#because there are certain blatantly harmful mainstream beliefs but not everyone that calls themselves a Christian

[caffeinatedopossum]

If you ask me a question and I really struggle to answer it, it's not because I don't know, it's actually because I need to write a 20 page essay on it to convey the intensity of my passion and knowledge about it to you

#if i dont know the answer i just say i dunno which is easy #this happens most with like responses to questions about how i feel Christianity or something #because there are certain blatantly harmful mainstream beliefs but not everyone that calls themselves a Christian #subscribes to those beliefs so i have to like be very very careful and nuanced with explaining it #to make sure everyone knows that religion itself is not the problem it is the people who subscribe to particular harmful beliefs #which just happen to be so mainstream that they are often seen as synonymous with being religious #i just KNOW this shit is infuriating to the Christians who dont hold those beliefs too. like i cant imagine #yall are rare

[dropintomanga]

My Moral Academia

I just got around to hearing about a BBC reporter who decided to make anime and manga fans feel like they are total perverts. Of course, I went “HERE WE GO AGAIN.” It never ends. One thing I will point out is that reporters/psychologists/educators who don’t “get” why kids are into anime and manga are going to make themselves look terrible.

A new book on video games’ effect on kids, Moral Combat: Why The War on Violent Video Games Is Wrong, made me think about that BBC documentary on the sex appeal of youth in Japan. Because at some point in 2020 when the Summer Olympics rolls around in Tokyo, anime and manga’s expressive nuances are going to get some attention. As a fan of video games, I’ve been pissed at certain individuals’ attempts to say that games turn everyone into sociopathic killers. Even when you use the fact that most gamers are normal people, that fact sails right through their heads. You can say the fight between video games and its anti-violent critics was ahead of its time in terms of alternative facts being a thing.

Anime and manga are going to go through the same “moral panic” that affected video games. Both never got that much attention as they were hidden away in the basement of geek culture for a while now. But with Crunchyroll being a very prominent player in showcasing anime (and manga to a certain degree) to the mainstream, a lot more people unaware of anime are going to see the “problems” that make both mediums unique. The next thing you know, some professionals are going to tie sexual crimes in the U.S. to anime and manga. 

It’s like the saying goes, people fear what they don’t understand. The psychologists who wrote Moral Combat talk about this and go on to say something that makes me worry about psychology’s impact on what we otaku call dear.

“Q: What other sorts of cognitive biases affect the national discourse about video games?

A: Well, there have been a number of studies now, with the general public, with clinicians and with scholars that all show the same thing — old people don’t like video games! But it’s really not age, it’s more experience with games. Curiously, we also find consistently that people who don’t like teens very much are also the people most likely to believe that games are harmful. So there seems to be a certain “kids today with their music and their hair” effect going on, even among scholars. 

The problem is that in a period of moral panic, society creates incentives for scholars, news media, and politicians to support the panic. For us scholars, it’s easier to get grant money, newspaper headlines, and professional prestige for “saving the children” against some perceived social harm. I think that explains why groups like the APA and American Academy of Pediatrics have put together such blatantly flawed and biased policy statements on these issues that get most of us scholars shaking our heads in disbelief.

Of course, over time the old folks die and these moral panics go away … nobody worries about Twisted Sister, or Prince, or Cyndi Lauper anymore, despite the fact that in the 1980s, Congress highlighted each of these artists on their “Filthy Fifteen” list of despicable rock/pop performers ruining childhood. What groups like the APA and AAP don’t realize is that their panicky claims of mass harm ultimately look silly and do damage to the reputation of our fields.”

That last sentence about professional groups’ reputations should hit hard to anyone who studies psychology. There’s still a lot of dirty nonsense going on with the kind of studies that get approved. After all, you don’t get money for results that go against what the public wants to hear. While we do need more science to triumph in a world that needs it, most people don’t realize that there’s still a lot of bad science going on. The people that you need to believe may turn out to be wrong and sometimes, we need to hear the ugly truth.

There’s the wrong kind of negativity and the right kind of negativity, and not many people can tell the difference. Also, we really need to have some proper discussion about sex. Sex is a natural thing that does wonders for people and provides healthy benefits for anyone who partakes in it. I do think sex triggers such a disgusting response because as one can see from a series like Prison School, bodily fluids aren’t something worth talking about.

Life isn’t a shonen manga where your beliefs and values are going to help you win all the major battles in life. That’s the kind of moral that everyone needs to hear.

#anime #manga #psychology of morality #moral panic #cognitive bias