>>83660
>Censorship
I am firmly against censorship in all it’s forms. I do not ever see it as being justifiable and always abhorrent in practice, regardless if the censorship comes down from the government or a corporation. I see is as the immature belief that people are “too stupid” to think for themselves on what they can handle so someone else has to step in and “think” for them. This applies whether the censorship be in regards to sexual content or grotesque images or even ideas. Even the appeal to “cultural differences” isn’t an excuse because it’s still an appeal based upon the idea that people are “too stupid” to possibly experience cultures that exist outside of their little corner of the world with a reasonable mind.
But that isn’t the only reason for censorship, it also exists for the purposes of control. To a lot of people, they do not see the difference between what is “legal” and what is “moral”, often conflating the two on the basis that law sprouts from moral views and vice versa. And as a result of this mindset, they believe that making something “illegal” will result in society no longer having these “bad thoughts” about whatever the thing is that is now a criminal act. I fundamentally disagree about this being the case. Laws exist for one reason, and “reason” is that they are “club rules” you are required to follow if you wish to participate in society. That is it.
Morality is a whole other subject. But I cannot deny that these people are correct to an extent. If it was illegal for me to...say, talk about my religious views in public, I would think twice about every next word that comes out of my mouth. Not because I
don’t firmly believe in my religion, but because I face a choice that effects my life. The choice of either being able to continue participating in society, or having my life destroyed. And that’s exactly the environment censorship breeds, regardless of whoever is enforcing it (Right or Left, company or politician). The creators faces the problem that they can either make the work they truly desire and be ruined for it, or make whatever the bipolar moral busybody deems as acceptable for today.
So if these are my views on the topic, why do people “like me” only ever tend to talk about censorship from a singular perspective? The answer is simply because of where I live, how I live my life, and what has historically happened. Since I am an American living in America, I tend to focus on censorship from the perspective of an American, and recent American history has displayed that the Political Left have been the most prevalent in pushing censorship for the past half century. From music in the 80’s to video games in the 90’s and Aughts to social media in the 2010’s and 2020’s. And as I am an American who likes Japanese video games and anime, what I tend to focus on in regards to censorship discussions is the removal of sexual content because that is the type of content that is most often effected by regional censorship. Now with all that being said, it is not a declaration that other forms of censorship do not occur occur or that they’re unimportant. The Political Right censoring films in the 1910’s and comics the 1950’s is just as despicable as what the Political Left is currently doing. The fact that console games released in Japan have to censor grotesque images
in addition to sexual content is just as maddening as the exclusive censorship of sexual content here in America. However the key difference is that this censorship does not effect me or there is nothing I can do about it. Films finally escaped the censorship imposed upon them in the 1950’s, and the Comics Code Authority hasn’t been relevant since the 60’s. Meanwhile with Japan, there is nothing that I can actually do about changing the state of affairs in a country that’s an ocean away and that I am not a citizen of. Granted, I can try to talk to Japanese people, but there’s nothing I can actually do beyond that. And even then, I don’t want to. The people of Japan have the right to control how their country evolves and progresses, and who am I demand otherwise. I can disagree with their decisions all I want, but that’s it.
Or is it? As I pointed out earlier, PlayStation has effectively become an American company since 2016. And as other people have pointed out, Nintendo is becoming more influenced in company decisions by their American branch and Treehouse rather than their HQ in Kyoto. So since these are now “American” companies by proxy, being influenced by “Americans”, isn’t there something that I can do as an American? Yes, there is, and I’m already doing so. First off, I’m not supporting these companies in any way. The most recent PlayStation that I have is the Vita and the most recent Nintendo system that I own is the Wii U. In addition to that, I spread around information to other English-speaking people about what these companies are doing for the purposes of encouraging them to also drop any further support for these companies. And this is on top of attempting to inform people of censorship that happens in general. You guys brought up the subject of Texas’ new bill, but most are not aware that it’s not the
ONLY bill of it’s kind. As Acid, this site’s owner, reported back in March:
https://archive.ph/5YXkp#10103
<Beginning on January 1st, several countries and US States had laws go into effect concerning AI generated porn. Think like the law currently being debated in Texas, except there's already 12 States that passed it, and many, many countries. This snuck up on us, as it wasn't widely reported in any free-speech channels and we never saw much protest or other dust kicked up that would draw attention to it. Most of these laws are surface aimed at Deepfake images used for harassment purposes, but several, like the one in Texas, also pose a serious threat to the existence of *any and all* fictional content that so much as resembles a minor. The retardation that we saw years ago in Australia went International, and nobody was the wiser until it was already in effect all over.
However that’s the last I ever heard regarding this discussion, and haven’t talked about it since as a result of that. No one ever seemed to look into all these other states and countries who imposed similar laws. They’re only focusing on Texas, especially after what happened to JAST a few weeks ago:
https://archive.ph/u2URf
However, despite this all being said, let’s engage in a little thought experiment. Let’s assume that Texas “was” the “only” place that had implemented such a law. Would I still be speaking up about it? Yes, I would, and have been ever since people found out about it. Would it suddenly, in my eyes, make me want to go out there and ridicule the everyone on the Right and dismiss everything having to do with them? No. I’m not going to dismiss an entire group because of a “few bad apples” (
Asubject for a little later), and when this is their “first” actual attempt of such an act in comparison to the Political Left who have been pushing for such laws for the past four decades.
Thought experiment over. And when compoundes with Texas not being the only state with such a bill, it exposes the fact that it doesn’t matter whether it’s the Political Left or the Political Right who is attempting to censor people. Both are trying to do it. Stop playing politics like it’s a team sport and throw these people out regardless.
>The Science
Science is one thing and one thing only. You have a theory about a subject, you create an experiment to test said theory, and the experiment either proves your theory to be valid or flawed. Nothing more as that’s been the scientific method for over a millennia. The funny thing about science is that it’s a field anyone can participate in. Regardless if you’re a child or someone with 10 PHDs, science operates on the understanding that everyone should be capable of repeating the same experiments and receiving the same results.
However that isn’t what science actually “means” anymore, and really hasn’t for the past few centuries. Every since the “Enlightenment”, “Science” has become a term used as a means to establish legitimacy. That you’re no longer analyzing politics, you’re studying “Political science”. You’re not a historian, you’re studying “the science of history”. And this has culminated in the environment that we have today, where science isn’t about science anymore. It’s about people pushing their political views, and calling it a “science”. Man must give up all his necessities and live like an animal. Why? Because “science” says so. We need to give all our money to poor people in order to end poverty. Why? Because “science” says so. Why do I need to give up porn? Because “science”.
All anyone ever hears today is “science”, and they believe anything that follows. “Science” could declare that the sky is yellow and the grass indigo, and people will go right along with it when they can clearly see with their own two eyes that it’s blue and green. And this is the situation that we’ve seen with everything from climate studies to Corona-chan. Since the 70’s, “the science” has declared that “green house gasses” is the reason for bad weather despite every single study performed all the way up to the 60’s declaring that weather patterns were more closely tied to solar flares and generational cycles. In 2020, we’re suddenly suppose to treat a coronavirus, which is one of the leading causes for the “common colds” in adults and we have been dealing with since the dawn of time, as a deadly disease that will kill everyone unless you take an experimental vaccination method that has never been tried before.
I cannot speak for everyone, but no one believes “science” anymore because of people twisting it so much to suite their goals.