Zira said:
I am taking a bet and saying you're American. It's funny how I can tell by someone's opinion that this person is probably American.
It's Americans the people who usually think they have all the right to intrude into other countries'culture and actions, because they're good and civilized while the other cultures are little more than monkey savages. How would YOU feel if China decided to intrude into YOUR country, because America is a twisted and cruel country were people and even kids have easy access to guns and often go on killing sprees, where there's a sick and dark culture of unhealthy food and women objectification, where they make it an habit to intrude into other countries and dictate their rules to them, etc.?
They already do that. American is frequently criticized for many things about it's culture and foreign policy. I'm ok with that. Why the fuck wouldn't I be? It's not like I live in a magical land of milk and honey, what with the rampant poverty and awful access to health care and rather distressing tendency to dump huge amounts of cash we don't have on half baked military adventures that have, at best, a .500 success rate. Way less when accounting for covert operations Oh, and all the fat people. Can't forget fat people. And the crappy way we handle the 2nd amendment, where the only proposals people with power ever consider seem to be "start the bannings and never stop" vs "everyone owns 12 bazookas! MURICA!" Regular folks have some fairly nuanced views on controlling access to the things, but that's what you get with a two party system. Oh, and the shitty way we handle higher education i.e. making it expensive as hell with a high risk of total failure on investment. That's not very good either. Does help explain the rampant poverty thing, though. Feel free to point out any I missed. Sure, I probably won't agree with all of them, but I'll disagree with your assessment, not your right to, you know, notice things and ***** about them. That would be pretty damn arrogant.
Zira said:
Americans, in my opinion, have a perception that their culture is open and good, while other cultures (especially the distant, Asian ones) are wrong and closeminded.
See, perfect example. We have tons of people who are absolutely convinced that Japan in particular, is just the greatest thing ever. Lots of admiration for what the Chinese built up (more iffy on the modern PRC, but we are competing with them, after all. And they still sometimes get respect for how well they've pretty much entered superpower or damn close to it status). You get the same admiration for Scandinavian countries (mainly the social welfare policies), the Middle East (you would not believe how frequently I've been told how great the Medieval Mulsim world was compared to Europe of the time. Always seem to forget the Byzantines when they say that, but so does everyone else)
Zira said:
I would never say that living in Korea would be better than living in the USA.
Why not? Go for it. North Korea says that all the time. Knock yourself out.
More seriously, you could make the argument that South Korea is weird and has plenty of baggage and oddities in their culture (so much worse than the US with cosmetic surgery, and we're pretty awful with it), but I'm pretty sure the average South Korean isn't stuck in some backwater, nightmare realm hellhole.
Zira said:
But before pointing fingers, it helps to stop and understand. Mostly, to understand you are a foreigner and they do not like you intruding into their affairs any more than you would like if they intruded into yours. And yes, the point applies even if the country in question is an evil dictatorship.
At least this is how I see things.
Define "intrude". You mean bombing the hell out of them, maybe occupying, er, "liberating" them. Yeah, fuck that, except in extreme, no seriously, you're committing genocide cases. Still shouldn't be just the US going in to stop that, but f it has to be, then it has to be. Also, no one is calling for the bombing and occupation of Japan based on a few really disgusting manga out of a giant pile of really cool manga. Just pointing that out.
Do you mean criticism in general? Umm, dude, your example fails. Like I said, the US and everyone one else of any importance in the world is going to catch shit for things they do, both domestic and foreign. That's how humanity works. Thinking social species and all that. Like to gather information, process, make decisions, and share the product and process of those thoughts with others. can't end judgment without ending thought.
Oh, and most people don't like being criticized. By anyone, foreign or fellow national. Don't know why the main thing I'm suppose to understand is "they don't like other people's opinions on things the share with the world". Seems like a rather minor point. Better ones might be "why are they ok with this thing, how widespread is it, and is it as bad as you think?".
Zira said:
Now, to return about the real subject of this thread: I have manga that sexualize underage kids. I read them. Tell me, am I a pedophile?
Well, that's definitely a bit creepy, no lie. As to are you a pedophile; are you aroused by the sexualized children, or to something else? Or do you feel no sexual arousal at all? If the former, yes, yes you are a pedophile.And that is wrong. Stop indulging that urge. It's not healthy or right, at all. If it's one of the latter two latter, what is it? And can you find it in something that isn't comic book kiddie porn? Is it just a really deep story? Do there need to be pictures then? Is it something about the way the characters are presented? Again, isn't there non-kid fucking doodles that have it?
Now, more generally; as much as lolicon and shotacon creep me out and disgust me, and as harsh as I am on pedophiles (see, we need to perform consensual, ethical experiments and research to cure this, because it's a desire to rape kids, acted upon or not), I don't want this awful smut banned or made illegal to produce or own. There aren't any victims in it's production, and it's entirely possible that the people that read this won't go running out and rape kids. Does it disgust me? Oh by the gods yes! A thousand times in a thousand tongues yes! But so does hate speech. Chick tracts, the SCUM Manifesto, Mein Kampf, all kinds of awful things that offend sensibility and any kind of decent morality is made and produced. I'm not about to nuke the highest right (freedom of expression) without damn, damn good cause. "Pictures of little kids fucking each other or adults or squids or whatever disgust the holy hell out of me" does not rise to that level. Actual, physical child porn, yeah, that's at that level. Ban it, hang the makers, and toss any consumers into the darkest pit we can find, if we can't just hang them to. But that's because of the actual victims. producing it and producing the incentive to make actual victims is far more egregious than , in this limited and narrowly defined and strictly controlled circumstance, infringing on such an important right.
