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Shinzo Abe: The Most Effective Assassination In History · Conspiracy! The Show

0:10
Speaker 1: Winter Insurance.
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Speaker 2: I'm true, I'm a checktat Insurance. Good true.
0:15
Speaker 1: Thanks.
0:32
Speaker 2: Hey, everybody, welcome to Conspiracy The Show. I am your host,
0:37
Speaker 2: Adam Todd Brown joining me as co host this week. Ooh,
0:41
Speaker 2: my favorite co host of all no co hosts. But
0:43
Speaker 2: I do have a fantastic guest back for the first time.
0:49
Speaker 2: I don't think it's been a long time you've been
0:50
Speaker 2: on Conspiracy recently, right, Danger Van Gorder's here.
0:54
Speaker 1: Yes, Hello, Hi everybody. I'm I'm very happy to be here.
0:58
Speaker 1: It's been a while. Much of happened. It's been a
1:01
Speaker 1: while the last time you and I spoke.
1:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, why what's going on? Anything?
1:09
Speaker 1: Ran for office, got me nine thousand votes, came in fourth,
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Speaker 1: behind only the incumbent who we wanted to be re
1:15
Speaker 1: elected and two conservatives who enjoyed six hundred thousand dollars
1:20
Speaker 1: worth of corporate money to basically buy one of those spots.
1:24
Speaker 2: Gross.
1:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'll be running again and soon. But yeah,
1:30
Speaker 1: that also just you know, my daughter is two and
1:34
Speaker 1: a half now, the younger ones two and a half,
1:36
Speaker 1: and she's just she screams. That's her thing. She's a
1:39
Speaker 1: screamy little scream monster. She's so beautiful when she wants
1:43
Speaker 1: to be. She says, I love her daddy, and it's
1:45
Speaker 1: so cute. Forty percent of the time, however, she is
1:47
Speaker 1: screaming at me.
1:48
Speaker 2: Well with you talking about politics. We did have a
1:52
Speaker 2: perfect segue into what we're talking about this week. But
1:56
Speaker 2: danger being danger, we took a turn right there at
1:58
Speaker 2: the last second. Some kids stuff in there. We are
2:02
Speaker 2: talking about arguably history's most successful political assassination. When I
2:09
Speaker 2: say successful, I don't mean they killed the guy that part. Obviously,
2:14
Speaker 2: it's not an assassination without that part, right, But I
2:18
Speaker 2: mean the political fallout in the wake of this assassination
2:23
Speaker 2: and even the public response to it very successful for
2:28
Speaker 2: the person who perpetrated this killing, which is the assassination
2:33
Speaker 2: of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. How familiar were
2:39
Speaker 2: you with this before we took on this episode.
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Speaker 1: I remember it happening what a couple of years ago,
2:45
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two ish, and just being sort of amazed
2:49
Speaker 1: that there was any gun violence in Japan at all.
2:52
Speaker 1: Who were famous for Like, I think I've seen some
2:55
Speaker 1: standoffs that happen in Japan, and they use swords, you know,
3:00
Speaker 1: like having maintaining owning, continuing to own acquiring weapons, and
3:05
Speaker 1: also the ammunition required for firearms is extremely difficult. Yeah,
3:11
Speaker 1: in Japan. And so it amazed me that, you know,
3:15
Speaker 1: that was the weapon of choice, but also sort of
3:17
Speaker 1: that dude was able to just sort of scoot right
3:20
Speaker 1: up to the targeting question and very cleanly make his statement.
3:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's say this wasn't someone shooting from the top
3:31
Speaker 2: of a barn one farm away like in Trump's case.
3:35
Speaker 2: This guy walked right up to the person he was
3:38
Speaker 2: trying to shoot and shot him. Yeah, it seemed like
3:41
Speaker 2: just probably went up to security and was like, excuse me, please,
3:45
Speaker 2: can I get through, and they were like, oh, sure, sorry,
3:47
Speaker 2: it's a very polite nation.
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Speaker 1: This sort of access to an assassination target not super
3:53
Speaker 1: common with world leaders, since, like William McKinley, you know,
3:58
Speaker 1: it's been a bit you know it. Well, let's also
4:00
Speaker 1: just state for the record, since I'm a public figure,
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Speaker 1: if you're considering an assassination, you probably shouldn't because assassinations
4:08
Speaker 1: just aren't cool. You shouldn't do it the bad Let's
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Speaker 1: win in with ideas rather than with politically targeted violence.
4:17
Speaker 1: What do we say?
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Speaker 2: I would also add to that as a American podcast
4:23
Speaker 2: with a predominantly American audience. Shit, ain't gonna go this
4:27
Speaker 2: way if you pull something like this in the United States,
4:30
Speaker 2: and you need to only look at Luigi Mangioni for
4:34
Speaker 2: proof of that. Sure, on the public half of things,
4:38
Speaker 2: people are like, I kind of get it. But on
4:41
Speaker 2: the government side of things, oh no, no, no, no,
4:44
Speaker 2: not at all.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and that McDonald's employee that turned him in wasn't rewarded,
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Speaker 1: So remember that part too. You know, not only is
4:52
Speaker 1: it not cool to take a life, but also you know,
4:55
Speaker 1: if you're around if you try to finger someone who
4:59
Speaker 1: has taken a life in the hopes of personal profit,
5:03
Speaker 1: that probably also won't work out for you.
5:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're not gonna believe it. But Crime Stoppers doesn't
5:07
Speaker 2: always come through with the money for those tips to police.
5:11
Speaker 1: All right, disclosures made, Let's dance.
5:13
Speaker 2: Danger's right. There's a reason we're talking about this when
5:17
Speaker 2: we are, and it actually has nothing to do with
5:21
Speaker 2: our current administration. I know people might get that sense
5:26
Speaker 2: that that's what I'm getting at, but I've also gone
5:29
Speaker 2: on the record on this podcast and many other podcasts,
5:33
Speaker 2: no matter how bad your fucking administration is, that's not
5:37
Speaker 2: how you want to handle it. In assassination, especially of
5:41
Speaker 2: an American president, it's not gonna lead to the things
5:44
Speaker 2: you might be hoping. It's gonna lead to on either side,
5:47
Speaker 2: no matter what side of the aisle you're on, it's
5:50
Speaker 2: only gonna be bad fucking times for the country. And
5:54
Speaker 2: if we're talking this administration, who's next in line?
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Speaker 1: That's better the cherubin chief, mister Vance.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
6:02
Speaker 1: He takes orders real cleanly, you know, he does of
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Speaker 1: what he's told.
6:05
Speaker 2: So yeah, I also want to clarify up top that
6:10
Speaker 2: that is not why we're bringing this up. It's because
6:13
Speaker 2: there is a huge development with this story that literally
6:17
Speaker 2: just happened this week. As we record this this week.
6:21
Speaker 1: This week, you're telling me that as of this week
6:23
Speaker 1: we got fresh news hot off the griddle.
6:26
Speaker 2: We have fresh news about the assassination of shinzo Abe.
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Speaker 1: Just bananas. It's like the documentary tickle that just keeps
6:37
Speaker 1: getting stranger.
6:38
Speaker 2: This story does keep getting stranger. So with all that
6:43
Speaker 2: out of the way and clarified, let's dive in. This
6:47
Speaker 2: is a story we covered on the You Don't Even
6:49
Speaker 2: Like This Show podcast back closer to when it happened.
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Speaker 2: That would be July eighth, twenty twenty two. That is
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Speaker 2: the day Shinzo Abe was assassinated by a forty one
7:00
Speaker 2: year old man named Tetsuya Yamagami. Abe was Japan's longest
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Speaker 2: serving prime minister, held office in two thousand and six
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Speaker 2: for a year, and then again from twenty twelve to
7:12
Speaker 2: twenty twenty left office for health reasons. Those health reasons
7:16
Speaker 2: being alterative colitis, so he was literally shitting too much
7:20
Speaker 2: to focus on work.
7:22
Speaker 1: Sorry about your bumbum, sir, I had.
7:25
Speaker 2: A three month bout of something very similar. Thoughts and prayers.
7:28
Speaker 2: It's bad, bad times, bad times. So, like I said,
7:32
Speaker 2: there's been some pretty huge updates to that story since
7:36
Speaker 2: we covered it back in twenty twenty two, including one
7:39
Speaker 2: that just happened a few days ago. So that's one
7:42
Speaker 2: of the reasons we're talking about it today. But I
7:45
Speaker 2: also again want to talk about it because one of
7:48
Speaker 2: the developments that has happened is that this has come
7:53
Speaker 2: to be viewed legitimately as one of the most successful
7:57
Speaker 2: and effective assassinations in history. The person who did this
8:04
Speaker 2: got everything they wanted.
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Speaker 1: Wow, is this person alive as this person in jail
8:09
Speaker 1: what's the story.
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Speaker 2: We'll get to the perpetrator and his background, but his
8:14
Speaker 2: trial has not started yet, and I'm really interested to
8:18
Speaker 2: see how that trial goes, given just the way the
8:21
Speaker 2: public and the government has responded since then. Because one
8:26
Speaker 2: of the things that I think is important to keep
8:29
Speaker 2: in mind as his trial happens, which it is supposed
8:32
Speaker 2: to happen, I think, like literally any day now, is
8:36
Speaker 2: the same prime minister who suffered this huge drop in
8:41
Speaker 2: approval ratings, who will talk about later as a result
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Speaker 2: of this assassination. He's still in office, and a lot
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Speaker 2: of these changes that have come about as a result
8:51
Speaker 2: of this assassination are that prime minister responding to this
8:55
Speaker 2: because he doesn't want to get kicked out of office,
8:58
Speaker 2: because now the whole fucking country is mad about what
9:02
Speaker 2: this guy was mad about.
9:04
Speaker 1: So huh.
9:05
Speaker 2: I could see the government stepping in and being like,
9:07
Speaker 2: you know what, how about we lessen that sentence a
9:10
Speaker 2: little bit. I would not be at all surprised if
9:13
Speaker 2: this guy gets a reduced sentence.
9:15
Speaker 1: A lot of public support for this murder, is what
9:20
Speaker 1: you're saying. We had shades of something like that here
9:22
Speaker 1: in the US.
9:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, it is very Luigi MANGIONI like very.
9:27
Speaker 1: Much, Mamamia right, my favorite character in the Super Mario Kart.
9:33
Speaker 1: It's to me Luigi yeah ooh, in Super Smash Brothers.
9:37
Speaker 2: So let's dive into how this assassination played out again.
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Speaker 2: Happened on July eighth, twenty twenty two. Abbe was giving
9:45
Speaker 2: a speech for a political candidate on a street in
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Speaker 2: the city of Nara. Witnesses saw a man carrying a
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Speaker 2: comically large gun fire twice at the former Prime minister
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Speaker 2: from behind. Shooter made no attempt to run, was tackled
10:00
Speaker 2: by security detail almost immediately.
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Speaker 1: Comically large gun like he's walking up and people are like, hey,
10:09
Speaker 1: I wonder why that man has a comically large gun.
10:12
Speaker 1: That doesn't that seems just a little weird. What do
10:15
Speaker 1: they think it was like a bouquet roses or something.
10:17
Speaker 2: The security lapse here is astounding because there's pictures of
10:22
Speaker 2: this gun out there on the internet. If you read
10:25
Speaker 2: most of the articles we'll link to about this, you'll
10:27
Speaker 2: see it. It's not the kind of thing he just
10:29
Speaker 2: had in his sock and pulled out on the slide
10:32
Speaker 2: when he got close enough.
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Speaker 1: I mean, you say security laps, but also like this
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Speaker 1: is a public event, and there are people there is
10:39
Speaker 1: there any report of people saying, hey, look at that anywhere?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know, I don't know.
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Speaker 1: Nanasy was he just that captivating of his speech deliverer
10:49
Speaker 1: that you know, he died doing what he loved and
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Speaker 1: everybody was just just taking with this speech.
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Speaker 2: And would it have even worked if people pointed and
10:57
Speaker 2: were like, hey, security, do something because us again the
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Speaker 2: Trump attempted assassination. There's videos of a whole crowd of people.
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Speaker 1: Being like, hey, what's that on the roof?
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Speaker 2: Hey, there's a guy over there on the roof. Hey,
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Speaker 2: that guy's got a gun. Hey, he's like getting in
11:12
Speaker 2: formation you're gonna And then you know, we know what happened.
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Speaker 2: But so who knows if the crowd reacting that way
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Speaker 2: would have even fucking done anything. And so, like we
11:23
Speaker 2: already touched on a little bit highly rare act in Japan,
11:27
Speaker 2: and by that I mean political assassination and just gun
11:30
Speaker 2: crimes in general. Most mass killings in Japan happened by
11:36
Speaker 2: way of knife usually or mass attacks. Rates of gun
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Speaker 2: ownership and violence both in Japan are among the lowest
11:43
Speaker 2: in the world. An NPR article published around the time
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Speaker 2: of the assassination, said that in twenty twenty one, the
11:50
Speaker 2: year before the assassination, there was one death caused by
11:54
Speaker 2: gun violence in Japan. Just a little comparison, there were
11:57
Speaker 2: forty five thousand and thirty four that same year in
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Speaker 2: the United States. So if you just take the number,
12:04
Speaker 2: you would drop off the end if you were trying
12:07
Speaker 2: to cite that statistic really quick.
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Speaker 1: Uh huh.
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Speaker 2: It's still just an astronomical increase over Japan's numbers for
12:15
Speaker 2: the same year. Japan was one of the first nations
12:19
Speaker 2: to pass gun restriction laws of any sort, and so
12:24
Speaker 2: buying a gun there sounds like an absolute goddamn ordeal.
12:29
Speaker 2: To do it, you have to one join a hunting
12:32
Speaker 2: or shooting club. Two take a firearm class. Three, pass
12:37
Speaker 2: a written exam and a shooting range test with a
12:40
Speaker 2: score of at least ninety five percent.
12:42
Speaker 1: That was three and fourths.
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Speaker 2: Go five, get a doctor's note stating you are mentally
12:46
Speaker 2: fit and have no history of drug dependency.
12:49
Speaker 1: Smart six.
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Speaker 2: Take a full day course on how to safely fire
12:53
Speaker 2: and store.
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Speaker 1: A gun Okai seven.
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Speaker 2: Complete a police interview explaining why you want a firearm
12:59
Speaker 2: Okay eight. Pass a rigorous background check in which police
13:03
Speaker 2: review your criminal record, employment history, financial status, and relationships
13:08
Speaker 2: with family, friends and neighbors.
13:10
Speaker 1: Hey, we got a discount version of that here.
13:13
Speaker 2: Nine, apply for a gunpowder permitt gunpowder permit?
13:16
Speaker 1: Okay, wow? Ten?
13:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, well yeah, what's ten gonna be? Shine up your musket? Uh?
13:23
Speaker 1: No?
13:23
Speaker 2: Actually ten is obtain a certificate from a gun dealer
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Speaker 2: describing the gun you want.
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Speaker 1: Okay, e eleven.
13:31
Speaker 2: Eleven, buy a gun safe and ammunition locker that meet
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Speaker 2: safety regulations.
13:37
Speaker 1: Okay, let's say eleven and twelve. Goodness gracious a last,
13:40
Speaker 1: but absolutely not least lucky.
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Speaker 2: Thirteen yep, allow the police to inspect your gun storage
13:47
Speaker 2: and conduct another background check.
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Speaker 1: Two background checks, just a bonus background check on top, Like, hey,
13:53
Speaker 1: did anything happen in the last six months when we
13:55
Speaker 1: began this process of you expressing interest in a firearm? Golly?
14:00
Speaker 2: And then after all that, you can't even buy a handgun.
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Speaker 2: Those are illegal for regular ass people in Japan. You
14:09
Speaker 2: can only buy shotguns or air rifles, which makes the
14:13
Speaker 2: part where you have to get a certificate from a
14:15
Speaker 2: gun dealer describing the gun you want so funny. You
14:18
Speaker 2: have two choices.
14:20
Speaker 1: I hereby certify he just wants, so it a widowed
14:22
Speaker 1: lady pop gun.
14:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, you want the steak or the chicken. Who cares,
14:26
Speaker 2: just let them pick one. And then that license you
14:29
Speaker 2: get is I believe, only good for like three years,
14:33
Speaker 2: and then you have to do all that shit again.
14:36
Speaker 1: Uh huh. Checking back in a DMV for guns, you
14:40
Speaker 1: say that's interesting.
14:41
Speaker 2: There can also be no more than three gun stores
14:44
Speaker 2: in each of Japan's prefectures.
14:47
Speaker 1: Wow, the entire basically the entire.
14:49
Speaker 2: State, right, And this one blows my fucking mind. You
14:54
Speaker 2: can only buy fresh cartridges by returning spent cartridges you
15:00
Speaker 2: bought on your last visit.
15:02
Speaker 1: Then you get into a chicken and age situation of
15:04
Speaker 1: like where did the first unspent cartridge come from?
15:09
Speaker 2: One of the articles we'll link to about this part
15:14
Speaker 2: mentions a story where a journalist went to a gun
15:17
Speaker 2: range for a story of some sort and at the
15:20
Speaker 2: end of the demonstration they started collecting up the shell
15:23
Speaker 2: casings and couldn't find one. Uh oh, and it was
15:27
Speaker 2: like lock the fucking building down, don't let anyone leave
15:32
Speaker 2: the math. Yeah, like, we need to find this before
15:35
Speaker 2: anyone goes. So, yeah, you have to do all of
15:39
Speaker 2: that if you want a gun in Japan, or you
15:42
Speaker 2: just build one like this guy did.
15:44
Speaker 1: Well, like like a three D print type situation.
15:47
Speaker 2: It seems way more advanced than that. He went to
15:51
Speaker 2: some pretty extraordinary links to build the weapon he used
15:54
Speaker 2: in this. For one thing, Remember one of those stipulations
15:57
Speaker 2: was you have to get a gunpowder.
16:00
Speaker 1: This is the funniest stipulation I'll say.
16:02
Speaker 2: Well, he got around that by making his own gunpowder.
16:07
Speaker 1: Is this Walter White, and you get a chemist as well.
16:10
Speaker 2: He rented an apartment and then later a garage for
16:14
Speaker 2: the sole purpose of drying that gunpowder. That alone cost
16:18
Speaker 2: him around fifteen thousand yen per month. By the time
16:22
Speaker 2: he carried the assassination out, he had accrued around four
16:25
Speaker 2: hundred thousand yen in debt, mostly on account of the
16:29
Speaker 2: costs of building the various weapons he considered using. Here's
16:34
Speaker 2: another thing that I think built up some goodwill toward
16:37
Speaker 2: this guy with the public.
16:38
Speaker 1: Well, okay, well, his first thought was.
16:42
Speaker 2: To use a bomb to do this, and then he
16:44
Speaker 2: was like, well, no, I don't want to kill people
16:47
Speaker 2: like I wanted. I after this one.
16:49
Speaker 1: Want to kill politicians?
16:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm after this one guy. I'm not trying to
16:53
Speaker 2: like harm civilians or anything. So that was noble of them.
16:57
Speaker 1: You know, let's put a big astra on that noble.
17:00
Speaker 1: But sure, can you imagine what sounds like ten years
17:05
Speaker 1: of your life coming down to one moment, like literally
17:12
Speaker 1: one second. I just can't imagine that much. I much
17:18
Speaker 1: godn tention, Oh my god, and so much preparation. It's
17:22
Speaker 1: so methodical.
17:24
Speaker 2: This is gonna sound like such a weird comparison, but
17:29
Speaker 2: I mean it danger. What you're describing is exactly why
17:32
Speaker 2: I love watching the Olympics, and especially why my favorite
17:36
Speaker 2: sports are like figure skating and gymnastics, where it comes
17:41
Speaker 2: down to, all right, you got to get through this
17:44
Speaker 2: two minutes or so, and you gotta do it perfect.
17:48
Speaker 2: If your fucking ankle wobbles a little bit, all the
17:52
Speaker 2: sacrifice your family made to get you here, everything you
17:56
Speaker 2: did to get here, means nothing because you messed up
18:00
Speaker 2: one little bit. If this guy missed, the Moonies are
18:04
Speaker 2: still running rough shot over Japan.
18:06
Speaker 1: Absolutely spoiler alert.
18:08
Speaker 2: Yeah one. If he missed, he would have just got
18:12
Speaker 2: tackled and sent to jail, and people would have been like,
18:15
Speaker 2: the fuck, dude, what were you thinking?
18:17
Speaker 1: There may have been a conversation. Still, but I don't know, man,
18:22
Speaker 1: this isn't this isn't making me want to a kill
18:25
Speaker 1: anyone or go into the Olympics.
18:27
Speaker 2: Well no, it doesn't make me want to kill anyone
18:29
Speaker 2: because I'm not a victim of the Moonies.
18:32
Speaker 1: No victim, all right?
18:34
Speaker 2: I mean, you get this guy is a victim of
18:37
Speaker 2: Like he didn't just do this because he hates the Moonies.
18:40
Speaker 1: I mean, let's explore that. Huh. I don't know his story,
18:44
Speaker 1: Like this is so much preparation for one act. You know,
18:48
Speaker 1: there's got to be some pretty horrific stuff going on here.
18:52
Speaker 2: Let's talk about it. So Shinzo Labe, he was a
18:56
Speaker 2: controversial leader. He's a right winger or what a right
19:00
Speaker 2: winger despite his party's name, Liberal Democrat Party, that is
19:04
Speaker 2: Japan's conservative nationalist party. While in office, he was pushing
19:08
Speaker 2: for Japan to return to using their military for more
19:13
Speaker 2: than just defense. Something about being the only country to
19:16
Speaker 2: get nuked during wartime has made them a little reticent
19:19
Speaker 2: to get back into the war game. But the right
19:22
Speaker 2: wingers in Japan really want them to strike that notoriously
19:27
Speaker 2: great army back up. So at first, for very briefly,
19:31
Speaker 2: people were like, is that it is this guy just
19:33
Speaker 2: mad that Abbe is a right winger and maybe this
19:36
Speaker 2: guy leans a different way, but no, no. Shortly after,
19:41
Speaker 2: Yamagami revealed that he did not do this for political
19:44
Speaker 2: reasons per se, but instead because of Abbe's support for
19:48
Speaker 2: a gigantic and highly sketchy religious organization called the Unification
19:54
Speaker 2: Church aka the Moonies.
19:57
Speaker 1: These are the bad guys from the Dead Space video games.
19:59
Speaker 2: R I am not a gamer, all right.
20:02
Speaker 1: There's there's twelve people who are just like nice.
20:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know, I don't know. Are the Moonies
20:08
Speaker 2: in a video game?
20:09
Speaker 1: The unitology is okay? Again, twelve people losing their minds right.
20:14
Speaker 2: Now, so terrific, and so many more are like, what
20:18
Speaker 2: can we move on?
20:19
Speaker 1: Okay? Play dead Space? It's great.
20:21
Speaker 2: So the Moonies were founded in nineteen fifty four by
20:25
Speaker 2: Reverend Sun Young Moon in South Korea. He claimed at
20:30
Speaker 2: fifteen to have had a vision where Jesus Christ himself
20:36
Speaker 2: told him to finish his mission on Earth and create
20:39
Speaker 2: a state of sinless purity for humanity. At fifteen, how
20:44
Speaker 2: was no one like, how about you go create some
20:47
Speaker 2: purity in your bedroom and clean it your kid get
20:51
Speaker 2: away way.
20:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's probably already pretty bored. You know. I got
20:56
Speaker 1: an n sixty four fifteen.
20:57
Speaker 2: That's great. Yeah. He was a fervent anti communist and
21:01
Speaker 2: he used that to form ties with conservative leaders all
21:06
Speaker 2: over the world, but especially in Japan. By the nineteen eighties,
21:11
Speaker 2: the Moonies claimed to have three million members worldwide. They
21:15
Speaker 2: are probably most well known for holding mass wedding ceremonies
21:21
Speaker 2: in sports stadiums, where in a lot of cases the
21:24
Speaker 2: people getting married just met that day, or a meeting
21:28
Speaker 2: for the first time. There are arranged marriages.
21:30
Speaker 1: Pretty creepy.
21:31
Speaker 2: They are widely considered by experts and former members both
21:36
Speaker 2: to be a straight up cult. There's a musician, one
21:40
Speaker 2: of my favorite new musicians named Sasami who I'm going
21:44
Speaker 2: to see in La in April. She was raised in
21:47
Speaker 2: the Unification Church and is pretty adamant that it's a cult.
21:51
Speaker 2: Pretty much anyone who's gotten out calls it a cult.
21:54
Speaker 2: So Shinzo Abe not only was he a paid speaker
21:59
Speaker 2: at Unification Church events, but his grandfather was a ruler
22:04
Speaker 2: of Japan at one point also, and he had ties
22:07
Speaker 2: to the Moonies. So this is a thing that's run
22:10
Speaker 2: through Shinzo Abe's family for a long time. But it's
22:13
Speaker 2: those speaking engagements that probably got him killed. Because Yamagami
22:19
Speaker 2: wanted to shoot hak Jahan Moon, who is head of
22:24
Speaker 2: the Unification Church now and the widow of the guy
22:28
Speaker 2: who founded it. But that plan fell through. I think
22:31
Speaker 2: she had a trip to Japan planned and it got canceled.
22:35
Speaker 2: It Yeah, so he was like, eh, Abe can get it.
22:40
Speaker 2: I guess he's enough of a supporter that'll do the trick.
22:43
Speaker 1: Not a situation in which you want to be a
22:45
Speaker 1: runner up.
22:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, what a sad consolation prize to get and so
22:50
Speaker 2: on social media. Yamagami claimed his family and life were
22:56
Speaker 2: destroyed by the Unification Church by way of the mass
23:00
Speaker 2: of financial donations they coerced his mom into giving them
23:03
Speaker 2: over the years. Here is a quote. After my mother
23:07
Speaker 2: joined the church in the nineteen nineties, my entire teenage
23:10
Speaker 2: years were gone, with some one hundred million yen seven
23:14
Speaker 2: hundred and thirty five thousand dollars wasted. It's not an
23:17
Speaker 2: exaggeration to say my experience during that time has kept
23:20
Speaker 2: distorting my entire life. That is an excerpt from a
23:24
Speaker 2: letter he sent to a blogger the day before carrying
23:28
Speaker 2: out this shooting. Even worse, his mom only joined the
23:31
Speaker 2: church because Yamagami's dad, her husband committed suicide, and she was,
23:37
Speaker 2: you know, seeking comfort of some sort and ends up
23:41
Speaker 2: finding it in this church.
23:43
Speaker 1: Who then rip her off merciless destroys her family. Good lord.
23:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, His uncle gave an interview and added some more
23:52
Speaker 2: details and said that the mom of that one hundred
23:56
Speaker 2: million yen donated around sixty million of it within months
24:01
Speaker 2: of joining the church.
24:02
Speaker 1: She wiped out their savings as soon as she was asked.
24:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's exactly that, because he at one point said
24:09
Speaker 2: he stopped giving her money to buy the kid's food
24:13
Speaker 2: because she would just give it right to the church.
24:15
Speaker 2: His brother also committed suicide later, Her donations to the
24:20
Speaker 2: church bankrupted the family. Neither of the kids could go
24:24
Speaker 2: to college. Seems like that's part of why the brother
24:27
Speaker 2: committed suicide. At one point, Yamagami tried to commit suicide
24:32
Speaker 2: also and failed, And his mom did not even cut
24:36
Speaker 2: her trip to South Korea short to come back and
24:40
Speaker 2: check on him.
24:41
Speaker 1: Did she text him like an emoji like you up
24:44
Speaker 1: type you good?
24:46
Speaker 2: It was two thousand and five. I don't think we
24:48
Speaker 2: even had emojis.
24:49
Speaker 1: We had texting though, just like, hey man, you good.
24:53
Speaker 2: Who knows. When the press reached out to her after
24:57
Speaker 2: the assassination, she said she was so for bothering the
25:01
Speaker 2: church with her son's crumb.
25:02
Speaker 1: Oh my god. Okay, well, look, it's going to take
25:05
Speaker 1: a very deeply committed soul to a wipe out your
25:12
Speaker 1: entire financial security and that of your entire family. Seven
25:16
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand dollars is a ton of money
25:19
Speaker 1: that you're willingly give away. So I don't see it
25:22
Speaker 1: as that much more of a stretch that she'd be like, yeah, sorry,
25:25
Speaker 1: that's uh sorry, my kid tried to kill himself failed,
25:28
Speaker 1: and I guess he killed this important guy. That sucks
25:30
Speaker 1: for you guys, the church and my entire reason for
25:34
Speaker 1: being at this point.
25:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, no, I'm not surprised she said it.
25:38
Speaker 1: It's still messed up, though, ma'am.
25:39
Speaker 2: It's just more evidence of how insidious this group is. Like,
25:46
Speaker 2: it's not even right to call him a church. No
25:48
Speaker 2: churches are one thing. This is a cult.
25:51
Speaker 1: A lot of cults use the word church to aveil
25:53
Speaker 1: themselves against scrutiny.
25:55
Speaker 2: So it's also important to note that Yamagami is part
25:59
Speaker 2: of what's called the Lost Generation in Japan, and that
26:03
Speaker 2: is a generation of still relatively young people who graduated
26:10
Speaker 2: from school to find almost no job opportunities outside of
26:16
Speaker 2: like low paying contract jobs. He graduated from high school
26:20
Speaker 2: in ninety nine, oh, which was smack dab in the
26:23
Speaker 2: middle of a period in Japan called the employment ice age.
26:28
Speaker 2: Oh god, fucking yikes.
26:31
Speaker 1: He's a millennial. Yeah, he's only a few years older
26:35
Speaker 1: than I am. Man, Like, these are people in their
26:37
Speaker 1: early forties. Like, man, ough, jeez, the hopelessness, the hopelessness
26:43
Speaker 1: is real. Yeah, you know, the structures are falling apart.
26:46
Speaker 1: We do not have the opportunities prior generations had from
26:50
Speaker 1: the jump. Yeah, sounds like it was worse in Japan
26:52
Speaker 1: though for a lot of people.
26:53
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Japan their economy crashed in the eighties and
26:57
Speaker 2: the nineties were very, very rough. Japan. They have a
27:00
Speaker 2: really large economy, but it still struggles a whole lot,
27:04
Speaker 2: and so on. Top of that, add in the fact
27:07
Speaker 2: that the Moonies are gigantic in Japan. The most recent
27:12
Speaker 2: figure I've seen says there are around six hundred thousand
27:17
Speaker 2: Mooney adherents in Japan.
27:19
Speaker 1: So it's not a major religion there. It's not like
27:22
Speaker 1: a huge percentage, but it is a very substantial percentage.
27:26
Speaker 2: It's a pretty big group. So there are a lot
27:30
Speaker 2: of young to young ish people in Japan who went
27:35
Speaker 2: through the exact or very similar circumstances as Yamagami, all
27:40
Speaker 2: while the country was in the throes of an economic
27:44
Speaker 2: disaster that hit those same young people the hardest. So
27:49
Speaker 2: it's no wonder they fucking hate the Unification Church, and
27:54
Speaker 2: that is what motivated a lot of the outpouring of support,
27:59
Speaker 2: because when people thought he did it for political reasons,
28:02
Speaker 2: they were like, all right, no, that's not what we
28:05
Speaker 2: do here. When they found out it was because the
28:07
Speaker 2: Moonies took all his money, they were like, oh, which
28:11
Speaker 2: I think we could argue is what happened with Luigi
28:14
Speaker 2: Mangioni here. Once people found out the motivation behind it,
28:20
Speaker 2: there was a pretty big outpouring of support.
28:22
Speaker 1: There was also kind of an immediate outpouring of support
28:26
Speaker 1: that the people were immediately like denied defend to pose.
28:29
Speaker 2: Well, because no one needed to be told that healthcare
28:32
Speaker 2: companies are fucking everyone over, like people needed to at
28:36
Speaker 2: least have the Moonies explained to him. First, Uh huh, everyone,
28:40
Speaker 2: I think with MANGIONI legitimately a lot of people just
28:43
Speaker 2: hearted healthcare CEO and we're like, oh sure, sure, sure, yeah.
28:46
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's it's very similar. It's i mean, not
28:50
Speaker 2: exactly the same, but a very similar situation where a
28:54
Speaker 2: guy commits an active murder, an act of violence, and
28:59
Speaker 2: a lot of people are like, wrong to do.
29:02
Speaker 1: But yeah, and that's a big butt.
29:05
Speaker 2: I sympathize, and so yeah, there were suggestions on social
29:10
Speaker 2: media that people should send care packages to the detention
29:13
Speaker 2: center he was being held at. More than seven thousand
29:17
Speaker 2: people signed a petition requesting leniency, and that was according
29:21
Speaker 2: to the article from a few years ago. It's probably more.
29:24
Speaker 2: And his trial has not started yet. So I am really,
29:28
Speaker 2: really really interested to see how this trial goes. Given
29:32
Speaker 2: that the LDP is still in charge, which is shocking.
29:36
Speaker 1: It's the political party.
29:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, once we get into how this affected them, I'm
29:40
Speaker 2: shocked that they're still in power, and I totally get
29:44
Speaker 2: why they're trying to make all these reforms against the
29:46
Speaker 2: Moonies to try and stay in power. So on that note,
29:50
Speaker 2: it's way more than the public support that makes people
29:54
Speaker 2: call this the most successful political assassination in history. For
29:58
Speaker 2: one thing, the LDP was pretty popular when this assassination happened,
30:03
Speaker 2: and normally, if you're in power and your party is
30:07
Speaker 2: popular and someone assassinates a member of that party, your
30:11
Speaker 2: party gets more popular.
30:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, you get with sympathy, absolutely.
30:15
Speaker 2: But instead of sympathy in this case, the public was like,
30:19
Speaker 2: tell us more about the LDP and the Moonies. This
30:23
Speaker 2: sounds interesting, what is going on? And what they very
30:28
Speaker 2: quickly learned is that one hundred and seventy nine LDP members,
30:33
Speaker 2: nearly half of the party, oh oh boy, had direct
30:37
Speaker 2: ties to the Unification Church. And this was voluntary reporting.
30:43
Speaker 2: So it stands to reason that several people knew they
30:47
Speaker 2: should lie and lied, and there were at least two
30:50
Speaker 2: who were found out to have lied later.
30:53
Speaker 1: Okay, so let's bump that out to one hundred and
30:55
Speaker 1: eighty one. When you say tie is like, what does
30:56
Speaker 1: that mean? Like family or they go to ormonds or whatever.
31:00
Speaker 1: They've given money or they've accepted money.
31:03
Speaker 2: That's the whole thing. The Moonies had essentially a patronage
31:09
Speaker 2: program between them and the LDP, where it was just
31:13
Speaker 2: given that if you were a member of the LDP,
31:16
Speaker 2: the Unification Church would give you access to their members
31:19
Speaker 2: if you needed it. They would support your campaigns whatever
31:21
Speaker 2: you needed. You just had to push their chosen agendas,
31:25
Speaker 2: which of course were like opposing women's advancement in the workplace,
31:31
Speaker 2: opposing same sex marriage, like all the fucking nasty right
31:36
Speaker 2: wing shit. So in the LDP pushed all that in
31:40
Speaker 2: exchange for support from the Moonies.
31:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna say, where'd the Moonies get all
31:44
Speaker 1: that money from? Huh?
31:45
Speaker 2: Oh, widows, it gets pretty spicy in that regard too. So, yeah,
31:51
Speaker 2: the Moonies and the LDP kind of had this, you know,
31:55
Speaker 2: working relationship.
31:56
Speaker 1: I got something special going there, huh.
31:58
Speaker 2: And So at the time of the assassination, Prime Minister
32:02
Speaker 2: Fumio Kashita, who is an LDP member, had an approval
32:06
Speaker 2: rating of sixty three point two percent.
32:08
Speaker 1: That's good.
32:09
Speaker 2: That's good. That was in July twenty twenty two. On
32:12
Speaker 2: account of the assassination, which also happened July twenty twenty two,
32:16
Speaker 2: what it revealed about the LDP's ties to the movies
32:19
Speaker 2: and Kashita's response to it, which was very lackluster, his
32:24
Speaker 2: approval rating by October twenty twenty two so three months
32:28
Speaker 2: later fell to twenty seven point four percent.
32:32
Speaker 1: Wow.
32:33
Speaker 2: That's wow bad.
32:36
Speaker 1: That's a blowout, man.
32:38
Speaker 2: That is really really bad, and it hasn't recovered that much.
32:45
Speaker 1: I gotta say this reminds me of my least favorite trope.
32:49
Speaker 1: Like you ever watched the movies and the hero's finally
32:53
Speaker 1: gotten the villain to admit to their nefarious crime. You know,
32:57
Speaker 1: It's like I think it's in Coco, where you know, like, yeah,
33:01
Speaker 1: I tried to kill you, what of it? So I'm
33:03
Speaker 1: just gonna go ahead and enjoy my success and then
33:06
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go out and go out to our beautiful audience,
33:09
Speaker 1: and the audience is gonna love me. But like, oh,
33:11
Speaker 1: they turned on the cameras and so people heard all
33:15
Speaker 1: that stuff, and then the audience turns against them. It's like, oh, no,
33:20
Speaker 1: we loved you a minute ago until you admitted you
33:22
Speaker 1: did wrong, and now we hate you. I feel like
33:25
Speaker 1: in America, so often people could admit to heinous things
33:31
Speaker 1: and as long as you're on the right team, it
33:34
Speaker 1: all is forgiven. It's fine, Oh that trope bothers me,
33:38
Speaker 1: But this is that trope actually working good on you? Japan?
33:44
Speaker 1: You all done?
33:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is, and I'm kind of surprised that it worked,
33:50
Speaker 2: but it did, and it's not done working. Several LDP
33:55
Speaker 2: members were removed from their positions as a result of
33:59
Speaker 2: the scandal. Good and the people were like, great, what
34:02
Speaker 2: about the church? And so by December of twenty twenty two,
34:07
Speaker 2: less than six months after the shooting, Japan's parliament enacted
34:11
Speaker 2: a law aimed almost directly at the Unification Church that
34:16
Speaker 2: outlawed malicious donation solicitations.
34:19
Speaker 1: Hmmm, that's nice.
34:21
Speaker 2: The law allows believers, other donors, and their families to
34:25
Speaker 2: seek the return of their money, and prohibits religious groups
34:31
Speaker 2: and other organizations from soliciting funds by coercion, threats or
34:37
Speaker 2: linking donations to spiritual salvation.
34:40
Speaker 1: Oh we need that here. Oh man, that's awesome.
34:43
Speaker 2: Now you just got to be like, look, we need
34:45
Speaker 2: a fucking air conditioner, all right, give us money for that.
34:49
Speaker 2: Probably aren't going to go to Heaven over it, but
34:51
Speaker 2: give us fucking money. We need a refrigerator. Come on.
34:55
Speaker 2: And this is a really really big deal for the
34:59
Speaker 2: Moonies because a huge part of their donation scheme involves
35:05
Speaker 2: guilting Japanese people into donating as atonement for the sins
35:11
Speaker 2: Japan committed during colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from
35:16
Speaker 2: nineteen ten to nineteen forty five. Okay, don't get me wrong,
35:21
Speaker 2: lots of valid gripes. There a whole lot. If you've
35:26
Speaker 2: even scratched the surface of World War II history, you
35:29
Speaker 2: know the Nazis were not the only ones committing some
35:34
Speaker 2: heinous human centipede like atrocities in World War two. Uh huh.
35:39
Speaker 2: Google Unit seven three to one if you want more information,
35:43
Speaker 2: but also don't google Unit seven three to one. Just
35:46
Speaker 2: listen to the episode we did about.
35:48
Speaker 1: Them to do it on the Rape of Nanking.
35:50
Speaker 2: That came up. But Japan, they were buck wild during
35:54
Speaker 2: World War two. It was really bad times, and the
35:59
Speaker 2: Moonies play on that to solicit donations from people like
36:04
Speaker 2: aggressively play on it.
36:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not reparations. It's where we're taking money from
36:10
Speaker 1: you so that we can build our Ponzi scheme that
36:13
Speaker 1: much bigger.
36:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not like they're distributing that money to everyone
36:16
Speaker 2: who was impacted by those atrocities. They're just collecting it
36:20
Speaker 2: for their fucking church. Very different. That's reparations. And because
36:26
Speaker 2: so much of their fundraising efforts focus on exploiting that guilt.
36:31
Speaker 2: The majority of their fundraising worldwide comes from Japan.
36:38
Speaker 1: Okay, uh, so they've been cut off basically.
36:41
Speaker 2: And somehow it still gets worse for them.
36:45
Speaker 1: All Right, I am enjoying this. This is this, this
36:48
Speaker 1: is yeah, we got it. We got a John Wick
36:51
Speaker 1: situation playing out here.
36:52
Speaker 2: I mentioned that there was an update just this week,
36:56
Speaker 2: as we record this last week, as the people listen
37:00
Speaker 2: to this. When that law was passed, there were still
37:04
Speaker 2: some critics who said it didn't really go far enough.
37:07
Speaker 1: The law cutting off the financial ripping off of yeah, okay, yeah, the.
37:12
Speaker 2: One we just mentioned. And so this week Japan passed
37:18
Speaker 2: another law aimed at the Moonies, in a decision that
37:23
Speaker 2: the Nazi collaborators of Record aka The New York Times
37:27
Speaker 2: described as quote widely expected, but unusual in its severity
37:34
Speaker 2: end quote which once you hear that, you gotta be
37:36
Speaker 2: rubbing your hands together.
37:37
Speaker 1: Like, oh, what is common eye browser up.
37:41
Speaker 2: It's a doozy. The courts in Japan agreed to a
37:45
Speaker 2: government request to strip the Unification Church of its legal
37:50
Speaker 2: status to exist. In the aftermath of the assassination, Japan's
37:57
Speaker 2: Education Ministry launched an investigation into the moonies. That involved
38:02
Speaker 2: collecting the testimonies of more than fifteen hundred former members
38:08
Speaker 2: who claim to have suffered financial losses in the neighborhood
38:11
Speaker 2: of twenty point four billion yen, which equals around one
38:15
Speaker 2: hundred and forty million Real dollars.
38:19
Speaker 1: It's a lot of money, but it's honestly less than
38:21
Speaker 1: I would have expected, given just how pernicious this group is.
38:25
Speaker 2: This is from fifteen hundred people.
38:27
Speaker 1: Oh oh shit, all right, nevermind, rescinded good point.
38:30
Speaker 2: The ministry actually requested that the church be disbanded back
38:34
Speaker 2: in October twenty twenty three, and the courts have just
38:37
Speaker 2: been going back and forth on it, and now they
38:40
Speaker 2: finally weighed in, and yep, they agree. The Unification Church
38:45
Speaker 2: literally is no longer allowed to exist in Japan. Church
38:50
Speaker 2: is said to have around one hundred and ten billion
38:53
Speaker 2: yen in holdings, which is around seven hundred and twenty
38:58
Speaker 2: eight million dollars. A large portion of that is likely
39:03
Speaker 2: to be seized by a court appointed liquidator for use
39:06
Speaker 2: in compensating former members. And hell yeah, all it took
39:12
Speaker 2: for all that to happen was for one guy to
39:15
Speaker 2: shoot another guy in the neck.
39:17
Speaker 1: I forgot. That's where we started. Oh boy, yeah, the murder.
39:21
Speaker 2: This is absolutely the feel good assassination of all history.
39:26
Speaker 2: Like all it's got, like the cherry on the top
39:30
Speaker 2: is going to be. When they don't send this guy
39:32
Speaker 2: to prison, I would not be even moderately surprised. This
39:37
Speaker 2: Prime Minister is desperate as shit, like shutting down the Moonies.
39:41
Speaker 2: He's probably gonna get murdered for that, but he's like,
39:44
Speaker 2: if I don't, I'm gonna keep my job.
39:47
Speaker 1: Well, it might only be x Moonies that are animated
39:50
Speaker 1: by a murderous zeal and not the Moonies themselves.
39:54
Speaker 2: Potentially, I mean, after this they might be.
39:57
Speaker 1: They might be, but I mean their whole thing just
39:59
Speaker 1: seems to be steel money.
40:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. Come on, I bet the Moonies
40:04
Speaker 2: have killed some people.
40:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm I mean, I am curious about the specific
40:10
Speaker 1: actions of mister Abe. And again like, look, I don't
40:13
Speaker 1: want to equivocate. You know, a man lost his life.
40:16
Speaker 1: That sucks, and I don't want to say, like, whatever
40:19
Speaker 1: actions that he might have taken maybe balanced those scales.
40:24
Speaker 1: I have no idea. I mean, there're certainly mass murderers
40:27
Speaker 1: in this world who I wouldn't mind to see removed
40:31
Speaker 1: or you know, but it's still like, what is that
40:34
Speaker 1: that drill tweet?
40:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're gonna get philosophical with a drill tweet here.
40:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd like to amend my previous statements about Isis.
40:42
Speaker 1: You don't, under any circumstances gotta hand it to him.
40:46
Speaker 2: I don't think that's an accurate comparison, Like you're comparing
40:49
Speaker 2: this guy to Isis.
40:51
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, I mean, look, there's still loss of
40:54
Speaker 1: human life in this equation. Yeah, Tetsia, really he's anes.
41:00
Speaker 1: That's how they work, right, that roulette we'll landed on
41:05
Speaker 1: his number.
41:05
Speaker 2: Man, you don't have to be saying I am in
41:10
Speaker 2: favor of assassination to admit that this guy got what
41:14
Speaker 2: he wanted everything he wanted, right, That's not an endorsement
41:18
Speaker 2: of assassination. That is a fucking fact that several media
41:23
Speaker 2: outlets have also chimed in to say. We'll link to
41:27
Speaker 2: a bunch of articles in the show notes. The Economist
41:31
Speaker 2: has a great article about how this guy got everything
41:35
Speaker 2: he wanted. Even if he goes to prison, it sounds
41:38
Speaker 2: like his life was shit anyway. Also, he's in Japan.
41:41
Speaker 1: Their prisons are probably kind of nice.
41:43
Speaker 2: Not only is the prison probably kind of nice, But
41:45
Speaker 2: who knows what kind of sentence he's facing. He's gonna
41:48
Speaker 2: get life in prison, which what's that like? Twenty eight
41:50
Speaker 2: years in Japan?
41:52
Speaker 1: I don't know. Anders Bredet got twenty years for mass
41:55
Speaker 1: murdering literal children in Norway.
41:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I'm saying. So it doesn't work the
42:00
Speaker 2: same way over there. So Scott will probably be out
42:04
Speaker 2: enjoying his golden years someday, probably still won't be able
42:08
Speaker 2: to find a job, probably be even harder then he might.
42:11
Speaker 1: But there's a whole lot of people who have in
42:13
Speaker 1: some way contributed to his financial well being at this point.
42:17
Speaker 1: You know. It might have taken the form of like
42:20
Speaker 1: you know, pringles and KitKat bars or something. But upon release,
42:24
Speaker 1: I'm sure he's gonna have a lot of people say like, hey,
42:27
Speaker 1: here's a couple of thousand yen. Hope you're feeling better,
42:30
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, there's gonna be support for this guy
42:33
Speaker 1: if he ever watched The Streets of Japan again.
42:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm fascinated to see how this trial goes and to.
42:40
Speaker 1: This is worth watching.
42:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, what kind of punishment is handed down? I have
42:46
Speaker 2: a feeling it is gonna be more lenient than we
42:50
Speaker 2: would expect because I think the LDP will want that.
42:56
Speaker 2: I think the ruling party of Japan will want this
43:00
Speaker 2: guy to get a lenient sentence for their own personal benefit.
43:05
Speaker 1: Or killing one of their most successful leaders who led
43:09
Speaker 1: their country for nine years.
43:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean former leader though, Yeah, like he wasn't
43:14
Speaker 2: still the leader.
43:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's in the book.
43:17
Speaker 2: The guy who was Prime Minister of Japan when that
43:19
Speaker 2: happened is still the Prime Minister of Japan. So you know,
43:23
Speaker 2: somewhere in the back of his head he's like, all right,
43:25
Speaker 2: don't fucking build a gun, shoot me. We'll get rid
43:27
Speaker 2: of the Moonies. Jesus, that was.
43:29
Speaker 1: A long project. I can't imagine. There's a whole lot
43:31
Speaker 1: of other people who, Oh, that said, I don't know.
43:34
Speaker 1: There's a lot of copycat killing in our world.
43:36
Speaker 2: Sadly, here's the fire the Moonies were playing with. If
43:40
Speaker 2: someone is that dedicated to the point that they are
43:44
Speaker 2: willing to ruin their entire life to keep giving you money,
43:49
Speaker 2: their kids are going to have that same sort of
43:52
Speaker 2: streak in them, probably dedication to where you get them
43:57
Speaker 2: focused on something they care about, and they're gonna see
44:00
Speaker 2: that shit through no matter what. And that is absolutely
44:04
Speaker 2: what happened here. The Moonies exploited a woman and then
44:10
Speaker 2: ran into a son who had that same fucking fervent
44:15
Speaker 2: dedication to the Moonies, just in the complete opposite way.
44:20
Speaker 2: He was like, I will spend all my money and
44:24
Speaker 2: all my time to fucking ruin.
44:27
Speaker 1: You and operate in secrecy that entire time. We live
44:31
Speaker 1: in a highly surveilled state. I can't imagine Japan that
44:35
Speaker 1: much further off, but I mean, like, imagine all that
44:37
Speaker 1: time it took and all those materials he had to
44:40
Speaker 1: acquire and operate completely isolated and independently in secret and
44:46
Speaker 1: still ball it off.
44:48
Speaker 2: And damn was working a full time job that whole time.
44:53
Speaker 1: I mean you could, yeah, income.
44:56
Speaker 2: In not a high paying job. It is a factory job,
44:59
Speaker 2: part of what he was upset, But still he had
45:01
Speaker 2: to hold down a job while doing all this planning.
45:05
Speaker 2: How do you think he paid for all the fucking weapons.
45:08
Speaker 1: Debt he was taking You said he took out like
45:10
Speaker 1: four hundred k's worth of debt, you know, because initially
45:13
Speaker 1: it's like, well, they ruined his you know, the movie's
45:16
Speaker 1: ruined his finances, and they took you know, seven hundred
45:18
Speaker 1: and fifty thousand dollars worth a yen. And my immediate
45:21
Speaker 1: thought was okay, well, I mean he obviously had enough
45:23
Speaker 1: left over to invest in all these garages and homemade gunpowder.
45:27
Speaker 1: But then I remembered, no, that was all that was
45:29
Speaker 1: all on the credit cards.
45:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was debt. And again I think he was
45:35
Speaker 2: doing exactly what his mom did with the Moonies. You
45:38
Speaker 2: give him money, and he was like, thank you, I'm
45:40
Speaker 2: going to go put this into destroying the Moonies.
45:43
Speaker 1: If you'll excuse me, Tetsuya, you destroyed the Moonies in Japan.
45:47
Speaker 1: At the very least, I have to imagine there's probably
45:49
Speaker 1: at least some operation still up still in South Korea,
45:52
Speaker 1: maybe at least a little bit.
45:54
Speaker 2: They had already been losing a lot of members, I mean,
45:58
Speaker 2: the Moonies. I don't think that ideology is exactly the same,
46:01
Speaker 2: but they are essentially Korean Scientology. It's the same in
46:06
Speaker 2: terms of the way they treat members, the way they
46:09
Speaker 2: just exploit people and drain money out of their members,
46:12
Speaker 2: exact same thing. And Scientology has lost a lot of
46:16
Speaker 2: members in recent years because people learned that. Yeah, Scientology
46:20
Speaker 2: has lost a whole lot.
46:22
Speaker 1: We're in LA and the Celebrity Center is still there
46:25
Speaker 1: for some reason.
46:26
Speaker 2: Doesn't mean it's as full as it used to be.
46:29
Speaker 1: M that's comforting.
46:30
Speaker 2: There were a lot of Blockbuster videos for a long time,
46:34
Speaker 2: and there's a reason there's none anymore because there's nobody
46:37
Speaker 2: fucking inside them. And the Moonies have suffered the same
46:41
Speaker 2: kind of things suffered as a weird way to put it,
46:43
Speaker 2: but sure. They've also been getting a lot of cult
46:47
Speaker 2: attention over the years, and it has caused their membership
46:51
Speaker 2: to dwindle. That three million figure I quoted earlier was
46:55
Speaker 2: the eighties and that's when cults were really at their.
46:59
Speaker 1: Peak kind of creative.
47:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so they've definitely lost members since then by
47:06
Speaker 2: all accounts. And don't forget the majority of their funds
47:09
Speaker 2: came from Japan because that was their main pool of exploitation.
47:15
Speaker 2: I guess, yilt. Yeah, so this is gonna have an impact.
47:21
Speaker 2: I'm interested to see how this goes too. I don't
47:23
Speaker 2: know if they're allowed to appeal it or anything like that.
47:27
Speaker 2: I don't know enough about Japan's legal system. I know
47:31
Speaker 2: a lot about Japan's legal system.
47:33
Speaker 1: I mean every time you and I mean it for drinks.
47:36
Speaker 1: You know, it's like, hey, I tell you this about
47:38
Speaker 1: towards Japanese style.
47:40
Speaker 2: We don't like to brag about it, but me and
47:42
Speaker 2: Danger have a weekly call about things like that, you know,
47:45
Speaker 2: you know about the Japanese legal system, and we just
47:48
Speaker 2: don't like, I'm not one of those people that's gonna
47:50
Speaker 2: make it my personality, Like you say something about the
47:53
Speaker 2: Japanese legal system and you're wrong, and I'm like, actually, no,
47:57
Speaker 2: I just I do it in the background. It's a passion.
47:59
Speaker 2: It's a passion.
48:00
Speaker 1: I just like the word torts. That's fun. Tort.
48:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, tort is one of those fun words that sends
48:07
Speaker 2: me into a blind rage if I think about it
48:09
Speaker 2: too much, because of the Hot Coffee lawsuit and all
48:12
Speaker 2: the tort reform caused.
48:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think I was on that episode.
48:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, don't get me started. I shan't so. I think
48:21
Speaker 2: that is our episode. That is the assassination of Shinzo
48:26
Speaker 2: Abbe and the shocking ripple effects.
48:30
Speaker 1: That is shocking in the sense that justice to this
48:35
Speaker 1: organization appears to be being served. Yes, and we live
48:40
Speaker 1: in a world where that seldom occurs. So yeah, let's
48:44
Speaker 1: soak it in. Man, good I love that. I love
48:46
Speaker 1: those people getting paid back all that stuff that was
48:49
Speaker 1: extorted from them. Now I'm curious how many of those people, however,
48:52
Speaker 1: will refuse to be paid back on account of their
48:56
Speaker 1: continued faith. At least a couple.
48:58
Speaker 2: These are people who have left who are already like
49:02
Speaker 2: there's a hole. They call them. They call them, I
49:05
Speaker 2: think the second generation. But there's a whole generation of
49:08
Speaker 2: kids who grew up under Mooney parents in Japan who've
49:12
Speaker 2: like signed petitions and things. Also, like, there's a lot
49:16
Speaker 2: of people we're talking about, there's a lot of them
49:18
Speaker 2: out there who are not going to go back to
49:21
Speaker 2: the Moonies under any fucking circumstances. And I think a
49:24
Speaker 2: lot of them are kids who were raised by their
49:27
Speaker 2: parents in that group. So yeah, I'm interested to see
49:31
Speaker 2: what impact this has on them on the Moonies. And again,
49:36
Speaker 2: I cannot stress enough this won't work in the United States.
49:40
Speaker 2: Don't fucking do it. Don't fucking do it. We will
49:43
Speaker 2: not be allowed to leave the house for the next
49:45
Speaker 2: twelve goddamn months. If you pull some shit like this
49:48
Speaker 2: in the United States, We're gonna have to figure it
49:51
Speaker 2: out another way. I'm sorry.
49:52
Speaker 1: Ideas, we're gonna win this on ideas, y'all.
49:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, this won't work here. We are not Japan, the
50:00
Speaker 2: same reason we will never have the utopian gun death
50:04
Speaker 2: figures that Japan has. This will also not work if
50:08
Speaker 2: you try it here. But it's an interesting story.
50:11
Speaker 1: It's very interesting, and I look forward to seeing it
50:14
Speaker 1: play out.
50:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to see how it's gonna play out.
50:17
Speaker 2: And even the Luigi Mangione thing, it's not gonna go
50:20
Speaker 2: this way. The government is not gonna be like, oh
50:23
Speaker 2: damn kid, we get it. You're back, really fucking hurt,
50:27
Speaker 2: and they didn't do anything. You know what, free health
50:30
Speaker 2: care for all. This a fucking pipe dream if you
50:33
Speaker 2: think that's gonna happen.
50:34
Speaker 1: Right, What they're here gonna say is, hey, CEOs, you
50:36
Speaker 1: should probably get more security. Yes, we're gonna see a
50:39
Speaker 1: lot less early morning jogs from these people.
50:41
Speaker 2: And also we know this will happen because it's already
50:44
Speaker 2: at least the idea has been floating. No, I think
50:46
Speaker 2: he's already been charged. It'll be Oh. Also, if you
50:49
Speaker 2: kill a CEO, that's domestic terrorism.
50:52
Speaker 1: Sure, yeah, yeah, because the CEO is more American than
50:56
Speaker 1: you know, the people under Ostensibly their quote unquote care Yeah.
51:00
Speaker 2: So, yeah, assassination is not the fucking answer. I am
51:07
Speaker 2: in no way endorsing it.
51:09
Speaker 1: This is one spot on a very large roulette wheel,
51:13
Speaker 1: and all the other spots on that wheel are it
51:16
Speaker 1: gets worse for everybody else.
51:18
Speaker 2: Yeah. There's a fascinating movie out there called Death of
51:23
Speaker 2: a President. It is a two thousand and six film
51:26
Speaker 2: that came out when George W. Bush was at the
51:29
Speaker 2: height of his powers, so two thousand and six, when
51:32
Speaker 2: he was just destroying the Middle East. And it is
51:36
Speaker 2: a fictional documentary about George Bush being assassinated in England.
51:44
Speaker 2: And you would think, given when it came out and
51:49
Speaker 2: the attitudes towards George W. Bush at the time on
51:53
Speaker 2: among Democrats and on the left, you'd think you'd watch
51:56
Speaker 2: it and be like, oh, hell yeah, was a fun watch.
52:01
Speaker 2: It is devastating. It is a devastating movie. That movie
52:05
Speaker 2: is probably the reason, probably one of the main reasons
52:09
Speaker 2: why whenever political assassination comes up, I'm like, Nope, don't
52:13
Speaker 2: do it. For one thing, They're gonna fucking blame a
52:15
Speaker 2: Muslim guy or something who didn't even do it, which
52:18
Speaker 2: that happens in that movie for sure, And lots of
52:21
Speaker 2: other fallout in ramifications from the No matter where you are,
52:26
Speaker 2: you don't want your president to be killed. That's goddamn chaos.
52:29
Speaker 2: That is for your own selfish reasons. You don't want
52:33
Speaker 2: your president to be assassinated.
52:35
Speaker 1: I just it's a very good point.
52:36
Speaker 2: I cannot fucking stress that enough. Given the title of
52:40
Speaker 2: this episode.
52:41
Speaker 1: Now watch this. I'm gonna run for office again a
52:43
Speaker 1: couple of years, and we're gonna hear snippets of this
52:47
Speaker 1: conversation with that boo boo yeah. Mike Vaan Gouder praises assassins,
52:54
Speaker 1: says it works out with the Roulette wheel metaphor.
52:58
Speaker 2: Dn't yeah, that's gonna happen. It's gonna happen, and I
53:02
Speaker 2: would love to defend you when it happens, but I'll
53:04
Speaker 2: probably be in guantanamo or something.
53:06
Speaker 1: I'll do it I can to get you out.
53:08
Speaker 2: Hey, thank you. I appreciate it. And until then, I
53:11
Speaker 2: think that's our episode. We did it.
53:13
Speaker 1: We did it, well done.
53:14
Speaker 2: Danger, Thank you so much for doing the pod. I
53:18
Speaker 2: appreciate it.
53:19
Speaker 1: Man.
53:19
Speaker 2: What do we have to plug before we get out
53:21
Speaker 2: of here? All I got is Adam Todd Brown dot
53:24
Speaker 2: Besky dot social follow me on Blue Sky. It is
53:27
Speaker 2: the only social media network I'm using anymore because the
53:31
Speaker 2: Nazis own the rest.
53:33
Speaker 1: Literally all the rest of them. Who owns Blue Sky? Well,
53:35
Speaker 1: I mean, do we need to be worried at some point?
53:38
Speaker 2: Fucking Nazi too, I haven't mind. All right, doesn't own Twitter,
53:42
Speaker 2: not even the guy before? Do I think so? Which
53:45
Speaker 2: he's yeah, he's gonna save us.
53:48
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's the one that owns Guy anyways.
53:51
Speaker 1: Uh plugs okay, Yeah, callus thousands, man. We're We've got
53:56
Speaker 1: a bunch of shows coming up. We're gonna be at
53:59
Speaker 1: Harvard and Stone on April second, We're gonna be at
54:03
Speaker 1: the Redwood May twenty ninth. I'm gonna have my fourtieth
54:08
Speaker 1: birthday slash bar Mitzvah at Boomtown Brewery on June twenty ninth.
54:13
Speaker 1: I believe mister Adam Todd Brown won't be doing a
54:15
Speaker 1: comedy set there. Yeah, you're very excited for all that
54:17
Speaker 1: because all this is in support of our new album
54:19
Speaker 1: coming out called Woke Moralists. Dude, I've heard the masters.
54:23
Speaker 1: They sound so good. This is the best thing we
54:26
Speaker 1: have produced so far. It's just incredible, So please Backcissan
54:31
Speaker 1: Patreon Patriotic Complash countless thousands. We're you know, we're using
54:35
Speaker 1: that money, we're making it work, and we have a
54:37
Speaker 1: product for all of you. And then also, I've applied
54:43
Speaker 1: to be on the Planet Commission here in the city
54:45
Speaker 1: of Burbank. If you think that I, as a urban
54:48
Speaker 1: planner and enforcement agent for the State of California, deserve
54:52
Speaker 1: to be on the Planet Commission, WHI yes, I do.
54:54
Speaker 1: Please email our city council and say, hey, you shoot
54:57
Speaker 1: a point Mike Bank order to the Planet COMMISSI because
55:01
Speaker 1: he actually knows what he's talking about and has the
55:05
Speaker 1: future of our city in mind. That'd be nice. Do
55:08
Speaker 1: it many other things besides.
55:10
Speaker 2: Do all that, and let's get out of here dangerous.
55:13
Speaker 1: Say goodbye, goodbye friends, don't kill people.
55:16
Speaker 2: Don't kill people. Goodbye everybody. We love you, Mam