Really bonkers to see this playing out in the West because in my experience the majority of Japanese women in my age group (late 20s) could not give less of a toss about politics.

Dating sounds like a complete disaster for young people now and I'm not sure what the solution is.

https://twitter.com/tomhfh/status/1894000184771657759

There are obviously other factors, but it does seem that smartphones/social media being the primary method of communication between people has had a direct connection with how bad dating has gotten.

It's caused everything from worsened social skills to extreme radicalization.

Good start if true but the general public no longer cares about Star Wars even if something like Andor occasionally comes along.

Lucasfilm under KK dropped the ball where it should’ve counted with the sequel trilogy. Star Wars went from cultural phenomenon to niche interest.

https://twitter.com/discussingfilm/status/1894290834758963710

In general, Disney is going to have to make some huge changes in the next decade.

I think Star Wars and Marvel will always be around in some capacity, but the oversaturation of mediocre to awful content has probably done irreparable damage.

Assuming this is actually true and not Trump doing more BSing, this only feeds into what me and others have said that Ukraine and Russia will probably end up like the Koreas separated by a kind of DMZ.

Any "peace deal" now will just turn the war into a frozen conflict.

https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1894096140846375385

Remember that even though at this moment North and South Korea are not actively fighting, the North's stated goal is still to take over the entire Korean Peninsula. Same with China and Taiwan.

The least worst scenario now is a similar situation with Ukraine and Russia.

For as cringe and narcissistic as zoomers can be, millennials shouldn't be given a free pass either.

Reddit/Tumblr making online discourse unbearable, the MCU-ification of pop culture, cynicism being the default mentality, etc.

All of that was started by millennials. Everything that makes the internet intolerable today can pretty much be traced back to millennials.

Obviously most of the poor decisions can only be viewed in hindsight, but zoomers just used the resources that already existed and created their own subcultures from them.

And another franchise bites the dust. Barbara Broccoli wasn't perfect, but she was protective of James Bond for good reason and generally tried to honor her father's legacy.

Amazon is going to suck away everything that made Bond great. Welp, it was a good run while it lasted.

https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1892577422047945131

The one consolation is that in 2035 the original James Bond novels are going to enter the public domain.

Hopefully that'll give other filmmakers freedom to do proper adaptations of the books. We know that the Amazon execs don't understand Bond. I have zero faith in them.

Being raised on social media has turned zoomers into tone-deaf narcissists.

I dunno what the solution to this idiotic behavior is, but young people need to be taught that doing this isn't ok at places of solemn mourning like the 9/11 memorial or Auschwitz. As a late-gen millennial (or zillennial), I consider myself lucky to have been raised when social media and terminal onlineness didn't infiltrate every facet of daily life.

And even back then people were saying kids my age had poor social skills. It's gotten much worse.

Wife showed me one of the Crayon Shin-chan movies for the first time, but for the life of me I couldn't get into it.

I know it's a beloved franchise in Japan, but it's one of those things where if you didn't grow up with it as a kid, you won't have the required nostalgia. This is completely down to personal taste, but I find the voice of Crayon Shin-chan's protagonist completely grating.

I'm also not a fan of the art style. And again, I know there are tons of people who enjoy it, but give me Doraemon over this any day.

Currently reading a book on the last surviving Civil War veterans.

A lot of old men pretended to be veterans to get fame or financial benefits, but the last verified person who participated was Albert Woolsen who served as a drummer boy at age 14.

He died in 1956 aged 106. The last Civil War combat veteran was James Hard who died in 1953 but lived even longer to 109.

Can we just stop for a second and acknowledge how badass it was that his last name was Hard? Even this picture goes hard.

These men were made out of tougher stuff than we are now.

Finally cracked open this Japanese Blu-ray box set I bought in 2021 containing Stanley Kubrick’s early films, Killer’s Kiss, The Killing, and Paths of Glory.

It’s a beautifully designed box, but apart from some booklets, there are no extras. Criterion Collection this is not.


Stanley Kubrick is probably one of the most beloved American directors among Japanese filmmakers and cinephiles, but that’s not too surprising.

Like Alfred Hitchcock, his films dive into compelling universal themes that resonate with everyone regardless of cultural background.

I keep trying to tell people that this is what the majority of Japan actually looks like, but no one believes me.

https://twitter.com/jrurbanenetwork/status/1843475734725308534

If there were actual job prospects for me, I’d gladly choose to live a quiet life in the middle of nowhere, Japan.

Let me tell you, there’s no greater feeling than getting away from all the Kyoto tourists and living in a secluded countryside town.

https://twitter.com/oliverjia1014/status/1793271614102213002

23 years ago today, nearly 3,000 people lost their lives in the deadliest terrorist attack in world history.

I've been researching 9/11 for awhile.

The following is a thread highlighting some of the lesser known aspects of the event.

Never forget. First, I wrote this lengthy piece last year about the search for 9/11 lost media.

Despite being dubbed the most photographed event in American history, much remains left to the imagination.

I tackle the question of what media should be made public.
foreignperspectives.net/p/the-search-f…

I feel like the fitness YouTuber/social media influencer space has an anti-running bias.

Lifting weights is great of course, but people in those circles seem to hate jogging as cardio. I didn’t realize there was such a huge lifting vs. running conflict until relatively recently. I think this Reddit thread sums it up well.

You can’t really monetize running unless I guess you get some kind of lucrative sponsorship from a shoe company.

Jogging is completely free and anyone can do it. No gym membership required.
reddit.com/r/running/s/zw…

Finally got around to watching She-Hulk as part of my watch of the MCU slop, I mean shows I haven’t seen. Yes, I hate myself.

While there were some enjoyable parts, this series is a total mess and has some of the worst CGI I’ve seen in a modern television show or film. The whole time I was watching She-Hulk, I couldn’t help but keep asking myself “How the hell did this cost $25 million per episode to make?”

Because it certainly doesn’t show it. There are PS3 cutscenes that look better and carry more weight than this.

Rewatched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood yesterday for the first time since it came out 5 years ago.

I think it’s held up beautifully and represents a stellar filmmaking achievement for Tarantino. More of a vibes movie than a plot movie, but the vibes are immaculate. There are people who’ll criticize Hollywood for being too slow or boring, but I loved its pacing and how it takes its time bringing you into the world of 1969.

You believe it from the first scene. The attention to detail is something Tarantino always excels at.

Utterly ridiculous. Why is it that Yasuke was never classified as a samurai on Wikipedia *before* the Assassin’s Creed controversy?

Why all of a sudden now? This is pure ideological capture and the prime example of why Wikipedia is utterly useless for these topics.

https://twitter.com/iinchou125/status/1806581266390651324

I’ve already established how Thomas Lockley is full of shit.

His entire book is basically just this extended over 400 pages. If anyone takes his fiction seriously, they’re not an academic. They’re an unreliable crank.

https://twitter.com/oliverjia1014/status/1733462912122163708

Man this exchange has everything:

-A British guy pretending he lives in Japan
-Said LARPer posting a picture of Kyoto’s Kiyomizu-dera, a crowded tourist spot, and calling it a “Japanese village”
-An Islamist blaming the Jews
-A racist tankie spouting more nonsense about Japan





This the “village” in the photo Cringelord Otaku Gatekeeper posted.

Of course if he had actually stepped foot in this country once, I’m sure he’d immediately recognize it as a tourist spot.

Instead he just pretends he lives here.
en.japantravel.com/places/kyoto/k…

Most anime, like all other media, is garbage. 10% is passable and maybe 5% is truly worth watching.

It’s understandable why many are turning to it because most Western media is horrible now, but I don’t give bad writing or cringe characters a free pass because it’s Japanese.

https://twitter.com/rinnegoddess/status/1800294793836413115

Like many I went through my high school phase of being obsessed with shows like Steins;Gate and Haruhi Suzumiya. Some of it was good, some of it in retrospect wasn’t.

I don’t regret enjoying anything I watched back then, but with age I’ve gained a more critical eye.

Not saying that there aren’t gender issues in Japan, but a lot of this boils down to many Japanese women looking at what Japanese men go through to be CEOs or politicians and responding with “No thanks, I’m good.”

https://twitter.com/japantimes/status/1800846078276735334

Most gender equality surveys are extremely flawed. If you believe them, many Middle Eastern countries have more gender quality than Japan which is of course total rubbish.

Again, I’m not saying that such issues don’t exist here. But the framing doesn’t tell you the whole story.

Wikipedia’s obsession with social justice has always been bizarre because literally anyone with an internet connection can use it.

The site has been compromised for years by zealous admins who like going on power trips. I never use it to research politically contentious topics.

https://twitter.com/msmelchen/status/1800318493851537578

A left-wing Western journalist or academic can write an article or book on a Japanese topic and it’ll be included as a citation on Wikipedia.

Because there’s often very little other English-language sources, that person’s opinion will be considered a “reliable source.”

Some rando recently DM’d me saying that my publicly expressed views and opinions here are going to cost me my future academic career.

I told him to shove off. I’m not censoring myself for anyone. There are people in Japan with way more extreme views than me who are doing fine. If you Google my name, my Twitter account, Substack, and bylines for The Spectator and other sites are the first results.

I decided long ago that I would publish all my opinions under my real name and face. I have no regrets doing that and I knew what the tradeoffs would be.

How politically extreme foreigners on this dumpster fire site discuss Japan.

Leftists think Japan is one of the most racist countries and has never progressed on anything, while alt-righters think it's a based ethnostate that's hostile to all foreigners.

Both are wrong. I've spoken to many Japanese in my six years of living here. People have been nothing but encouraging of my desire to be a part of this country.

They just want foreigners who stay to learn the language and respect the existing laws/culture. That's the bare minimum of any place.