QAnon fever has infected the minds of a lot of people. Like…a lot of people. And not just in America, as you might think (or, at the very least, hope) would be the case. No, crusaders against the international Democratic cabal of Satanic, pedophilic baby eaters hellbent on 5G microchip COVID-19 inoculations can reportedly be found in at least 70 nations across the world. As terrifying as that is, there remains at least one bastion against the chauvinistic MAGA cult: Japan.
“[QAnon] flopped in Japan, a country that’s no stranger to conspiracy theories. Even as Western media has portrayed otherwise, there are hardly any Q followers among the Japanese,” writes Matt Alt in a recent, fascinating op-ed for The New York Times, adding that the movement, most importantly, “has failed the test for the nation’s conspiracy connoisseurs.”
“It’s too naïve for our readership,” Takeharu Mikami, editor of the long-running Japanese conspiracy/UFO/cryptid publication Mu explained in another recent interview. To make a long story short, it’s not that the Japanese are strangers to all manner of offbeat, deadly cults and conspiracy theories; far from it. But it’s that legacy—coupled with a very particular combination of cultural, journalistic, and media trends—that guards most Japanese citizens from QAnon’s absurd claims.
“Much of Japanese culture takes pains to avoid conflict, leaving little room for the ideological combat favored by QAnon supporters…. Without the accelerant of identity politics, QAnon’s polarizing memes just can’t grip the Japanese psyche,” adds Alt.
It’s not all positive, unfortunately. Japan still struggles with generational malaise and its own fomenting conspiracies, so the Japanese certainly still have their work cut out for them. But at least they don’t have to endure terrible caricatures of Nancy Pelosi eating an infant forwarded to their email inbox every morning from their aunt.
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59 Comments
Of course. As if they weren’t part of it.* shows collection of ww2 leaflets historically proving that japanese people eat babies *
BUY WAR BONDS!
QAnon was too boring for Japan.
Wake them when the Democratic congressional leadership combine into Mecha-Hillary and start smashing up a major city.
Instead of the Curies, the Clintons!
I personally subscribe to the “Hillary’s Highschool Harem” theory.
Not enough defecating on surfboards.
Oh hell no. No no. There’s plenty of Trump worshippers over here and staggering number of people fell for the QAnon shit especially during the election time, making people call them “JAnon”.Part of the trend stems from their disdain of China, believing Biden would be soft on the country and the election was rigged to make him win. There’s still a lot of Japanese twitter users with Trump icon allegedly showing their support to him.
As some of the conspiracy theorists said when interviewed, “Qanon conveys a feeling of ‘community’ and ‘self-worth’’ which is a very, very cult attribute. No human is immune to this mentality, especially if they are part of the lower economic caste or are insecure with their place in the world, regardless of their socioeconomic status.
“Just give one decadent person an enemy, and they will empty their pockets for you.” – Often a sociopath’s MO.
In Japan’s case, since they practice mindfulness, I do see some ‘barriers’ to conspiracy theories but I as expressed above, cult mentalities are easy to install based on class structure alone, as well as feelings of entitlement.
You think all of Japan “practices” “mindfulness”? WTF lmao
Yeah, I don’t know how much Japanese people know or care about Q- It’s certainly not mainstream as I don’t hear anyone I know commenting on it- But as soon as I saw their Japan expert was Matt Alt I immediately knew to doubt everything that followed.
Yup. Don’t expect the Times to do their supposed job here. They’re fed their “foreign reporting” by the U.S. government and haven’t had a foreign bureau worth the name in years.
Yep. In Asia, also Hong Kong and Taiwanese pro-Trumpers are still a thing. People who didn’t give a shit about American politics and history two years ago suddenly thought they were all experts. Now that President Biden and his appointees are all challenging China on every front, they suddenly have nothing to say. And the Orange moron has said nothing as well. Where’s their Messiah? What happened to his imaginary promises?
…until they rebrand the whole thing into a vocaloid idol named Kyu-Chan.
Qanon needs more catgirls
And Hentai. Lots and lots of Hentai.
I had to Google Hentai. You Harry Dean Learn something new, every day.
I had to Google it too. Not because I didn’t know what it was, though. I just have a problem.
I also had to Google it. Not because I didn’t know what it was. And not because I have a problem. It’s great.
I googled it and all I got was clowns, clowns, clowns!
I googled it and all I got was pictures of hens wearing ties. It’s weird how google knows all my kinks.
You weren’t aware of that compulsion ?
And then you take a shower?
Typically a long hot shower that you huddle in the corner of crying…
yeh, that’s the one.
Take my damn upvote, you monster.
Cool racism bro
“So, these Demmycrats, when they fuck these kids, are they using tentacles?”“Er, no.”“PASS.”
Netorare appeared at the same time Trump assumed office. Coincidence?
I believe you mean magical girls and tentacles. That tracks.
I mean, Japan does have its issues with the far right. You have shit where their PM visits a shrine that famously houses the remains of war criminals and the mangaka of Atrack on Titan being a suspiciously big fan of Imperial Japan and denies that the Nanjing Massacre happened.
They also have a bunch of Trump and Qanon fans, but sure, mental midget, ramble about cartoons. You’re a straight-up psychopath.
Nanjing Massacre denial is definitely a common thing with Japanese. I’ve experienced it first hand. 🙁
Not excusing Isayama, but It’s a good thing at least, that AoT has taken a pretty clear anti-war tone in its final season. With the supposed good guys committing atrocities and being just as racist as their imperial rival, the rise of an ultranationalist faction, and a very clear message of the tragedy of indoctrination and propaganda that plagues both sides as well.
The Yasukuni shrine issue is a bit different, though. It’s a memorial to all Japanese war dead over the span of about a century, and to all the victims of WWII regardless of nationality. A small proportion of these were convicted war criminals.Pretty much the same issue – memorial sites for large groups of people who definitely or probably included some war criminals – appears in most countries with a military history. The US, for instance, has the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which memorialises American war criminals, not to mention Arlington Cemetary. But it’s not considered ‘far right’ for a US politician to pay respects at either site. The Yasukuni issue arises mostly just because Japan’s enemies are powerful today (unlike Vietnam).
Where we go bukkake we go all.
Cool racism bro
More “fung shooey advice” from Master Loo?
ANDREW YOUR AUNT AND I SEND YOU THOSE PHOTOS TO HELP EDUCATE YOU ON THE CABAL. ALSO MY CAPS KEY IS STUCK< CAN YOU STOP BY THIS EVENING AND FIX IT?
Without “identity politics”? As usual, the Times goes Nazi. And they’re wrong on the facts. Hop on Twitter some time and you’ll find plenty of Japanese QAnon psychos.
They are however very interested in the QuQiQaQeQo
Qolonel, Qhat aren’t you Qelling me?!
SnaQe? SnaQe!!!
The easy test to show that Qanon is just a smear campaign against the Democrats is that there are plenty of cults in America that tick all the boxes, including Scientology, but QAnon is pointedly ignoring them and just targeting Democrats.
Finland FTW.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/30/how-many-anti-vaxxers-does-it-take-to-misinform-the-world-just-twelveMisinformation is never going to go away; it isn’t just a Big Tech problem, it’s an education problem. Instead of just yelling at tech companies, politicians should be focusing on what Taiwan’s digital minister calls “nerd immunity” – the government should be investing in education so people have the skills to identify fake news.Finland, which was rated Europe’s most resistant nation to fake news last year, is one model of how you do this. In 2014, after an increase in disinformation from Russia, the government embedded media literacy in the national curriculum. Starting in primary school, kids learn the critical thinking skills needed to parse the modern information ecosystem. Students learn how easy it is to manipulate statistics in their maths lessons, for example. They learn how to distinguish satire from conspiracy theories in their Finnish lessons. They look at how images can be used for propaganda in art class. And this sort of education isn’t just given to children: Finnish civil servants, journalists and NGO workers are also trained in digital literacy skills.
and then they do this:
Good points. Just this morning my wife and I were talking about the education gap and how a lot of the problems with the US (i.e. half the country voting for an aspiring dictator with dementia) cannot be fixed with a band aid – they are structural and go back to education. In many cases, by the time someone believes the misinformation, its already too late. Of course, that’s a feature and not a bug in the Republican vision of education.
Being beholden to a religion adds to the misinformation and gullibility.Virus? The Lord Jesus will save us! I do wonder what happens when entire church groups get the virus; how do they explain it? Satan!
Michael Palin knows the score:
LOL, no. Anti-Russian propaganda has had a home in Finland all the way back to their alliance with Nazi Germany.
Take it easy there! Some of us enjoy Infant Breakfast With Auntie Nancy!
Still blows my mind that QAnon is followed by non-Americans around the world… I mean, it also blows my mind that my fellow Americans do, too, but there’s no shortage of stupid going around right now in the US.
what you think it is a local phenomena can be easily exported even with barely any change to other countries, importing the culture. Trumpism is being successfully exported everywhere even with the same tropes and ideas when the social distribution is different. I was following some Spanish twitter controversy the other day and I was surprised that the fear of mixed toilets was a thing now, when culturally that was never a problem… and then I saw that the discourse was imported directly.
I’ve never been to Japan, so I don’t know who’s right about this, but it seems like Bloomberg reached the exact opposite conclusion (last November, anyway):
“The conspiracy theory’s foothold in Japan — home to one of its most active networks outside the U.S. — demonstrates how the movement can be made palatable in a range of countries as it gains popularity from Europe to Brazil.Research by social media analytics firm Graphika Inc. shows the Japan-based QAnon community is among the most developed international chapters, with distinct terminology, influencers, and behaviors — such as idolizing Michael Flynn, a former U.S. national security adviser in the Trump administration.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-29/qanon-s-rise-in-japan-shows-conspiracy-theory-s-global-spread
that NYT piece is absolute nonsense. japan is rife with Q followers. check out nezumi_ningen on twitter. a cult researcher with multiple years of experience, she’s just coldly laughing at this.
Not true. Japan has a ton of qtards.
Maybe the Japanese media isn’t a piece of trash and actually report on stories instead of pushing their own narratives.