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robfahey.net
Assistant Professor at Waseda Institute for Advanced Study in Tokyo. I research populism, conspiracy theory beliefs, and polarisation; I teach quantitative analysis and computational text analysis. Recovering journalist. 🇮🇪/🏳️‍🌈/He/Him.
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The US 2020 Elections - @sjungkunz.bsky.social, @robfahey.net & Airo Hino investigate the dynamics of political violence justification & its connection with populist attitudes & conspiracy beliefs: https://buff.ly/3ZidmeI @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social @uoypolitics.bsky.social #ECRs #polsky

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

I've been lax in plugging the Waseda podcast, but I particularly enjoyed this discussion with Prof. Liu-Farrer about migration in Asia. We talk about the artificial ideas of "skilled" migration, and how labour flows in Asia impact both sending and receiving nations: www.waseda.jp/top/en/news/...

submitted 27 days ago • 1 comment

Fought through crashing waves of jet-lag to see Sigourney Weaver’s last night in The Tempest - absolutely worth it! She was wonderful, of course, though the show was thoroughly stolen by the jawdropping set design and by Mason Alexander Park’s fantastically ethereal performance as Ariel.

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

I’ve been thinking lately that for all the focus on how social media has screwed up the information environment for ordinary people, we can overlook how much it’s also messing up political leaders. Thinking here of Yoon allegedly getting YouTube brain-poisoned into his attempted coup…

submitted 68 days ago • 2 comments

Doing our Christmas dinner on the 26th this year due to awkward midweek timing, but now I keep having momentary panic attacks that it’s Christmas Eve and none of the food prep is in progress. Perhaps I should sample a little of the egg nog to steady the nerves? 🤔

submitted 71 days ago • 1 comment

It must be the last lecture before the Christmas break, because we hit a section on Mishima Yukio and the words “oh THIS fucking diva” had escaped my lips before my brain even knew it was forming them. (In my defence: accurate and justified.)

submitted 77 days ago • 0 comments

The Fukuoka High Court rules that Japan's ban on same-sex marriage is "Unconstitutional" (違憲). This ruling follows two previous ones this year, in Tokyo High Court (September) and Hokkaido High Court (March), which also found it unconstitutional. (1) mainichi.jp/articles/202...

submitted 83 days ago • 2 comments

There's good mileage to be had in placing bets on the next ambassador to Japan based purely on which of Trump's outer circle seems most likely to own a dakimakura. ... Oh god, it's Lindell, isn't it.

submitted 84 days ago • 0 comments

I've been interviewing researchers from various departments at Waseda for our university podcast series, and my first episode, with Prof. Marisa Kellam, was published last week. Hopefully my dulcet tones are more soothing than the grim topic of democratic backsliding. www.waseda.jp/top/en/news/...

submitted 84 days ago • 0 comments

Got out of the city for a weekend trip, nicely timed for the autumn colours! Lots of cities/wards in Japan own hot spring hotels in nearby resort areas which are steeply discounted for local residents - this is Shinjuku-ku’s ryokan in Hakone.

submitted 95 days ago • 0 comments

The shutting down of the Abe Faction of the LDP, which was dissolved in January over financial scandals, concludes today - the faction's offices in Tokyo are closing and its remaining funds are being transferred into the party coffers. www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZ...

submitted 99 days ago • 1 comment

Drop your lockscreen Picture I took at the Cliffs of Moher a few years ago. (Also yes every class I teach titled <Something> Analysis ends up abbreviated like that 😓)

submitted 106 days ago • 1 comment

Post a perfect album from the '90s that isn’t Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, or Alice in Chains. (What an odd exclusion list - they're all great, but such a small corner of what was going on musically in the 90s!)

submitted 107 days ago • 7 comments

The scrum in the offices of The Atlantic over which of their pissbaby columnists gets to write this pitch has probably already reached the point of hair-pulling and nipple twisting.

submitted 107 days ago • 0 comments

My first reaction was to wonder when the Mail finally figured out that millennials are now in our thirties and forties. It’s Gen Z’s turn to be blamed for the downfall of civilisation*! * i.e., sad, dry sandwiches unadulterated by the degeneracy of woke avocados or the decadence of soft cheeses.

submitted 107 days ago • 0 comments

My ward (Shinjuku) just sent out a disaster prep package - disposable chemical toilets (usable when water is stopped), freeze dried onigiri, and an information booklet with local maps of assembly points etc., plus a catalogue of goods you can order to earthquake-proof your home.

submitted 108 days ago • 2 comments

FWIW, I think this is true in academic research too. If your paper title / abstract mentions AI, I'm immediately primed to expect a part in the methodology that's essentially "then a magical black box did a thing we don't understand but have made a LOT of untestable assumptions about".

submitted 108 days ago • 0 comments

This is a great explanation of the ¥1.03m "wall" in the tax system that the DPP is proposing to eliminate, supposedly to help low-income workers. They ran for election on simple, punchy slogans about this, but the reality is much more complex and their proposals are of limited practical benefit.

submitted 108 days ago • 1 comment

It's hard to overstate the intense focus of Japan's news media on trying to read the tea-leaves about Ishiba's (thus far non-existent) relationship with Trump. The airwaves are filled with pundits comparing lists of their hobbies, doomer prognostication, and over-analysis of diplomatic calendering.

submitted 109 days ago • 1 comment