Profile picture
Naomi Clark [暗悪・直美] @metasynthie
, 11 tweets, 5 min read Read on Twitter
Something's going unremarked in media coverage of Friday's nights Charlottesville-esque brawl on NYC's Upper East Side: why did the local GOP campaign HQ invite Proud Boys to re-enact the 1960 far-right assassination of an elected left-wing politician? newsweek.com/violent-far-ri…
Inejiro Asanuma was the head of Japan's socialist party when my mother was in college there. He was further left than any US politico today (criticized for kissing up to China)... but closest equivalent? Imagine if Bernie Sanders or Dennis Kucinich got killed during a TV debate.
His assassination by a right-wing ultranationalist is an infamous TV clips in Japanese history. I'm posting it in part because McInnes was re-enacting it not just for fun, but for "historical context and perspective." (The murder is sudden, at 1:13.)
The murderer was 17 years old, just a boy. But he'd joined a far-right group, the kind that demanded a return to tradition and a purging of foreign influence. Sound familiar? He hung himself in a juvenile detention cell after writing a pro-Imperial message on the wall.
Asanuma's party, which held a third of Japan's legislature, complained of a cover-up by their incumbent opponents to the right. So why would McInnes re-enact this particular murder? Well, it emboldened the hard right--and a split after the murder caused socialists to lose power.
Does this all sound like obscure history? Not so fast. Asanuma's killer is still honored & revered by far-right groups in Japan for "driving out Communism." Here's a public event from the end of 2010. And hmm... look, some more recent anti-left comments!
People who monitor far-right memelords & "alt-right" types know this assassination has been glorified in recent years via memes, t-shirts, hasty videos, etc. Most likely reason it's come to McInnes' attention? CW: typical gross, febrile anti-Semitic+racist alt-right crud
So there you have it: the Manhattan GOP may or may not be aware of this? But they invited a "pro-Western" group to glorify an ultra-nationalist assassination that's been hailed by the far-right as way to push the left out of a country's politics--via terrifying televised murder.
I made this thread in part because this isn't being reported on so far; the Manhattan GOP have given no comment or explanation, and FOX News is deploying mistruth to portray the extreme right-wing and their GOP hosts as pure victims. buzzfeednews.com/article/juliar…
Here's McInnes' latest Instagram post, BTW. Any journalist covering this should be aware that "Even If It Means Sacrificing Everything, Just Do It" is over a picture of a young man (from a group similar to McInnes's) murdering the head of a left-wing party to "stop Socialism etc"
More reports for those seeking further sources.
NY Mag reports from inside the GOP event, complete with Asian-caricature costumes and fake accents: bedfordandbowery.com/2018/10/inside…
SPLC notes the presence of 3 local skinheads with neo-Nazi affiliations: splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018…
Missing some Tweet in this thread?
You can try to force a refresh.

Like this thread? Get email updates or save it to PDF!

Subscribe to Naomi Clark [暗悪・直美]
Profile picture

Get real-time email alerts when new unrolls are available from this author!

This content may be removed anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @metasynthie see all

Profile picture
I love this kind of research: if you ask a group of people to imagine being physically invulnerable before an opinion survey, the Republicans' opinions on social change shift leftwards to where they're indistinguishable from the Democrats' washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-…
The over-simplistic take on this research is "conservatives are cowards" but c'mon it's much more interesting to note that their opinions are more responsive to threats against physical safety & well-being. May explain both fear-mongering & political leanings of high-threat jobs?
Other studies have noted that liberals experience the opposite--when exposed to physical threat, their opinions temporarily become more conservative. This has interesting ramifications for how we deploy & consider nightmarish-dystopian vs optimistic utopian scenarios in politics.
Read 3 tweets
Profile picture
Can't wait for the Shadow of the Colossus HD remake's first round of DLC: "Time Savers" that make your horse gallop much faster, taking you right to the big fights. It's all empty plains between them anyway, right
This tweet occasioned by the divisive grind in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey? You can buy "Time Saver" options that speed it up, but which is the "actual game?" The slower, more laborious base-price version? Or the boosted version where you're powerful at a quicker pace?
You can't *really* believe those who insist a game with more grind is by definition worse, even if you also desire a quicker pace; it's clearly a matter of preference, since some people prefer a slower, drawn-out game with more procedural encounters.
Read 10 tweets
Profile picture
The depraved and indifferent certitude of people commenting on this site, calling into television/radio, etc just to insist a woman is lying about the most traumatic incident of her life speaks volumes about our society's capacity for evil on this subject: rape by the privileged.
Even leaving aside hideous "boys just do that!" talk, the kinds of questions constantly being asked ("how could nobody else know?") show willful denial of how this kind of violence functions: out of view, drowned in loud music, shrouded in shame, protected by entitled heritage.
The best thing I've read about the social dynamics at work here -- not even Ford's experiences, but the entire milieu in which people like Kavanaugh operate -- is this piece by @Millicentsomer slate.com/news-and-polit…
Read 3 tweets

Related threads

Profile picture
THREAD: Far-right groups are organizing a "We the People" rally in Philadelphia for Saturday, 11/17.

They're also planning violence against protesters.

This is a screenshot from their leaked security chat, where they discuss what weapons they can legally bring.
2) And in the above screenshot, that's Head of Security Jerry Smith talking with Proud Boy Alan Swinney.

This is rally organizer Holly Delcampo introducing Jerry as the head of security.
3) I threaded on Jerry yesterday. He's an antisemite with militia ties.
Read 22 tweets
Profile picture
Tomorrow, Virginians decide whether to vote Corey Stewart into the US Senate.

Tomorrow marks 451 days since 8/12/17, the weekend when violent neo-Nazis came to beat & murder people on the streets outside my home.

How is Corey Stewart responsible?

Let me count the ways.

(1/55)
Most of the world is familiar with the scenes of tiki torches, swastikas, and mob beatings from the weekend when white supremacists, neo-Nazis, Klansmen & genocidal bigots of every stripe all teamed up.

But this story starts months before Charlottesville became #Charlottesville.
Six months earlier, an unlikely friendship began between an irrelevant blogger looking for exposure and an underdog candidate trying to make a name for himself. Over months of joint events, Corey Stewart and Jason Kessler cultivated a mutually beneficial alliance. (3/55)
Read 59 tweets
Profile picture
These guys beat up people last week while screaming slurs, and the NYC police didn’t make arrests, and the news reported that the violence was done by anti-fascists who they falsely framed as the real problem, because we live in a society optimized for self-pitying bullies.
They aren’t in remotely the same bag. The proud boys are a group behind the Nazi occupation of Charlottesville last year.
Something to remember as a docile news media repeats the lie that Democrats are a violent mob.
Read 7 tweets
Profile picture
"Maybe nobody loved you when you were young
Maybe, boy, when you cry, nobody ever comes"
"proud boys" is more like "self-hating peter pans"
seriously how many of these people still get money from their parents?
If they ARE on the parental dole, then do Mommy & Daddy know what they've been getting up to?
What do Mom & Dad think?
Are Mommy & Daddy #proud of their little self-hating homophobic/homoerotic incel peter-pan sons?
Or will they cut off the money spigot, reprimand, and disown?
Read 3 tweets
Profile picture
In light of the arrests of several members of the Rise Above Movement (RAM) in relation to the events at Unite the Right in Charlottesville, few points need to be made, as we watch the State go after a small Alt-Right group over a year after the events in Cville.
First and foremost, the strategy and tactics used by police on A12 was informed by 'intelligence' gathered through DHS and Fusion Centers, that was clear: antifascists are the biggest threat to public safety and civil order. shadowproof.com/2018/03/07/doc…
Documents released from West Coast Fusion Centers, which in theory would have monitored the actions of RAM members, especially at Berkeley events, had the same conclusion, even directly stating that "ANTIFA" was "greatest threat to public safety." itsgoingdown.org/manufacturing-…
Read 15 tweets
Profile picture
1/ Leaked chats from the #Charlottesville organizers show a group trying to control bad impulses for good publicity. revealnews.org/article/in-cha…
2/ The murder of counter-protester Heather Heyer showed that those efforts were ultimately unsuccessful.
3/ In a conference call, an organizer advised attendees it was okay to think all non-whites should be killed, but don’t tell that to media.
Read 12 tweets

Trending hashtags

#peopleofcolor #reporters #ENERGY #Kushner #Firtash #Putin #Kiev #Johnson #Tatarchuk #campaign #AlfaBank #Mogilevich #Muslim #Russia #neutral #Charlottesville #Kislyak #Long #politics #Berkeley #divided #resisters #hacking #cabinet #MAGA

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just three indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member and get exclusive features!

Premium member ($30.00/year)

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!