Author: Gabriel Persechino-Forest Published: September 2nd, 2018
We’re Not the Enemy, we Pinky Swear!
The mainstream media in general has largely lost credibility and in an effort to recover it, they are now literally begging you to trust them again. This has been published in concert with 300 other publications. They are also evoking their known fear tactics, like telling you that you should fear a state-run media, and while you should, it is precisely because they publish state propaganda that most don’t trust mainstream media any longer. They also try to pretend this is somehow a Trump thing, even though people had lost faith in the media a long time before he ever became president. No, this is a trust thing; and trust cannot be earned by simply saying “Pretty please”.
But this is not an article about modern day politics, this is an anime website after all. With that said, this message was reposted by Anime Herald as well and there lies my purpose in talking about it.
First, those who have been pushing the politically correct agenda alongside the mainstream establishment of the general news, gaming news, comics news and now, anime news, want you to know this:
…we are not affiliated with any other organization…We are not part of a cabal, nor are we…in COLLUSION with other papers.
Before we dive in, a clarification is necessary:
Since taking office, Mr. Trump has repeatedly and openly attacked journalists and members of the press…
The media want you to believe that this is about Trump. That he is the next Hitler, that he wants to attack the press and so on… This is not about Trump, regardless of whether you support or despise him. People started losing trust in the press because of decades of lies, cover ups, agenda pushing, social engineering, unethical practices and propaganda as well as general incompetence and inaccurate reporting. People no longer trust the unreliable, that is what this is about.
Trust in a free press has eroded to alarmingly low levels.
The “Free press” is a rather generous term here. People are actually still reading the free press; publications of moderate to extreme right and left ideologies, anarchist news organisations, non-politically affiliated reporters, political blogs… Plenty of people are reading independent news publications that are very much free press. It’s just that all of these are now labelled “Fake news” by the mainstream media or accused of being “Russian propaganda” in Soviet era-style attacks and fear mongering. It is the mainstream media, a select group of news organisations that are closely tied and owned by a few super-corporations who are all pushing the same narratives and agenda and helping to perpetuate the two-party divisive political paradigm, that the people no longer trust, and I would hardly call them “Free press” base on the evidence that’s been presented time and time again.
Even in our subculture, we’ve seen this general dissolution in trust.
When you’re pushing a specific political agenda, attacking the medium through reviews that always spout the same anti-sex, slut shaming talking points, attack anime fans, help to perpetuate lies about gamergate, censor your forums so anyone who doesn’t share the politically correct agenda is silenced and openly support pressuring Japan to change the way it creates anime in order to suit a Western political agenda, you cannot be surprised that people no longer trust the likes of Anime News Network, Anime Feminist, Anime Herald… Trust is not given, it is earned.
This needs to stop.
If the attack on the fanbase and the medium continue, I sincerely doubt it will, or that this article will somehow convince fans.
…this destruction of our freedom to operate…
If we read between the lines, this is when those who previously had the ability to control society and public opinion through a monopoly on information lose that control. They mourn the loss of their ability to make the gullible masses do and think as they see fit. People question their news now, they research and they see for themselves if a news source is reliable; the people are no longer gullible. This has indeed destroyed the “Freedom to operate” of those who are pushing an agenda, one that is no longer blindly accepted and is now openly resisted.
Now, more than ever, we stand united with journalists of all stripes…
Unless they don’t publish “Facts” the mainstream media has deemed “Accurate” or refuse to follow the agenda, in which case they are labelled “Fake news” and “Russian propaganda”.
…we are not enemies of the people.
If you have to say it…
As I have said on countless occasions, both on the Herald and on social media, we are here for you.
Unless you like series they disagree with or aren’t 100% with the modern, politically correct, 4th wave feminist agenda, in which case refer to my earlier link to see what they think of you.
A free press, be it deep in the political weeds, or just reporting on the upcoming simulcasts, is vital in a functioning democratic society.
Agreed. And this is why people are leaving the mainstream media to rot while searching for alternative news sources. Both liberals and conservatives, socialists and anarchists, religious and atheists, elite and regular folks… people of all walks of life are now seeking news they can actually trust.
And with this, they leave us on a truly telling yet appropriate note:
We’re generally not here to lie, to aggrandize, or to push an agenda.
This was a message brought to you by the mainstream media, desperately trying to hold on to our last vestige of power.
Source: Article Image: Code Geass Wikia
In Other News, Censorship!
The makers of the game Deep Space Waifu had to censor their game by increasing the size of the breasts of their characters to avoid having said characters being perceived as lolis on Steam.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has censored Zero Suit Samus by reducing her breast size (Very concerned about the “Appropriate” size of breasts these moral crusaders are). You can see the comparison below:
Samus in Super Smash Bors. Wii U
Samus in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
All hail loli Samus! Too soon? Anyways, people have been worried for a while now that Japanese games would start to feel the effects of Western censorship and it looks like their fears were well founded. Those who believed Japan “Immune” to such influence are now seeing that the de-sexifying of female characters will no longer be limited to the now puritanical and authoritarian Western industry. I miss the days when female sexuality was celebrated, not shamed. That lasted what, like a decade? Centuries of progress only to have it return to this…
A Kiss for the Petals: Maidens of Michael is not going back to Steam for the forceable future. In spite of Steam having supposedly reversed its policy on censorship, they have refused to respond to MangaGamer’s inquiry about their title and the company has not even been told why it was removed as of now. Not being told why it was removed means that they cannot make any changes to render the game eligible for Steam; meaning, they are effectively de facto banned from the platform.
Further Reading:
Censorship of Japanese Media and How it Will Happen
When I read the title I thought “A few years late, aren’t you?” XD
Those stupid “We’re under attack. We’re the victims. Trust us!!” articles were really forced. And, like the “Gamers are dead” stuff from 4 years ago, it just makes them look even worse. Anyone with a little sense could see that this was a bad move, but alas, these are the “journalists” we have, by and large.
On the censorship part of the article, I agree with you that Japan isn’t immune to this. The language barrier, I think, is our best ally. But I also think the Japanese are keen to not appear too weird to outsiders. Maybe I’m wrong, but I can see them bowing to pressure in this way. The more we look and point to them as a sort of last bastion for sexyness, the larger a target we paint on them. And I don’t think they want to be in that position and will change stuff because of it.
Am I misremembering that when the loli bans happened a few years ago, part of the rhetoric was around the way it made Japan look to the rest of the world?
You’re right they’ve been trying to pressure them with shame and their international image. You have to worry about Nintendo, Team Ninja and the other mostly mainstream and Western friendly companies, they will buckle first. The others will resist, they’ve shown their willingness to protect their business model, but they will be attacked through infiltration (Like Western comics and video game companies; Japan has SJW activists too even if no one cares about them, now), through the corporate angle (Streaming is very lucrative outside of Japan these days) but what you’ll see first is an attack on the Western side of the industry, they’ll definitely start with NA anime companies and already have to an extend.