• Anvil Lavigne@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    20·
    4 months ago

    the ö’s make this even more amusing, as i can’t be sure it was an accidental dick-up instead of a nordic memelord giggling themself to sleep.

      • bangsnooter@lemmy.zip
        17·
        4 months ago

        Wikipedia

        On 8 July 2022, Tetsuya Yamagami appeared at the northern exit of Yamato-Saidaiji Station, Nara at 11:30 am, where Shinzo Abe was delivering a campaign speech for a Liberal Democratic Party candidate in the upcoming Upper House election. Abe was positioned inside a traffic island of the crossroad, facing away from the train station. Yamagami was situated behind Abe, with a street separating them. Subsequently, Yamagami began to slowly approach Abe, going unnoticed by Abe’s bodyguards. Yamagami then discharged a homemade shotgun, seemingly not hitting anyone in the vicinity. Upon hearing the noise, Abe turned his head to look behind him. Yamagami took a few steps forward and fired a second round. Abe immediately displayed signs of severe pain and collapsed to the ground. Abe’s bodyguards rushed towards Yamagami and restrained him on the ground.

        Yamagami told investigators that his motive had been personal rather than political.[55][56][57][58] After his mother joined the Unification Church around 1991 to 1998,[a][26] she had given the church about 100 million yen (US$720,000), a parcel of land she had inherited from her father, and the house where she lived with her three children; she subsequently declared bankruptcy in 2002. She had continued donating to the church following the bankruptcy. Yamagami’s uncle recalled being contacted by Yamagami and his siblings to complain that they had no food at home, electric bills and house rent were often overdue, prompting the uncle to deliver meals and money for living expenses.

        Yamagami blamed the Unification Church for his family’s financial problems and held a grudge against the group. Researching the church’s connections to Abe in the months before the attack, he believed the former prime minister and his maternal grandfather, former prime minister Nobusuke Kishi, spread the church’s influence in Japan.

        Yamagami is described by some commentators who wrote for The Economist and The Atlantic as one of the most effective political assassins in recent history. The assassination brought the many social issues with the Unification Church under the spotlight again, as well as tumbled the approval of the ruling party. Under the public pressure, the responsible ministry decided to file a dissolution order against the UC with the Tokyo District Court on 13 October 2023, after nearly a year of investigation of wrongdoings.

        • emergencyfood@sh.itjust.worksOP
          25·
          4 months ago

          I wouldn’t call him imperialist, but he repeatedly denied WW2 Japanese war crimes (in particular the Nanking massacre and the use of Korean ‘comfort women’). This is the rough equivalent of a German Chancellor denying the Holocaust.

          • Paraponera_clavata@lemmy.world
            53·
            4 months ago

            I wouldn’t call him imperialist either. I think he was a pretty decent leader for Japan. He wasn’t murdered for his politics, but because of his religious affiliation.

            • emergencyfood@sh.itjust.worksOP
              9·
              4 months ago

              It wasn’t just religious affiliation. He, and others in the LDP, protected the Moonies in return for their political support. It was very much a political issue (separation of church and state).

              • Paraponera_clavata@lemmy.world
                1·
                4 months ago

                Ah, so he protected them from being prosecuted or something?

                My understanding is the murder’s family was ruined by donating to the church. The murderer wrote.that.he planned to kill the church leader,.but changed.his mine cause Abe was more famous and would get more attention. I don’t think there is evidence that the murderers motivations were political, but I could be wrong. Happen to have a source?

                • emergencyfood@sh.itjust.worksOP
                  4·
                  4 months ago

                  Ah, so he protected them from being prosecuted or something?

                  More or less. Not he alone, but many senior LDP leaders with him at the helm.

                  The murderer wrote.that.he planned to kill the church leader,.but changed.his mine cause Abe was more famous and would get more attention.

                  Correct.

                  I don’t think there is evidence that the murderers motivations were political, but I could be wrong.

                  As I understand, he wanted to draw attention to the Moonies while ‘punishing’ someone he held responsible for his family’s condition.

          • Kusimulkku@lemm.eeEnglish
            7·
            4 months ago

            I think that’s par for the course for Japanese politicians. A lot of them seem to categorically deny all the atrocities.

  • Denvil@lemmy.one
    1241·
    4 months ago

    “Shot an unpopular politician”

    Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?

    (Yes ik Trump)

      • edric@lemm.ee
        50·
        4 months ago

        It’s kinda true in the sense that:

        • One side hates him because he tried to kill their god.

        • Another side hates him because he missed.

        • And another side hates him for attempting it in the first place because all it does is make an already very unstable political situation even worse no matter the outcome.

      • XTL@sopuli.xyz
        4·
        4 months ago

        I’m guessing it’s closer to 190 nations. (Trump, not the assassin)

    • LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world
      61·
      4 months ago

      I mean, define “popular politician” / " unpopular politician." Does the fact that the media constantly shoves all these yahoos in our faces make these political figures popular? Unpopular? It’s all corrupt and I hate every mention of ANY politician’s names, while some people choose politicians to cheer for like it’s a fekkin sports team.

  • Kusimulkku@lemm.eeEnglish
    47·
    4 months ago

    I think you’ll see plenty of attempts after this, some inspired by it and others in retaliation. Fun times for the US

      • Kusimulkku@lemm.eeEnglish
        21·
        4 months ago

        Failed attempts are enough to escalate things. And with enough attempts, some especially against smaller targets might succeed. It’s gonna get intetesting

          • fishos@lemmy.worldEnglish
            101·
            4 months ago

            The same Secret Service who left one of the only buildings in the area unsecured? Who when told there was a shooter by the crowd, ignored them? Making a lot of assumptions about competency here when that’s already directly in question.

      • fishos@lemmy.worldEnglish
        71·
        4 months ago

        Umm… Shouldn’t the first attempt have been unlikely? This literally proves Secret Service isn’t as competent as you believe.

  • anachronist@midwest.socialEnglish
    661·
    4 months ago

    There was a time when America could reliably produce assassins who could kill both presidential candidates and even sitting presidents. What the he’ll happened? Deindustralization? Too much porn and video games?

    • EABOD25@lemm.eeEnglish
      118·
      4 months ago

      Radicalization of ideologies is my bet. Radicals on both sides scream that the other side is evil which creates something broken in the easily influenced. Hell there’s even some radicals that believe that Trump needed to be killed to stop him. And thanks to this person, Trumps side is only bolstered.

      I’m sure the next thing we will see is finger pointing. However whoever is going to read this and wants to hear some wisdom from a fellow random internet stranger; let this guy stand alone. Do not blame the other side or accuse them of wild theories or accusations. If you do go radical, the situation is only going to get worse

        • EABOD25@lemm.eeEnglish
          43·
          4 months ago

          Your guess is as good as mine. Fear, anger, self-righteousness, ego, self-esteem, etc… I don’t think there is a one good answer to that question

      • RedditRefugee69@lemmy.world
        2·
        4 months ago

        Inb4 Republican conspiracy that Biden told his secret service to intentionally lapse security in order to assassinate Trump. If you thought Benghazi conspiracies were bad…

      • mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
        31·
        4 months ago

        The people mad at Nazis are really shrill, just like the Nazis. So they must be equally wrong. Right?

        And yes we really are dealing with fascists at the moment, please be serious instead of grasping for some ‘juuust becaaause’ excuse as to why someone would make the comparison. They are comparable. That’s why. The Idiot has openly opined about being a dictator (just a little! just the tip!) after instigating a failed coup that saw every elected member of the federal government besides him cowering in a basement because an angry mob stormed the goddamn capitol. That’s not counting the other coup d’etat efforts, like extorting allies for foreign interference, secretly calling governors to just make up numbers, or indeed sending fake electors to make up the numbers himself. The GOP’s publicly-stated policy goals include criminalizing queer identities, banning birth control, and seeking revenge on anyone who’s not personally loyal to dear leader. I don’t give a shit if you might think they wouldn’t succeed in these efforts. The fact they want that, and are openly talking about trying to do it, is what makes them fascists.

        • psivchaz@reddthat.com
          6·
          4 months ago

          I think people are placing too much on this. Being registered is just sending a piece of mail with a checkbox checked, I think. You don’t even have to donate or anything. I registered as a Republican to vote in their primaries a long time ago, and I have literally never voted for a Republican candidate for any office.

          • Croquette@sh.itjust.works
            3·
            4 months ago

            Any sane person would think like you, but if the shooter was a registered democrat, you know that the GOP would have used that as well to accuse Biden even more.

        • anachronist@midwest.socialEnglish
          31·
          4 months ago

          Yeah but he also donated to ActBlue so it sounds like he was a RINO Libtard. Probably a Marco Rubio supporter.

    • massive_bereavement@fedia.io
      272·
      4 months ago

      That act weakened the Japanese Socialist party (center-left), emboldened the far-right, caused copycats and ensured the current party stayed in power for most of the twentieth century.

      That’s not to say that Asanuma was a scummy maoist and had forced his party to support the terrible war in Asia.

  • greenskye@lemm.eeEnglish
    27·
    4 months ago

    I’ve honestly been really surprised that this was the only ‘real’ assassination attempt in recent memory. I was surprised that no one went after Obama, nor Trump after him and Biden after him. The rage was so high, yet it’s only now that anyone from either side makes a real attempt.

    • mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
      5·
      4 months ago

      Hierarchy tends to prevent violence by providing an authority to appeal to. So long as there is some process people can take, in hope of redress, they will choose that instead of just stabbing a motherfucker. This applies to interpersonal conflict with your neighbor, or mass conflict between religious groups, indeed everybody seeing a fat old baby commit high crimes on national television. Even if you feel the odds are abysmal, that can be enough to stop you from grabbing your pitchfork with intent to use it.

      Belief in those systems is a finite resource.

    • Thomrade@lemm.ee
      6·
      4 months ago

      I’m just making a guess here, but there could have been more attempts that were nippedl in the bud early enough that we have never heard of them, because the would-be assaains were sloppier and got caught.