Given that I’ve been lost in fantasies involving five figure workstations with copious GPU capabilities, I utterly missed a global uprising. Just as in 2011’s Arab Spring, governments are falling to waves of angry Gen Z protesters, and they’re flying the Straw Hat Pirates flag from ONE PIECE, a long running Japanese manga.
The ten nations affected thus far, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Morroco, Nepal, Peru, Serbia, Timor-Leste, and the Philippines are unified … by having extremely online young people. This is not at all like Arab Spring, wherein corruption, cost of living, and a far away climate crisis inflamed North Africa. This is a global phenomena, and I think it’s best summed up as “kids concerned for their future”.
There aren’t Straw Hat Pirate flags waving in the U.S. as far as I have seen, but I have been too busy to pay attention to much, so maybe I just missed this. If they aren’t already, I imagine they soon will be.
This is being described as a “contagion effect”. The beliefs are anti-globalist, anti-fascist, and somewhat socialist, which are the roots of the culture of ONE PIECE.
Conclusion:
This has all the makings of a global social movement, and with an easily reproduced totem image, it’s finally going to replace the Pitiful Brandfagging that keeps Anonymous sporadically in the news.
It’s a bit odd to me to notice this late on a Sunday and realize I have no idea where to even start looking for details. I participated to some degree in every social movement from 2009 through 2024, but this is the year I said “Good luck, kids”, and just sat on my butt when things started moving.
We’re still doing personal security as a focus for Q4, but this is obviously going to need further attention, even if all I can do is curate some good sources for you guys. If you noticed Reboot Camp 2025 and you’re remembering the safe movement and observation tradecraft we discussed back in 2023, you’re only a little late to start setting up a perch.
And on that note, I need to go consult the #Weird Bugs Signal room to see what they know of these matters …