This App Rocks: Vibration Analysis

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For a while, I’ve been sometimes feeling down, while at home. It was a feeling of unease, which is difficult to describe. But after a while, I started to get suspicious, as this feeling mainly occurred when I was running a certain fan.

I had purchased a cheapo fan from Walmart, to help me circulate the air when the weather gets hot. But I noticed that I felt unease when the fan was running, particularly when it was running at its “3” setting, closest to “off”.

The suspect

I remember reading somewhere that it’s possible for a person to feel unease when exposed to a certain frequency, which is around 19 hertz. It so happens that I had a “Vibration analysis” app on my phone (developed by Dmitriy Kharutskiy), which could pick up certain frequencies.

Here is an example of how the app looks when it’s in use:

In line with my suspicion, the fan let off a vibration at around 19hz when at its high setting, “3”! I decided to measure the frequency at the “2” and “1” settings, for which it let off different frequencies.

When the fan was off, or running at a setting of “2” or “1”, my feeling of unease disappeared, almost immediately! If I were to continue to use the same fan, it would be better to avoid leaving it on the highest setting.

The Vibration Analysis app rocks! It’s very much deserving of a five star rating on the app store. Who knows what else one might discover about their environment by running this app.

Apple’s Update May Have Introduced a Backdoor to iPhones That Bad Actors Could Exploit

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If you own an Apple device, that device may already be scanning the images on it. An update that went live just last week can determine whether images on devices such as iPhone are illegal. Privacy activists are up in arms over this development, concerned that the program involved could be repurposed by authoritarians for censorship.

Apple has implemented the feature to detect whether images on a phone victimize children. While the endeavor sounds noble, there is room for the suspicion that this cause in particular has been selected because few people would disagree with it. However, the same thing could be said about counter-terrorism, which was the reasoning behind the Patriot Act, which continually violates the privacy of Americans.

There aren’t many people out there that need to be told that Cheese Pizza is illegal. I knew that it’s illegal to possess or share, but I had no idea that it was such a pervasive issue that it needed to be fought against on the device level.

The way the software works is by checking the hash values of images on the device. A hash value is a code that could be used to identify an image, and in the case of the software, it checks the hash values of images against a blacklist of hash values for known illegal images.

This is going to be misused. Hard.

When Cheese Pizza is brought up, it’s customary to virtue signal, and this will be mine: as far as I know, the most provocative image on my computer is just a drawing that doesn’t even depict any real people. I don’t even know whether any of the oceans of anime images on my computer clearly show any tube steaks or roast beef sandwiches. But I doubt that the algorithm is going to be looking for anime doodles, anyway.

My concern is two-fold: whether there would be false positives (which might not often happen), and whether the algorithm could be reverse-engineered and repurposed by authoritarians to go after free expression that should be protected.

For one thing, the hash values of images can be changed. One way of doing this is to simply edit the image, though this wouldn’t likely be effective against an AI that’s been trained to categorize images based on appearance. The problem is, it’s possible for a person to hack the hash value of an image, then share it with other people. An image that seems harmless might have a hash value that trips a flag, resulting in an investigation.

The algorithm is almost certain to be repurposed by more authoritarian regimes. It’s one thing if Cheese Pizza is illegal in one part of the world, but there are places where homosexuality is illegal, and a repurposed iteration of this software could detect LGBT+ material.

Then there’s China. The place is pretty much a country of over a billion slaves. Over there, it’s illegal to say anything against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The country already has a social credit system that automatically assigns a numerical value to people depending on their activities, with those scoring low enough being publicly shamed by having their face displayed on electronic billboards. It’s a system that works using cameras and facial recognition, which isn’t perfect. A person who is misidentified could be accused of a crime they didn’t commit.

If Apple’s new software could be used to seek out images on a Chinese blacklist, it could identify anyone who has a chance of being critical of the CCP.

I don’t go looking for illegal stuff, but that doesn’t mean I’m not concerned. Over a year ago, a car on the other side of the state I live in ran a red light, and I was issued a fine because a traffic camera misidentified the car’s license plate as my own. False positives happen, and we live in a world where disinterested state employees could cause problems for someone they’ve never even seen. The technology isn’t perfect, and that makes potential for problems that otherwise might not exist.

Right now, there is a lot of power in the hands of just a few people who manage the technology. As it is, you might not even own the device you use to read these words, and you may only have a license to use the software that runs on it, which can probably be revoked at any time.

It might be Cheese Pizza today, but tomorrow, it could be your politics. Silicon Valley is dominated by leftists as it is, and it’s not hard to find extreme elements of leftism that views anyone right of center as being criminal. Suppose that there’s a meme of Pepe the Frog that was relevant to the participants of the Capitol siege on January 6th, and you have that image on your iPhone somewhere, not aware of its significance. There’s no telling how you might have slipped up.

Did Apple just introduce a form of backdoor that allows external actors to determine whether a file is on your device? I don’t know, but as I see increasing authoritarianism employed just to fight an easily-survivable virus, it’s easy to feel a little concerned.

You can now be psycho-analyzed by your phone. Not really a new development, as it’s been a thing for a long time, as psychological information about you has long been sold to ad companies to the end of serving you targeted advertisements. It’s also been a thing for a while that activist groups engage in slander campaigns to try to make resistance figures out to be pedophiles, because that’s currently the go-to insult that can be used to destroy a person as cheaply as possible, in as few words as possible, and it’s the one insult that bypasses the hearer’s better judgement and causes them to assume the worst about the accused.

I suppose a person could try to fight back against this by switching to a phone running Android, or some kind of Freedom Phone. But it could be that they’ve been doing stuff like this for a while, but it just hasn’t been advertised.

I could imagine that pedophiles might be sweating bullets, about now. But considering the potential for abuse from the software itself, it’s easy to see why they’re not the only ones that should be concerned.

Digimon Tamers Snipes At Cancel Culture

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When I first saw Digimon, at first I dismissed it as another Pokémon me-too. But I gave it a chance, and discovered that it was respectable in its own right. Digimon Tamers was the high point of the series, a sentiment that’s shared by the general Digimon community.

On August 1, at Yokosuka Arts Theater, Digimon Tamers celebrated its 20th anniversary with an event where voice actors read from a script written by Digimon’s writers, which added a new antagonist to the story.

The villain is named Political Correctness. His attack is called Cancel Culture. The names were in English. And no, I’m not kidding.

An actual reading from the event by Digimon voice talent.

The Japanese seem to want to make it abundantly clear that they see what’s wrong with western culture and it’s entertainment industry, and they are absolutely not on board with it. What better way to do it than with one of the Tumblr crowd’s favorite Japanese IPs, and in a manner so devoid of subtlety that even a knuckle-dragging, horse-toothed, dim-witted ignoramus wouldn’t need what’s intended to be explained to him.

It’s true that Japan has an advanced society that favors intellect. It’s based on this perception that the PC crowd has touted the Japanese, as though they are at all sympathetic toward their various causes. What they don’t seem to realize is that the Japanese definitely do not have their values. The Japanese have a heavily meritocratic society, and heavily esteem traditional values, including those which protect the traditional family. The same could be said of much of the Asian world.

In Digimon, the bad guys are usually classified as viruses. In biology, a virus is an organism that injects instructions into a host cell in order to change the cell’s instructions, and therefore, its behavior (usually to the end of making more viruses). Computer viruses are so named because they hijack a program’s instructions in a similar way.

Cancel culture and political correctness are like viruses, but in a memetic sense. They are an instruction set that overrides a host’s better judgement, and subverts their capacity for rational thought to the end of perpetuating the memetic itself, which continually seeks out new targets towards the end of its own self-perpetuation.

While a virus eventually causes its host cell to burst, killing it, political correctness would eventually turn a person into a neurotic shell of their former selves.

With this development, the Digimon creative team is taking a shot directly at the PC crowd, sending the message that “No, we are not your allies.” It might even be what it takes for them to figure out that the Japanese entertainment industry in general is against political correctness, and interpret it as an attack on their creative endeavors and their culture as a whole.

But it’s hard to tell just how clearly you have to spell it out.

It Seems Some Loser Got Trolled into Vandalizing Dave Cullen’s Property

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You might remember Dave Cullen as the person who voiced skepticism over the coronavirus vaccine, and was later vindicated when an evolutionary biologist pointed out the unusual behavior of spike proteins in the ovaries of women who got the jab.

It would seem as though Dave has been getting plenty of engagement, in spite of having been banned on YouTube in February, as evidenced by the fact that his property was vandalized, as was public property near his new home, attempting to smear him as a “paedo”.

Dave himself outlines this in the video below:

I don’t have some special insight into the matter, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the people who vandalized Dave’s property acted on a dare. The first bit of evidence is the D-student nature of the accusation; “paedo” is what you’d call someone when you want to tear them down as cheaply as possible, in as few words as possible. Also, they misspelled his name.

The group mechanics of online organizations that engage in intimidation, such as ANTIFA, aren’t hard to understand. They largely come down to a bunch of trolls convincing gullible people to act on dares. It’s not much different from the neighborhood kids who convince some new kid to commit a prank, like ding-dong-ditch, on the pretense that “if you do it, we’ll respect you for it”.

But in reality, the opposite is true. A kid who acts on the dare is pegged as a bitch, who can be made to do anything that he’s asked to do, if put under enough pressure. In time, the bitch can be dared to steal or vandalize, while the ones that put him up to it don’t have to face the consequences if he gets caught.

Acting on a dare doesn’t win the kid respect, it only results in more dares. And he may only be a few dares away from having sex with patio furniture.

If you’re wondering what ANTIFA discussion groups are like, it’s pretty much a huge hive of trolls that try to goad whatever gullible imbeciles that meander in to do what they want them to do, so they don’t have to get their hands dirty by doing it themselves. Then they laugh themselves silly when an imbecile turns bitch by doing what the trolls want him to do.

The idea behind these groups is, “make someone else do it”. And that’s where those who are sincere in whatever the group purports to be about comes in. I don’t know, but I suspect that these groups are 90% trolls, and 10% sincere, with the occasional one among the sincere willing to go far enough to be a bitch.

(If you disagree with the use of language in this post, consider this: What do you think the trolls call the gullibly sincere behind their backs? And is that a title you’d want for yourself?)

The fact is, trolls are great at disguising themselves as someone who is sincere. It’s the whole reason they can so effectively manipulate other people into doing what they want. It wouldn’t surprise me if certain leftist fringe communities were composed almost entirely of trolls, who are collectively ready to pounce the moment that someone who is sincere in their convictions decides to show up and attempt to identify as one of them.

Then they get that person to do something stupid, and shortly afterwards, that person becomes yet another Encyclopedia Dramatica article. Then, there they go, that’s their prize for believing so hard in the cause that they vandalize someone’s home.

Did you really think that these leftist fringe communities existed for the betterment of society? No, the real point is to act as lul-farms, which milk the gullible few for whatever lulz can be drained from them. And once someone outs themselves as willing to stir up IRL drama for the cause, the trolls are just going to latch on and suck away. When do they stop? I don’t know, they can remain on the same guy for years. And if a record of the mis-deed remains on the internet for someone else to find, it’s hard to tell when interest in the lol-cow will reignite, long after it was thought to have died down.

If that sounds like an undesirable outcome to you, then these leftist fringe communities are something for you to stay away from.

But for at least one guy who messed with Dave Cullen, it might already be too late. His best bet at this point would be to get out of there before matters escalate beyond his ability to manage.

Chris Chan Trending After Texts Leak Implying a Serious Crime

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WARNING: This development may be vomit-inducing.

This isn’t the kind of news I wanted to see.

If you don’t know who Chris Chan (a.k.a. Christian Weston Chandler, a.k.a. Christine Chandler) is, Chris Chan is the author of the infamous Sonichu series of webcomics, which initially stars a mashup character inspired by Sonic the Hedgehog and Pokémon’s Pikachu. Chris Chan, who currently identifies as a transgender woman, has become famous online for the webcomic, and for how poorly he has responded to trolls.

Title character on right, main character on left.

While it’s true that Chris is autistic, he only has a mild case of autism, so his many poor choices are for a lack of genuine wisdom.

Just last week, Chris Chan started trending after Kiwi Farms user Null has come forward with text messages, allegedly from Chris Chan, confiding in the recipient that Chris has sexually assaulted a woman named “Barb”, who is believed to be Chris’ elderly mother, who has dementia.

Since then, Chris Chan has been detained, subsequently released, but is now barred from his own home, where his mother resides.

There are a couple possible mitigating factors to consider. For one thing, that the crime is alleged. Another is that Chris may have confessed to a crime he did not commit.

Chris does get trolled by a group of people who are collectively referred to as the “Idea Guys”, so named because they take advantage of Chris’ gullibility to convince him to say or do some inadvisable things. Chris believes in numerous delusions, such as that there are multiple dimensions, which are a likely product of the Idea Guys’ influence.

Chris Chan has been an attendee at Bronycon, an event for fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

If Chris really did commit the crime in question, it’s possible that he might implicate the Idea Guys for their influence. If not, he might still come forward with claims that he was being extorted into producing the messages. Having said that, I’ve read the messages in part, and they seem convincing (and graphic, which is something to consider if you’re thinking about reading them for yourself).

I’ve been following Chris’ antics over the course of years, but with the hope that he could, in time, turn matters around for himself, and live a better life as a result. Making this an unlikely outcome is that Chris has interpreted advice as an attack against himself, even if well-worded. There isn’t much that can be done to help someone who thinks like that, but if Chris could turn things around for himself, that could give hope to just about anyone who is in a pretty bad spot, whether or not it’s through fault of their own.

This makes the latest drama involving Chris even more disappointing. At this rate, it’s likely that the guy is going to wind up living in an institution. It might not be ideal, but it might be the protection needed for someone who apparently lacks the ability to make the decisions needed to properly take care of himself.

An earlier photo of Chris Chan, from YouTube. He has habitually spent large amounts of disposable income, including government aid, on toys.

It’s a disturbing turn of events, but Chris’ life has been zany and sad. His parents didn’t properly prepare him for the real world, and this was how things have developed.

The Moratorium on Evictions Has Expired; This Seems Suspiciously As Though It Was Planned

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As of today, the moratorium on evictions was allowed to expire. Considering the circumstances surrounding this, it seems this moratorium was deliberately killed. Consider this:

  • An extension on the moratorium was only proposed days prior to its expiration,
  • The proposed extension occurred just days before a 6-week house recess, and
  • The moratorium’s expiration date suspiciously coincided with the beginning of the 6-week recess.

In light of all this, it appears likely that there wasn’t a strong desire among government leadership to renew the moratorium, so circumstances were set up to make the failure of its renewal a likely outcome.

Could it be that it slipped their collective minds that an end to the moratorium was approaching? While that might seem possible, consider the sheer amount of incompetence this would imply. Did this really not factor into the thinking of the 435 voting house representatives, and none of them had the voice to speak up about the impending crisis of potentially millions ending up displaced? Could it be that they just weren’t aware of the impending expiration of the moratorium, in spite of its relevance to millions of Americans?

Or could it be that they were aware of the consequences, and set matters up to end the moratorium in such a way that would minimize accountability for themselves? Of course, it’s about as difficult to ascribe that kind of malice to a gathering of 435 elected representatives, but it’s as likely as that malice instead being incompetence, and in either case, it still looks bad. Of course, what is the likelihood that all 435 representatives would have a sufficient amount of one or the other, or else the few outliers not have a sufficient voice? In any case, it still looks bad.

Any they expect anyone to trust them to lead?

Those that are poor and politically lean to the left are more used to the idea that Republicans aren’t their friends, when in reality, they tend to be more against entitlement programs and the continual abuse of hand-outs. And, sure enough, it seems the entirety of Republicans in the house were against the extension of the moratorium.

The ones that these left-leaning poor should be really disappointed in would be the House Democrats, considering the Democrats didn’t sufficiently get behind the extension. Because Democrats hold the House majority, they could have easily pushed an extension on the moratorium through, if they got behind it as a party.

So, what comes next?

It’s hard to say, but I can imagine that not every landlord may go through with evictions. Not every landlord is rich, some are ordinary people. But there are likely a number of them that can get by that would pity their tenants and decide not to displace them.

However, I can also imagine that a great number of landlords would push evictions through as quickly as they could, in an effort to reclaim assets that were only continually being an expense to them. This would result in the displacement of a great many people, and could potentially result in a crisis.

Remember that the moratorium wasn’t on rent, it was on evictions. If anyone decided to take advantage of the moratorium by allowing back rent to accumulate, they’d be pretty bad off right now.

If you’ve been waiting for a SHTF moment, this has potential to be the tipping point. While most people would have a place to go to, people who lose hope tend to turn to desperation, perhaps to crime or violence, perceiving there being little recourse to survive. Yet, a person doesn’t need to actually be among those displaced to turn to violent fanaticism, as we see with the fact that a disproportionate number of ANTIFA extremists are from relatively well-off families. Even those not directly affected may perceive a threat to themselves.

This matter was set up in such a way that both sides can easily blame the other for what might happen, which made the outcome of events until now sadly likely, given the political climate. It’s obvious that the government lockdowns were a disproportionate response to an epidemic, and while continuing to run society as normal was clearly the better choice, especially in hindsight, you’d have to comb government to find a person willing to take the accountability needed to be a better, stronger leader.

So, we end up in the mess we’re in right now. What do you do about it? I don’t know, that depends on who you are, what situation you’re in, and the options available to you, which aren’t the same for everyone.

But for us to turn against each other seems like a trap, and might play into certain people’s hands. We should be careful about who gets the blame. Let’s be sure to direct a hefty amount of blame towards the people who called for the lockdowns to begin with, since they’re the ones who set us up for this mess.

The Real Reason Why the MAP Community Needs to Watch its Back

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It’s mildly amusing how when pedophilia is discussed, you’ll usually find people who virtue signal, as though they have to make sure that people don’t think that they might be pedophiles. Look, you’re not a pedophile. I believe you. Cool your jets.

I haven’t heard of the MAP community until today. Pointing out as much probably counts as a kind of virtue signaling. Perhaps the desire to virtue signal so hard about it comes with running out of sexual deviancies that’s societally acceptable to make fun of.

You’ve probably pieced it together by now, but the MAP community is an online community of pedophiles. MAP is shorthand for “Minor Attracted Persons”. Even when it’s put in the most stale language possible, it still gives off creep-vibes. What they call for is recognition of attraction to children in the same way that society has come to more openly accept the various elements of the LGBT+ community.

The MAP community needs to watch it’s back, but not for the reason that you might think. The reason probably being that you’re a 2A kinda person. Unless you’re not, in which case, maybe you can find some rocks to throw, or something.

There is a saying that’s going around: Where two KKK clansmen gather together, at least one is an FBI informant.

If you’re in the MAP community, the implication of that probably turned your stomach to ice. Did it really not occur to you until now that your online group of professed pedophiles might be a snap to infiltrate? The MAP community has “honeypot” written all over it, but you didn’t notice?

On the chance that you identified as a MAP, and were only trolling, would the laughs be worth ending up on the map? After all, when a person is great at trolling, it’s hard to tell them apart from someone who is completely sincere.

Stay out of trouble.

Manga Publishing President Already Backtracking Concerning “The Great Mistake”

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Wow, that did not take long! Just days ago, the president of manga publishing company Kadokawa had started trending with his opinion that manga content is more extreme than Japanese swimsuit content, and suggested that he wanted matters to change so that manga would be more likely to be reviewed by American tech companies like Apple and Google.

Kadowaka president Takashi Natsuno faced immediate backlash for his comments, from the industry, from the fans, and from his own company. As a result, Natsuno has issued a public apology, and has voluntarily taken a 20% pay cut for a few months at the request of Kadokawa, which he would be returning to the company.

I’d be speculating, but I suspect that Natsuno’s earlier statement may have been virtue-signaling as damage control for his earlier statement about the opening ceremonies of the olympic games, which this year were hosted in Tokyo. Here is what he said:

“Compared to the Olympics, such shitty piano recitals don’t matter.”

That in particular was a legend statement that he didn’t need to feel sorry for. But sometimes, a person attempts to handle the situation in a manner that makes matters worse, which might be an explanation for why he would later attempt the Japanese equivalent of trying to score intersectionality points. Except, the Japanese have stronger sensibilities than western feminists, which is why his virtue signal exploded in his face.

If any SJW had any hope of infiltrating the manga industry or Japanese culture, it just vanished in a hurry, as “the great mistake” parasite didn’t last long enough to have a significant impact on the intended host company, and was eliminated quickly enough that it leaves no doubt that western intersectional politics don’t stand a chance in Japan.

I’ll be honest, I was willing to play the long game on this one. American content companies take a long time to learn their lesson, so it was a refreshing surprise that Natsuno faced backlash so quickly. And on top of that, he actually listened to criticism. That’s a far cry from the typical western CEO who is too proud to admit his fault, and surrounds himself with pusillanimous suck-ups who are too afraid to tell him that he’s wrong. Ah, the superiority of Japanese corporate culture.

As for American content companies, it seems like they’re finally starting to come around, but it might take a few years before we fully see results. Sometimes, a company figures out what’s going wrong, but they have little choice but to honor commitments that they’ve already made, unless they have a legal out. What’s more, it would make more practical business sense to attempt to recoup losses that they’d otherwise take in full if certain projects were simply cancelled, full stop.

When an entertainment company has been going in a wrong direction for a long time, there is inertia involved in getting them to change course. On the plus side, we’re already seeing some positive change in some of what Disney is offering, particularly related to Star Wars where Jon Favreau or Dave Filoni is involved. Because Kadokawa reversed course so quickly, it’s a definite victory for the manga community.

They made a show about SPED clone troopers. And I like it!

By the looks of it, Japan is still going to be the place where entertainment is still entertaining. Even though net ground has not been gained, it’s still a victory in the culture war, as it shows that intersectionality’s offensives were not sufficient to overcome, or even so much as make a dent. And with matters trending back around on the western front, victory is beginning to show on the horizon.

Your Gaming Rig May Now Be Banned in California

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Too swag for California?

California is now one of six states that have banned personal computers with power comsumption that is too high, which would include many gaming PCs currently on the market.

The other five states are Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington.

I’m shocked. Of all the many stupid, stupid things that California has done, this is up there among the worst. Like, up there with banning drinking straws. And to make it worse, five states have gone along with it.

Why is this even a thing? Who really believes that the power draw of gaming PCs is such an issue that it warrants a ban on these computers? If a person is willing to pay the electric bill, why would this be an issue? And why am I suddenly suspicious that this may be part of a cockamamie effort to limit BitCoin mining?

Does anyone believe that plastic straws account for a tremendous amount of discarded recyclable plastic? Or that the power draw of gaming PCs is more significant than air conditioning? Would you believe that, a few years back, legislation was actually considered that would have banned encryption?

If you’re a gamer in one of the six listed states, you might end up getting fragged by reason of state government interference when it comes to what computer you can own. Are you ready for it, Californians? You’re about to suck at gaming, and it’s no fault of your own.

Of course, you can just buy individual components and put your own gaming rig together. But if you go that route, then hello PC gaming money trap. That can add up in a hurry.

But it’s not so bad if you’re a game journalist that’s bad at gaming, since you can use the performance of your PC as an out against “git gud” taunts.

Adding to the irony is that California is supposed to be the tech capital of the world. Apple is headquartered there, as is Google. HP, Adobe, and Facebook are headquartered there, too.

Look Californians, I know that you like the color blue. I get it. But you really need to stop voting stupid people into power, however much you may want to see your state collapse.

I believe that environmental responsibility is a good thing. If we might run out of fresh water, then it follows that it would help to keep water consumption at a reasonable level. If electrical consumption had a huge environmental impact, then it’s not a bad idea to run the AC on power-saving mode at times. Because a person could save money doing these things, there’s an incentive.

But do political elites really give a care about the environment? How do they act on what they know when they take a private jet to accept an environmentalism award? Is Bob Dole doing his part when he buys a mansion with over a dozen more toilets than a man needs? Does Obama believe the sea levels are rising when he buys oceanfront property in Hawaii?

If the political elites cared about the environment, they’d practice what they preach. But they don’t. The political elites are raping the land for every last trace of wealth that they could possibly extract from it, so they can die rich. But as for you, they want you to consume less, so they can consume more.

Do you know what the political elites call ordinary people when they are behind closed doors? Mouths. They are Malthusian, viewing you in terms of the resources you consume. They don’t care about you, and they don’t care about the environment.

Now, it’s gotten to the point that Dell (headquartered in Texas) is canceling sales for PCs in their Alienware line to the six states mentioned above. Does this means that Microsoft’s corporate headquarters in Washington aren’t getting their high-end PCs? Or are corporations immune?

Yet more reason to be careful to not allow the outrageously incompetent into positions of power.

Manga Publishing President Considering “The Great Mistake”

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For a while now, people have been turning to manga (Japanese comics) as an alternative to American comics, for a variety of reasons. It’s gotten to the point that a manga series has single-handedly outsold the entirety of the American comic book industry.

Among the reasons that people have been turning to manga is that the Japanese are less political in their entertainment, and therefore, anime and manga are yet to be poisoned by intersectional politics, or have their entertainment value ruined by reason of its wussy sensibilities.

For the most part, the Japanese have balked at the idea of their own media being influenced by western or international sensibilities. In that sense, they’ve done well in staying true to their own national identity, and as a result, their entertainment has remained entertaining.

You probably saw the title of this post, and wonder what I mean by “the great mistake”. This is what it would be called when a Japanese media company decides to compromise with the likes of intersectionality or western politics, and in so doing, alienate their audience and consequently learn the hard way why it’s such a bad idea to self-censor and lose customers as a result.

People tend to learn better when they have examples of failure, as such would provide material evidence that a certain decision is a bad idea to those for whom it is not already abundantly evident.

Takashi Natsuno, the president of Japanese manga publisher Kadokawa, has stated that manga is rarely reviewed by the likes of Apple or Google by reason of content which he considers more extreme than that of Japanese swimsuit models.

I’m going to be direct here: I’m not concerned about what Apple or Google thinks when it comes to anime or manga. I get my manga through websites like BookWalker. While BookWalker is available as an app, anything purchased through BookWalker can be read through a browser on a tablet. No need to go through an American storefront.

Something like two hours passed since writing that last paragraph. I went to BookWalker, and got distracted rereading much of Made in Abyss.

Here is what the president of Kadokawa said in a June 22nd video interview, with translation from Nicchiban:

“The fact is that there are people who have miraculously beautiful figures, and there are people who think there is value in that, and there is money to be made. I don’t think it’s fair to say that this is unfair, and I don’t think the argument about whether gravure is good or bad is valid. On the other hand, Japan is full of manga that are more extreme than swimsuit gravure. The publishing industry that I’m in is full of ‘liberal’ people, but I feel that we need to recreate standards that are appropriate for this Internet age, including such things.”

…

“Japan is full of manga that are more extreme than Gravure. This and other factors prevent Japanese manga from being reviewed by Google and Apple. So, I feel that we need to redefine the standards of the Internet age and determine what is acceptable for the public and what is not. The publishing industry I’m in is full of libertarians, but I really feel like we need to rethink things.”

As the article points out, it’s possible that he’s being misinterpreted, and is pointing out that the more extreme manga is difficult to host on Apple and Google. I doubt it, but if his intention was to call for self-censorship in manga, I’m not actually worried about it, for a few reasons.

For one thing, the idea of self-censorship to appeal to western audiences is tremendously unpopular among mangaka. I know that mangaka can speak for themselves in this regard, but it’s easy to see why they’d feel this way. Artists don’t like arbitrary restrictions placed on their forms of expression, which is something that western artists should be able to relate to. What’s more, if someone in an entirely different culture doesn’t like what the Japanese produce, they don’t have to read what the Japanese produce.

What’s more, Kadokawa’s position is so grossly unpopular that even if he used his sway in the company to encourage mangaka to self-censor, the more popular mangaka may use their own sway to seek out a different publisher. Though, in many cases, it’s not as easy as that. Sometimes, content creators are bound by contract. Such “golden handcuffs” are something to watch out for in the event that you want to make a deal with a company to promote your big idea, as is the forfeiture of creative control of your IP, so they’d get to decide what to do with the characters you created. But that’s a discussion for another day.

Then, on top of that, self-censorship would hurt the manga publisher’s bottom line, as readers would quickly feel alienated, and turn to another manga.

But another big point is that Takashi Natsuno is only a temporary president. He was only hired on for a couple months, and isn’t likely to remain much longer. If he’s going to fire his mouth off with such unpopular opinions, he’s not helping his career in the creative industry.

Speaking of firing his mouth off, Natsuno had this to say about the Olympics’ opening ceremony:

“Compared to the Olympics, such shitty piano recitals don’t matter.”

Whether you agree with him on the creative direction of the manga industry, he’s certainly capable of throwing out one-liners that bring down the house.

What makes censoring manga so stupid is that characters in manga are just drawings. They are just lines printed on paper (or shown on display screens, as the case may be). People shouldn’t get so hung up over depictions of violence against people who aren’t even real, or the objectification of characters who, by definition, are merely objects to begin with. They are fictional depictions, and escapist fantasies presented to people for their enjoyment. If you don’t like what’s depicted, you don’t have to consume it.

The idea that art must be a sincere expression of one’s intrinsic values or a vehicle to further a progressive message is a product of a society that has gone awry, and lost sight of the fact that art can simply be creative, without need for justification.

What’s more, people shouldn’t be stuck on the idea that something has to be accessible through the likes of Google or Apple or Facebook, or some content aggregator. If something is anywhere on the net, it’s accessible. If a person thinks that the internet is just one search engine or social media site, they’re stupid. And stupid people shouldn’t decide what everyone else on the internet sees, reads, or shares.

But they’re sure trying.

As for “the great mistake”, while it would have every chance of backfiring in a huge way, the failure it would result in would be clear, plain, and indisputable, showing what would happen when you attempt to replace the audience you already have with a hypothetical audience which hasn’t expressed much interest. If Natsuno were to go forward with “the great mistake”, he’d be a dubious kind of volunteer to make a point that few others in his industry would dare to.

Probably because they’ve been watching from afar what’s already been happening with Marvel and DC. But if a manga publisher makes the mistake, and the damage were to be localized to just one publisher, then it can be said that the SJWs tried on every platform that was available to them, wasn’t able to succeed on any of them, while keeping the damage to a minimum. While it would be better if no publishing company has to be lost, sometimes, some people insist on proving a point, even if it means someone takes the fall. In war, not every soldier gets to return home.

“No one is immune to failure. All have tasted the bitterness of defeat and disappointment. A warrior must not dwell on that failure. But must learn from it and continue on.”

Grand Admiral Thrawn