 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.360 that age old concept and these. Yeah, I love your 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:54.800 point about the Overton window. 0:10:54.920 --> 0:10:55.079 Right. 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:58.280 So here in the US, sure, the big boys, the 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:01.920 Democrats and the Republicans actively work together like Pepsi and 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:06.520 coke to repress competitors, to kill them in the womb, really, 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:11.360 or to buy them or buy them, neuter them somehow, right, sanitize, 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:14.640 sterilize them. And that's why far right movements and far 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:18.400 left movements and independent movements are all over the US. 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:22.679 But the FEC won't let them be uh. And that's fine. 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:25.319 That is Federal Election Commission. 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:28.880 That is Yeah, check out our episode on that speaking. 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:33.040 Yeah, good luck getting on a debate that it means 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:35.800 anything whatsoever one of those parties. 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:39.040 It's sort of like Oscar campaigns. Like everyone thinks magically 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:41.640 that the best things win the Oscar, But the things 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:43.920 that win the Oscar are the ones that had the 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:47.560 big money behind them to make their Oscar campaigns. You know, 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:49.760 it's I mean, it's just it's it's an illusion of 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:53.400 quality or this illusion of like democracy, I guess, or 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:55.120 you know, what's the word I'm looking for. 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:59.240 Meritocracy. Yes, meritocracy. I love that word and I wish 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:02.679 it was practiced more often. Also. You know, one thing 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:05.720 that's totally different from that, of course, is the podcast awards. 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:07.800 Everybody tune in for the MP's and the Webbies coming 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:08.439 to a town near you. 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:10.319 Yeah, definitely the fixes and in on those. 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:15.520 So we see that these smaller groups, right may team 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:19.679 up with the big dogs on certain issues, right like 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:24.520 the the LDP, which is a weirdly misleading name, is 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:26.720 the big party in Japan. We'll get to them, but 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:29.480 they have under their umbrella they have a lot of 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:33.840 other smaller parties that agree with them on certain issues, 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:36.520 and we'll team up with them to vote for certain 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:40.000 things and policies. But at the same time, these smaller crews, 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:43.600 these smaller clicks, are still pushing other parts of their 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:46.720 respective agendas. That happens constantly. 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:53.680 In Japan is a quote unquote proper democracy, right, Well, yes, okay, okay, 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:56.679 I'm just just asking the question. Yeah, I don't know, 0:12:56.760 --> 0:12:59.320 it's not on it like, it's just not something that 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:02.280 I am completely immersed in, you know, And I think 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:05.400 I get it in general, but I want to know 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:07.720 when a lot of these shifts took place, and I 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:09.480 have to imagine that some of them took place after 0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:09.840 the war. 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:11.840 It's a democracy on a diet. 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:14.640 It's a democracy on a diet. Diet, let's get a drug, 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:19.760 let's get Dylan. Thank you for anybody who notices that 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:23.199 is an amazing joke. That's very well written, and thank 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:25.600 you for that. Matt. Yeah, maybe the way to say 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:29.719 it is Japan is a diet is the funniest way. 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:34.160 But Japan is a democracy that loves its royal family well. 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:37.160 And one could maybe argue that that makes it easier 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:39.360 to control, and that there's probably it's a little more 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:42.480 consistent than things over here might be right. 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:47.520 Yes, it's similar to what we see in European style 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:51.160 democracies that still have a royal family that might have 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:55.240 largely symbolic power, but a great deal of economic heft 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:57.520 because they own a lot of stuff from back in 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:01.960 the day. But they have these weird agreements that say 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:05.520 something like, yes, you are required as the you know, 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:07.640 the king of this place or the queen of this place, 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:11.439 to show up for these events. You make these speeches, 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:14.600 you know what I mean, where that funny outfit, where 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:18.440 this specific outfit, and then you go back home and 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:22.920 we're going we the elected representatives are going to handle 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:25.120 the day to day business of government and the wheel 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:29.560 of power, and that's that's a thing that sounds silly, 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:33.680 but it is an important distinction. And the United States, 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:38.360 not once, but at multiple times got so very close 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:42.480 to having acknowledged monarchs, and it's a bullet we keep 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:43.560 trying to matrix dodge. 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:47.920 It was absolutely a post war situation when they had 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:52.760 a constitution drafted and became a democracy after being you know, 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:54.680 having their asses handed to them. 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:56.560 Yeah, at the end of World War two. 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:58.480 Oh, we we'll get to that, but we have to 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:00.200 point out too and is answering my own question that 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:05.040 genuine I just was guessing that that was probably tasty, have. 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:06.280 Omami to it. 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:08.480 Yeah, we're gonna have to get in the weeds when 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:11.600 it comes to like what the what the democracy actually 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:14.240 looks like, how it functions, the different ways it's split up. 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:17.760 And then the emperor has some sneaky stuff in there 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:21.640 that's way more powerful than you'd expect, and we'll get 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:23.400 let's get into that, but first of all, let's let's 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:26.000 jump back to the US really quickly, because we're talking 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:29.360 about some of the ways in which these sub parties, right, 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:32.760 not the big players can actually play a role in 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:34.640 let's say election right. 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:38.960 In pushing the Overton window of conversation. You know, the 0:15:39.040 --> 0:15:41.720 Green We're probably never going to have a Green Party 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:46.640 president in most of our listener's lifetimes. And you might 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:49.640 hear this and be in the US and you might say, look, 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:53.320 the Green Party, what a bunch of cuckoos. Anarchy is dumb, 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:56.120 Or you might not vibe with libertarians, or you might 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:59.600 be embarrassed by a local politician that you personally don't 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:02.120 support your neck of the woods. But the thing is 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:06.239 that's not inherently bad. When democracy works, it gives everyone 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:11.240 the opportunity to make their opinions known. The original donors 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:14.240 to any campaign were always supposed to be the voters. 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:18.000 Has changed post Citizens United, and that's never been true 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:21.360 in practice. But that's the idea on the paper. 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:23.320 It really is great in theory. 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:26.640 It's so much stuff is cool in theory. Like I 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:30.000 told you guys about trying to invent the farido, it's 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:33.840 a burrito that also utilizes the amazing technology of FA 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:36.680 and the world's just not ready quite yet. 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:38.480 There's called tortillas. 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:44.560 We'll see. Now we've just formed two different parties and 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:48.160 we can work together. Okay, So we know that these 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:51.920 times of instability, this is just the quick abstract structuralis 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:56.479 above it. The times of instability create opportunities for beliefs 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:59.880 and movements that would have been dismissed as fringe. Right, 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:04.200 everything's going to pot everything's going sideways and pear shaped, 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:08.639 and this leads us to the public to say, there's 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:10.600 got to be a better way, just like on a 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:13.400 made for TV commercial. That's why the threat of war 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:19.480 and economic collapse in particular historically often lead to nationalism, 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:23.560 to do countries saying hey us first. 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:25.960 Yeah, yeah, we've been spending a lot of resources in 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:28.960 time out there in the others, in the other worlds. 0:17:29.280 --> 0:17:32.879 What about this place? Man? What about my pension? And 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:34.440 I get that makes total sense. 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:35.920 I mean when the planes going down, they say put 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:37.959 the mask on yourself first, So you know, it does 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:41.280 to a certain degree. But then it becomes a rhetoric 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:45.160 in and of itself where it supplants like everything else 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:48.080 and sometimes even you know, things way outside of the 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:49.119 realms of like logic. 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:53.560 Yeah. The thing about binary in out group reasoning is 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:57.439 that it feels very convenient at the beginning, but you 0:17:57.560 --> 0:18:05.080 have to realize those that ideology only gains power as 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:08.720 long as the inn group gets smaller and smaller. So 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:13.000 let's say you have a dozen friends, right, and then 0:18:13.240 --> 0:18:15.840 eleven of you decide, Hey, we're going to ice this 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:17.840 one guy out and we're just not going to talk 0:18:17.880 --> 0:18:20.200 to him. We'll have a separate group thread for that guy, 0:18:20.720 --> 0:18:24.880 and then we the eleven real people are real friends, 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:27.919 will have our own thing and then from there to 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:31.560 continue that system. It's a Ponzi scheme of exclusion that 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:33.959 sounds way smarter than it is, but it's very accurate. 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:36.239 It seems a bit like what's happening with Putin and 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:38.320 Modi and China over there. 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:41.080 You know, just so, just so, and it happens to 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:45.439 a lot of microcosmics, like on the ground, individual friend groups. 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:51.000 So we know that an example of nationalism threatening democracy, 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:54.320 we can see it in the story of Marine General 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:59.960 Smedley Butler real pos back in the day. He probably 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:04.560 stopped a coup, a fascistic coup to overthrow democracy. 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:06.840 In the US brad podcast about it that you had 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:09.000 to hand in Ben called Let's start a coup? If 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:10.760 I'm not mistaken. If you want more on that, do 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:11.600 check it out. 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:15.600 Appreciate it. It's the most unhinged Sesame Street kind of 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:19.480 thing I've ever written, but it's a lot of fun. 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:22.000 Check out the phenomenal actors and our friends at the 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:24.399 School of Humans. And this is where we get to 0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:27.520 the questions we're raising. Now we've talked about the US 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:30.040 Japanese parallels, We're going to see a lot of that's 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:34.080 in these conspiracies. Japan has a deep, deep history with 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:37.960 nationalism before the horrors of World War Two. You don't 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:40.120 have to look too far back in your history book 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:44.240 to see the evidence of that. These ultra nationalistic forces 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:48.800 committed heinous atrocities. They rationalized each and every one as 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:51.959 noble ACKs for a greater good Japan first. 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:55.720 Oh yeah, it's an interesting thing that occurs when nationalism 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:59.679 becomes like the main ideology, because when things are all 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:03.480 about you and us and what we're doing and how 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:07.680 to better us, it often leads that country or that 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:11.280 group or that empire into other places to then make 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:15.200 that stuff them, to make that stuff us right, And 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:19.000 we're talking about resources, we're talking about peoples, We're talking 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:23.240 about a lot of accumulation essentially through let's continue calling 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:25.440 them heinous acts and atrocities. 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:30.960 Yeah, and this leads us to post World War two Japan. 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:34.800 Post World War two Japan, ever since the close of 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:39.760 the war, has always been a politically conservative democracy, and 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:42.199 you don't have to agree with the policies of the 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:46.159 dominant Liberal Democratic Party, which by the way, is again 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:53.320 just a farcical name. They're not particularly liberal, they're kind 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:56.960 of democratic. They do party though, so one out of three, 0:20:57.119 --> 0:20:59.680 one out of three for their name, but the public 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:02.200 also so who votes for them. That's how democracy works. 0:21:02.240 --> 0:21:05.280 So you don't have to like that party's policies, but 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:08.880 you do have to recognize that since World War Two, 0:21:10.000 --> 0:21:13.920 in modern Japan, these have been, you know, the big dogs. 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:17.159 The most people agree on this party, and they're not 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:20.000 you know, they're not World War two cats. They're not 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:23.480 yelling from the rooftops to invade Banchuria. They're not saying, hey, 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:26.560 let's do hey, you guys, remember war crimes, let's do 0:21:26.600 --> 0:21:30.640 some of those. They like global trade, they're not opposed to tourism. 0:21:30.960 --> 0:21:33.600 And if you put aside the usual culture wars that 0:21:33.680 --> 0:21:37.600 happened there and here in the US, the mainstream LDP 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:40.520 is a lot more like to your question. Note what 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:43.800 we would call center right, the way that the Democratic 0:21:43.840 --> 0:21:48.040 Party is a neoliberal center right organization here in the US. 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:53.320 Interesting, should we talk a little bit just quickly about 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:54.560 the Constitution of Japan? 0:21:54.920 --> 0:21:57.119 I'm interested. I mean, yeah, how did it come around? 0:21:57.119 --> 0:21:57.960 How did it come about? 0:21:58.040 --> 0:21:58.159