That’s why the far right has become so cute – Arbetet

article. seven in the evening On September 10, the Twitter account of the Swedish Democrats posted an official thank-you message for the election campaign to its nearly 130,000 followers.

A short video set to music with a modified version of Ungsvenskarna’s song “Sol igen” she made on Smurfhits.

In the video, Neil, adorned with Jimmy Okeson’s sunglasses, had to decorate characters from the cartoon. Everything from swollen muscle knots Bake the Grabbler And the he is a man To a badass year from the anime series initial dAnd the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure And the Dragon Ball.

It can be summed up in one word: strange. In two words: “esoteric confusion” – something so unfathomably ugly that it can only attract the most affected people online. Or maybe anime lovers.

The Venn diagram for the two classes is almost a complete circuit.

Åkesson’s idol image

It’s also not the first time that Jimmy Okeson has been portrayed in this way. In 2015, his private Facebook profile picture to changed to a half-pained idol avatar of himself as a manga character with a triumphant smile and a Swedish flag.

He captioned the photo: “Meet Yummie Aki-San.” There, in one fell swoop, both a recurring personal nightmare and a pseudonym that I hope more people use for him to this day were born.

We can, and should, laugh at this. But the truth is, Yummie was ahead of her time.

Giorgia Meloni – the neo-fascist sworn in as Italy’s next prime minister – has on several occasions shared her fan art that she drew as an anime character, for propaganda purposes.

Donald Trump, during his political heyday, also often appeared in memes alongside (or at worst: drawn as) cute, wide-eyed characters.

So how does the far right have such a special relationship with Japanese anime characters?

Japan’s right-wing nationalist

Part of the explanation may be found in Japan’s right-wing nationalist politics and history, as well as the culture it expresses, at least through a number of anime series. The second part, which is more interesting, requires some historical archeology on the Internet.

In 1999, Hiroyuki Nishimura started the Japanese web cover boy 2channel, a forum for discussing animation and computer games. In a few years, the site became the scene of a large number of scandals.

Most notable was the culture of announcing murders and suicides in the forum, prior to their implementation.

It has also become a place where the new Japanese right, Netto-uyoku, can express its anger toward South Korea. They felt that the country’s abuses – such as the unfair play of football – were silenced by the established media.

In addition to South Koreans and the mainstream media, immigrants, liberals, and the left have received their fair share of hate, in a pattern that the vast majority of those on the Internet should feel familiar.

Netto-uyoku early on engaged in strategies to silence political opponents. Coordinated motivations against fake comment or consensus fields were invented by sending spam from fewer representatives.

“Moot” Paul Meets 4chan

When 15-year-old Christopher “Moot” Paul created the English-language 2chan impersonator 4chan in 2003, the purpose was the same as the original: a forum for spam and discussion of animation.

It’s funny that, like the original, it will be referred to many years later as a breeding ground for the American alt-right movement.

Richard Spencer, founder of altright.com, has often expressed appreciation for the politics of Japan and anime. In an interview with Buzzfeed News, he said that the comics “fit the alt-right aesthetic,” and that online culture is invaluable in reaching young people.

“A 22-year-old guy, who just graduated from college, works at Starbucks and is grumpy and scattered without really knowing why. You can get to him through a meme, while you wouldn’t get to him through a book on the traditional.”

And so the dozens of damned young men that Spencer specifically identified were provided with a goal to thwart them. They had plenty of time to spend spreading hate as well as pictures of cute manga girls online, preferably together.

SD Aesthetics uses

Yummie Aki-San may be a secret fan of anime, but it’s possible that SD communicators, Meloni, and others who use the aesthetic have seen it as a language spoken by would-be sympathizers.

For the millions of anime fans who don’t like fascism, and the rest of us unlucky enough to be born with working eyes, it unfortunately remains inexplicably embarrassing.