Fusako Shigenobu (Japanese: 重信 房子, Hepburn: Shigenobu Fusako, born 28 September 1945) is a Japanese communist activist, writer, and the founder and leader of the now-disbanded militant group Japanese Red Army (JRA).

Born in Japan, Shigenobu became involved in New Left activism while attending night school at Meiji University in Tokyo. In 1969, she joined the Red Army Faction (RAF), a communist group that advocated immediate, armed revolution against the governments of the United States and Japan. Eventually becoming one of its senior leaders, Shigenobu played a significant role in establishing the International Relations Bureau for the organization.

In 1971, she helped found the JRA as an offshoot of the RAF. That same year, Shigenobu and the JRA relocated to the Middle East in an effort to start a world revolution, as well as to assist with the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation while working in concert with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). During the 1970s and 1980s, members of the JRA took part in a number of violent incidents, including bombings, mass shootings, and hijackings. Although Shigenobu did not directly participate in these activities, during this time she attained international fame as the leader and public-facing spokesperson for the JRA.

Throughout her years in hiding and later imprisonment, Shigenobu authored 10 books, including a book of poetry.

Following her arrest in 2000 after several years of hiding, Shigenobu was put on trial for passport forgery and alleged conspiracy involving an attempted hostage-taking operation at the French Embassy in The Hague in 1974. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2006 and released in 2022.

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    • Kynuck97 [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      9 months ago

      Spend enough time high and being high starts to feel normal and being sober feels like shit. Well, more shit than normal at least. Trying to at least wait until I'm done this shift before I schlonk this dab.

      idk, music is nice.

      Edit: Shift is over, it's weed-schlonking time.

          • TheCaconym [any]
            ·
            9 months ago

            Or less subtle ones. Similar states of consciousness can be reached through extreme exhaustion, for example; in parts of the world where psychs were not naturally or easily available, there often are rituals where, for example, people will dance for hours, sometimes tens of hours, in order to have similar experiences.

            • thirtymilliondeadfish [she/her]
              ·
              9 months ago

              whirling dervishes yeah?

              Edit

              The Mevlevis are also known as the "whirling dervishes" due to their famous practice of whirling while performing dhikr (remembrance of God). Dervish is a common term for an initiate of the Sufi path; whirling is part of the formal sema ceremony and the participants are properly known as semazens.

              • TheCaconym [any]
                ·
                9 months ago

                I was actually thinking of several more obscure examples I read about in an anthropology source a while back, but I couldn't find it again; it was particularly common in several parts of Africa where there were few consciousness-altering plants available.

                The dervishes look similar but the aim I'm guessing is closer to meditation; the practices I read about were genuinely dangerous health-wise (extreme exhaustion, without pauses, without food or water) and resulted in full-on hallucinatory trips.

                • thirtymilliondeadfish [she/her]
                  ·
                  9 months ago

                  Yeah idk about dancing til exhaustion, I think the Mevlevis go for a good while, there's certainly a trance/meditation/mysticism happening there, but idk about going til point of collapse.

                  There's also something similar but maybe not quite like Zaouli from the ivory coast too, wherein the dancer dons a large costume and is said to be taken over by a spirit that dances or something? Made to look inhuman and/or as if the costume dances on its own/without a dancer inside it. I don't think that's specifically Zaouli but I can't find others atm

    • SpiderFarmer [he/him]
      ·
      9 months ago

      I've wondered that, too. In my thirties and I'm finally getting how people could develop drinking problems. That said, a runner's high is amazing, but you gotta be in shape to reach that point. Also unmedicated ADHD, so I'm kinda not there to begin with.

    • Commiejones [comrade/them, he/him]
      ·
      9 months ago

      I used to be a 24/7 stoner and psychonaut and I just realized one day that it wasn't making things "better" or making me happy anymore it just made things different. I was worried that I'd be bored or sad etc. but It turns out that you just find other ways of coping.

    • Shymain [they/them]
      ·
      9 months ago

      mostly i just sit here while my internal voice goes AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

      it's like a form of self torture. part of me says if i'm doing this then at least i'm not succumbing to decadence while the greatest evil in my lifetime happens.

      i got into tea recently so i've been trying a bunch of samples and that helps distract and calm me a bit