From a scathing review of The Russian Protocols of Zion in Japan
The Protocols arrived in Japan at the same time it did in the United States and other countries. Japan dispatched more than 70,000 troops to Russia between 1918 and 1922 in the Siberian Expedition, part of an abor- tive international attempt to reverse the Russian Revolution. There they were exposed to the forgery by White Russian troops, who had been issued copies to familiarize them with the ruthless enemy against whom they were supposedly fighting. Japanese soldiers and personnel brought the Protocols back to Japan, where it was translated and disseminated.
There are two views concerning the Protocols’ reception in Japan. The first is that the Protocols essentially created antisemitism in Japan, where it was previously unknown. This theory suggests that the Japanese were for the most part innocent of negative views of Jews until the early 1920s, when they were duped. The second theory, which Miyazawa Masanori and I develop in our book Jews in the Japanese Mind: The History and Uses of a Cultural Stereotype,7 is that, while the Japanese were hardly inveterate antisemites and the Protocols did indeed inject a virulent new dimension into Japanese attitudes toward Jews (as the work did in other countries, as well), the Protocols fell on prepared ground in Japan. Japan had a long and rich tradition of anti-Christian polemics that inveighed against a global con- spiracy by adherents of an “occult religion” (yo ̄kyo ̄, i.e., Christianity) to sub- jugate Japan, which prefigured and made credible later conspiracy theories concerning Jews. And by the 1920s the Japanese had internalized the rich repertory of negative stereotypes of Jews they found in the most prestigious Western sources, from the Gospels to William Shakespeare, from Charles Dickens to the Oxford English Dictionary.
The governor declares the state bankrupt, shuts down most services, and raises taxes by 52%. Hothead Oliver demands the locals protest and, after hearing Lisa’s story of how her father the king responded to a tax increase, secedes from the union. They blow up the bridge out of town and anoint Mr. Douglas as King Oliver I. Now in a panic, Governor Carstairs puts on his waders and comes to Hooterville for a summit with his royal highness.
It would mean deciding large scale policy with relatively like minded New Englanders instead of trying to accommodate Florida and the Dakotas; and being far less beholden to the south and west. It would also mean diluting the power of the red factions, making it easier to enact progressive changes. It would open the door to make things easier for locally relevant movements and third parties and more difficult for continental monopolies.
Most of the burdens of government would be shifted from a continental to a regional scale- with populations and areas more comparable to successful states like those in the EU than unilateral superpowers like China and the USSR. This would allow them to focus on issues that are most important for their own citizens.
Likewise, it would mean that TN and WV would have less meddling (and financial support) from those coastal elites they hate so much. An otherwise progressive party which aligned more closely with local sentiments towards gun control may be able to garner more support than a Democratic candidate bringing the full slate of a national platform.
I don’t think enacting new restrictions on freedom of travel and interstate commerce and Constitutionally protected rights is really the recipe for freedom and prosperity you seem to imagine.
How did things work out last time a “culturally homogeneous” group of states decided they wanted to do their own thing?
Good fucking question.
Diversity of background, culture and thought is one of our greatest national assets, not a liability.
The US may have serious and systemic problems, but I like what it is now way better than the deep south under the original federalist vision, which was basically hell.
FYI - Connecticut is part of New England. And Rhode Island. Both of which have more in common with Massachusetts than Maine does. And are closer. MA tends to look at Mainiacs as hicks.
Certainly against the part of the Syrian Civil War where Russia bombed population centers to accelerate throwing the refugee crisis on the west, knocking over various dominoes, including giving Trump his xenophobe starting base.
Or we can just stop taking fascists and their seriously and just promote democracy and rule of law. If they don’t like such things they don’t have to stay.
Nah… easier to just give up and hand half the country over to them. After all, every political stance is absolutely valid and democracy means we just let the majority decide who matters and who does not. /s
We’re closer now than we’ve ever been, and some people are just willing to hand them a win for expediencies sake.
well y’all, i have been keenly watching this thread and have tried to form a non-knee-jerk response to a highly reactive premise.
my staunch, unrelenting take is to give no ground to any fascist.
none.
in this specious thought experiment proposed by @MikeTheBard , where do I go? where do my family and dear friends go, if the “deep south”* is to be given to fanatics who would see us murdered for our differences?
sir, consider this: the island archipelago off the southern tip of florida is claimed as part of the “contiguous” united states. where would you have us go? i quite like my home. i do not approve of the governor’s fascist leanings, nor his usurping of local autonomy of municipalities (like Key West, among other municipalities) to give Tallahassee the ultimate say in what local government can legislate. I will not give up my beautiful home or any of my neighbor’s land, nor peace of mind, to ANY marauder least of all any nazi fascist assholes.
[*you call us the “deep south”, yet where i live is further south than the most southern tip of texas. the only other state (not including territories, obvs) in the US at a more southerly latitude is Hawaii!] WHY? why do i give my piece of my own idea of paradise to murderous shitheads in an irresponsible attempt to appease what cannot be appeased??!! where do you want me to go? New York? Massachusetts? California? back to Washington? c’mon, man… i am here because i want to be! the ocean, the coral reef. those resources do not belong to anyone.
they definitely do not belong to fascist destroyers. “that’s all i have to say about that.”
seriously and just promote democracy and rule of law. If they don’t like such things they don’t have to stay.
