Anime Was Created By Japan to Poison American Youth: The Evidence

The evidence is everywhere. If you cannot see it, you are blind. Anime was created by the Japanese to infiltrate and poison young Americans so that our birth rates decline.

According to Vox, the United States of America is at an all time low when it comes to birth-rate. They try to write this off as “millennial culture” and “the result of low fertility, financial instability, and lack of interest,” but myself and my partners know the true reason why this is happening: the western obsession with Japanese media is turning normal men into beta-males who would rather obsess over, or be sexually attracted to, fictional animated women, than be in committed relationships with real ones. I mean, who can blame them? They’re purposefully drawn to be attractive in order to sway our men into losing attraction to real, physical women. Animated women don’t have feelings. They don’t have emotions or mood swings. They can be whatever you want them to be, and anyone who is enough of a social zealot to be an anime fan doesn’t want to have to deal with the unpredictable-ness of a real woman. In their mind, a body pillow does not come with the social difficulty that a real human being does.

You could call me crazy, but here is REAL video PROOF of the PRESIDENT OF JAPAN admitting that this is exactly why they do what they do:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ceextQiHQzYiWqsTA

But why? Why would they do this? It’s simple: this is revenge for what we did to Japan in World War II. They are trying to slowly destroy America from the inside-out. But why would they try to destroy their most precious ally? Because they are going to take us over. If they gain our trust now, and we believe that they are looking out for nothing but our best interest, they will strike us where we are vulnerable. As we being to shrink in population, and as our people begin to die out and devolve into weak, sub-optimal men, we will look to our allies to begin giving us economic and military aid. Japan, instead of aiding us, will invade us. We will become a Japanese territory and we will be used as slaves. It would be the ultimate act of revenge for when the United States dropped the hydrogen bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, would it not? Don’t be a part of the sheeple army. Join us in our enlightened army and fight against the anime invasion!!

Also their whole stunt backfired on them! Take that Japan!

Misfits, Outcasts, and the Fight Against the Mainstream

As a part of the California curriculum for English Language Arts, we had to read the classic novel Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger. This book touches on the life of a misfit young adult, Holden Caulfield, who lives his apathetic life constantly analyzing everything around him and expressing his bitter hatred for commercialization and the sheepish nature of the masses. He seems to live operating on some sort of God complex, as if his self-awareness allows him to trump the intelligence of others under his own. It’s quite comical how bitter he is. In the movie “Finding Forrester,” the main character, Jamal, seems to have the opposite approach to the same concept of life. He seems to enjoy living his life as a misfit. Also, being African-American in the time in which he was living, the “outcast” motif he fits was a lot less of a voluntary choice and more of something that was done by society itself.

Something about the way Jamal’s character was written, and the way he seemed to embrace being an outcast and lived life to the fullest regardless (going to a prestigious school, trying to achieve greatness), actually made me hate Holden as a character quite a bit. The way he is so sour towards life, and lives every second as a nihilistic ***hole, treating those around him like sh*t and showing absolutely zero remorse or empathy for anyone around him is just… screwy. Makes you resent him. On top of that, he seems to be the embodiment of everything he hates. Something about the way Holden conducts himself seems almost designed for the reader to resent him. This can work for some people, but for me, I need to be able to relate to the main character. Someone so grim, so rude and cynical; I just can’t connect with him. Hell, Jamal, who lives in a completely different area of the United States to me, and grew up around, and is shown, in a completely different culture to my own, was STILL a better character in to me, in most aspects, when it came to my ability to immerse myself into his character.

My ultimate gripe with Holden was how easily he could’ve been something great, but chose to lead a sh*tty life. You can clearly tell that he’s intelligent. You can clearly tell that he’s capable of holding himself up, capable of getting a good job, etc. What does he do instead? Slack off. He’s lazy. He’s careless. He doesn’t apply himself anywhere and is often shown either abusing substances, or being recklessly sexual. Jamal, on the other hand is doing everything he can to be a decent human being despite being held back by society. He’s trying to get an education. He’s trying to become something. I admire that heavily. It’s the type of passion and energy I strive to exert in everyday life. Holden, being a stark contrast to this, bothers me heavily. I feel betrayed by his character, knowing he could be so much more. Its infuriating.

 

I’m honestly not 100% sure where I’m going with this, but I guess the overarching problem that Holden’s character presents is that he is everything he hates. He almost affirms the idea that he’s better than everyone else to himself so that he can feel better about the sh*thole he’s dug for himself. He’s a loser. He has no future unless he pulls his head out of his butt and he knows it. He’s not ready for it. And he knows he never will be.

The Importance of Competitive Gaming (in My Life)

Over the weekend (Weekend of February 9-10, 2019), I attended a tournament for my favorite competitive game, Super Smash Bros Ultimate. In said tournament, I placed 33rd out of 400 players, qualifying for playoffs. I’ve been playing Smash and going to tournaments across multiple installments of the game over the past 3 years, and it’s changed my life for the better. Going to tournaments, I’ve met many incredible people that I see rather often at local events, both big and small. I can easily say I consider these people a second family, and love them to death. Anyone who says video games are a “waste of time” is way behind the times, as I’ve currently received an offer from our high school to represent the varsity sector of our HSEL Smash league, beginning in Spring 2019, with which can come scholarship offerings for good enough players. Among various other pretty-good placements (5th/40 @ MSM 166, 17th/109 @ MSM 174, 97th/1,385 @ Evo 2018, 33rd/418 @ 2GG: Heart of Battle), I’ve continued to enter tournaments and work as hard as I can to be the best player I can be. The amount of lasting friendships, incredible memories, and awesome experiences I’ve had with this game are enough, to me, that esports have a crazy future ahead of them, and the fact that older, closed minded people completely disregard it as “staring at a screen and pressing buttons” is incredible to me. I’ve had to use my brain more playing this game at a high level than I ever have in school (3.5+ average student, here). It’s like 4D chess, it’s insane how difficult it is to analyze patterns and make split-second decisions, while simultaneously testing your reaction time and properly executing your movements and attacks without error. Playing against officially ranked players is the ultimate test of strength, and having experience getting pretty close to beating some, I have to say that the nerves you get, just from being aware of whats on the line, are otherworldly. I have looked down at my hands after winning a super close set, just to be greeted with numbness and uncontrollable shaking. Its a competition that tests your physical, mental, and emotional capabilities in the same way any “real” sport is. It appalls me to see the older generations talk down on gaming, as if it is an unhealthy and lazy lifestyle. Those who try to downplay the true amount of skill and effort required to accomplish greatly in a field like this, have likely not accomplished as much in their long lives as those who are out there, putting in the work, and proving their rhetoric false in the gaming world. It annoys me that these baby boomers that spend 4 hours a day in front of the TV would go ahead and try to delegitimize the esports world. Something with as much of an impact on my life, in many different ways, being put down that way — it almost offends me. I’m glad that acceptance is slowly growing, but this form of “playing” has taught me more about life, more about socialization — more about what it means to be human, than anything else in the world. And for that, I’m proud that this “waste of time” has done so much for me. As Brianna Nguyen said, “What I enjoyed most: Playing with other people.”

The 2019 Goals of an Average Teenage Nerd

As a dork with a poor social life outside of a close circle of very valuable friends, most of my goals are about self-improvement. Here are my ten main goals for 2019:

1. Achieve a 4.0 GPA
2. Become a ranked Super Smash Bros player in Southern California
3. Get better at playing piano and practice for 30 minutes a day
4. Get better at illustrating/sketching and practice daily
5. Get a better sleep schedule and follow-through with it
6. Become more organized
7. Get a job and begin raising money for the future
8. Figure out what college I would like to go to
9. Be more responsible, both with my school life and my home life
10. Make better efforts to show my family and friends I care about them

Wish me luck please!

The Dunning Kruger Effect

Oh boy, this is a fun one.

Anyway, the Dunning Kruger Effect is the basic idea that by being intellectually… “inferior,” your confidence in yourself greatly increases due to your lack of self awareness, which makes you believe that it is you who is smart, and that it is those around you who are intellectually inferior. This also goes the other way, as those who are more intelligent are often aware of just how much they are unaware of, leading them to believe that they are not as smart as they actually are.

The main problem with this phenomenon is that you’ll see is that (how do I word this is as nicely as possible?) “idiots” will often tote a very flawed philosophy that can easily be pulled apart. Despite this, they will ignore any criticism and continue to tote their philosophy, while other half-brained dimwits follow suit and push the same agenda. You see this happen a lot on social media, which is honestly pretty frightening. From the president of the United States himself, to those who oppose him, and everyone in between, you’ll see people, with great amounts of influence, push a false rhetoric. Sheepish masses will completely ignore the fact that you should always look past biases whenever you look at a piece of information. They will not detach fact from the face that said it and assume “if X said Y, Y must be correct! If A said B, B must be incorrect.”

I’m honestly real fed up with this. Its starting to annoy me. The fact that people are so caught up in trying to never be wrong, that they refuse to be aware of their own biases or fallacies is really upsetting.

CintaScotch Duckie

This is simply a drawing of a duck. This duck’s head just so happens to be represented by a lock. Nothing else about the duck is special. He is an average duck. He does normal duck things daily, and thinks nothing of it.

One could attempt argue that this is the case with people too. As solipsistic of a view as it may be, some people believe other people to lack conscious control of their actions, and are simply units coded according to story; the story of the main person’s life. To truly believe that this as fact is known as a God Complex. Why people think like this, I’ll never know. I think its important that human beings don’t just have normal heads. Our brains are like locks. Complex codes, combinations, etc. As much as people hate to admit it, a good amount of the people around them are just as suited, if not better suited, for accomplishment, free thought, talent, and just living life, than they are. I think it’s important to acknowledge individuality as something we all possess, as its almost apathetic and wrong to think otherwise. 

Life Isn’t Black and White

In my very few years on this planet, I’ve seen conflict over morals and ideals run rampant. Especially in the current age of 2018, where sensitivity to differing views and intolerance for those who think differently is at an all-time high, I think it’s important for humanity to acknowledge a pretty simple concept that I feel people often ignore: Life isn’t black and white. It’s a million shades of grey.

Too often, we see two people arguing two extremes, both people under the impression that they’re viewpoint is not only superior, but correct. Often times, these inflammatory beliefs are not only radicalized, but objectively harmful. There are people who like to see politics as a binary when in reality, it is a spectrum. “Either you’re with me, or you’re not” is a terrible mentality. The idea that only two contrasting beliefs, in any facet of life, exist, will ultimately lead to mass conflict. So many people are under the impression that thought and perspective is a two-way-street, that politicians will run for president under one of the two major parties as opposed to labeling themselves as independents for the sheer purpose of gathering more votes.

Interesting how despite this data, we’ve never had an independent in office before.

The fifth entry in the Pokémon series, “Pokémon Black and White” has lore almost entirely surrounded by this concept. It tells the tale of two brothers, the “Twin Heroes,” both of which shared ownership of a powerful dragon. It’s said that the brothers had a heated argument over the pursuit of truth vs the pursuit of ideals, and which one was “better.” Their dragon, torn apart by their conflict, was unable to chose a side and instead, split into two separate dragons. The two dragons are colored entirely black, and entirely white, respectively. Leaving a third dragon behind, this one being an empty shell of a dragon, is colored in multiple shades of grey. It can be inferred that this “empty shell,” which can later in the game, be combined with one of the two dragons, depending on the players choice, represents the idea that there is more capacity for free thought outside of two contrasting ideas.

I believe from this idea, it’s important to acknowledge that arguing the value of two contrasting ideals in absolutes, as if one is objectively better than the other, is a meaningless and impossible feat, as rarely will there ever be a choice that is truly and objectively better than the other. Acknowledging your opposition’s ability to think freely is key to having a productive conversation, as the second you truly believe in all actuality that your viewpoint is the only one that should exist, you’ve done your opposition and their ability to think differently than you a complete injustice. You’ve also completely disregarded the ability to be indifferent, or even believe that both sides have genuinely compelling arguments, and that a combination of both perspectives is the most optimal form of thinking.

Just as the courts believed that dancing in the woods meant witchcraft, the idea that a way of thinking must be supplementary to another, and that they are mutually exclusive, is a very deadly thing to assume. For example, you hear someone say “I am pro-life!” If your first assumption is “This person is a republican,” then you’re, in some capacity, contributing to the problem that I am referring to. In a greater capacity, this inductive reasoning will do more harm when used in the opposite direction: assuming belief based on party. If you hear “This person is a republican,” and your first assumption is “This person is racist,” then you are greatly contributing to this issue. To assume such a link would be doing that person a great amount of disservice, as for all you know, they may be the leader of a civil rights group. One’s set of beliefs, unless they explicitly have beliefs that directly out them as a “racist,” should never be used to assume such terrible things about a person. You could be dealing with someone who has stated directly that they are homophobic, transphobic, and anti-immigration, but to assume from this that they are a racist as well, believe it or not, is a harmful perspective to take. Though that person is probably human trash, you can’t make inflammatory assumptions about a person just because you believe such assumptions fit their moral archetype.

At the end of the day, we are all human. Our social qualities, our ability to tolerate one another, to be nice to each other, and to respect each other, should be our priorities when deciding who we want to associate with or who we respect. Unless one’s opinions are harmful (which in-an-of-itself, is subjective), to disassociate with someone on the basis that you do not agree with their opinions, especially if you had been good friends with them up until you had a falling-out over said opinions, is a petty and immature thing to do. Until we learn to accept each other, we, as people, in my opinion, will begin to regress. Remember that “its not always right or wrong, as long as your spirit’s strong. It’s not always win or lose: It’s the road you chose. It’s not always black and white; your heart always knows what’s right.”

Thanks for reading

-Aleck B.

Never Compare.

Theodore Roosevelt is famously quoted saying, “Comparison is the theft of joy.” What Roosevelt means by this, if we were to dissect it and give it greater meaning, is that one’s journey is that of the individual. Your life is yours to live and no one else’s. Your achievements, and the pace at which you reach them, is unique to you. If those around you are improving faster than you, don’t come to the conclusion that something is wrong with you. Nothing is wrong with you; you aren’t at fault. Focus on yourself and your own abilities. Everyone is different for a reason, and even if it takes you three years to get good at something that a friend of yours mastered in two, who cares? At the end of the day, you will get there as long as you practice and as long as you have the drive.

The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton