¡°HIGH ENERGY BASED Japan approved blanked [sic] surveillance over ALL¡± Muslims!
So reads the celebratory title of a Reddit post linking to an old news article about Japan¡¯s highest court approving surveillance of Muslims. The post is from the The_Donald community on Reddit, the major online gathering place for U.S. President Donald Trump¡¯s supporters. For them, it is a welcoming, ¡°high energy¡± subculture dense with memes, conspiracy theories, alternative news sources, and celebration of Trump¡¯s intellect and leadership ¡ª a never-ending online Trump rally. I have been lurking in the community since the time when a Trump presidency was no more than a wacky thought experiment, but for the uninitiated, .
Since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe¡¯s visits to the United States, I have been struck by the community¡¯s admiration for Japan and belief in Trump¡¯s widespread popularity there. Abe and Trump¡¯s bromance was warmly received by the The_Donald community, where it was celebrated with posts such as ¡°70% of japanese approved of pm shinzo abe¡¯s trump visit! winning!¡± Indeed, the community has found many reasons to admire Japan. A 2015 Fox News headline, ¡°Japan not taking in refugees; says it must look after its citizens first¡± was posted several times in February, with numerous other discussion threads praising Japan¡¯s strict immigration policy. Back in December a post sharing a piece by the far-right news site Infowars, analyzing how Japan¡¯s policies are a model for resisting Islamic terrorism, was one of the most popular topics in the community. In one of the highest rated comments, user bottomlines explains his admiration for Japan:
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