>>4986217

Once again, I reiterate my point that the west lacks a proper philosophical/spiritual toolkit for these types of discussion.

If you are interested in the subject of good and evil, I would recommend the author Gen Urobuchi. One most westerners will be able to pick up, easily, is the Psycho-Pass series. It is a cop drama, but so much more than that, as it is the distillation of millennia of philosophical discourse and theory into a single series. Do not bother with season 2 (The Kamui arc) as it is just a marketing addition.

From there, I recommend Fate/Zero. This is more of an existential theme, but deals heavily with the concept of 'family', fate, and the nature of hope/miracle. It's a very deep series that plays with ancient history quite a bit.

Puella Magi: Madoka Magica is more pertinent to the discussion you are trying to have, but most people don't understand animated media as being capable of portraying serious existential concepts, so the prior two are primers to show that Anime =/= Cartoons. Even many Shonen, the equivalent of serialized Comics in the U.S., often get deeper and more involved than the western counterpart. If you want to know why your children are flocking to this medium, it is because it has a substance not found within the western outlets.

Madoka Magica deals with the concept of selfishness and selflessness. It is a more subtle theme, and I can launch into a long analysis of it, but the idea is rather simple. You are granted any wish. Any wish you can think of. In exchange for this wish, you get super-human powers and have to fight against witches threatening to destroy people - they cause suicides, unexplained illnesses, etc. So - where do you sign, right?

Yet, if magical girls are born from wishes, then witches are born from curses. If you were, say, to wish for a piece of cake - what happens when you eat it? It's gone. No more cake. Perhaps you should have wished for more? The inability to fulfill a wish becomes a curse - or, in most cases, you were actually wishing for something else. You wished to give someone a cake so they would thank you or see you differently - but, of course, that is not guaranteed.

When played out to their logical opposites and extremes - who is "good" and who is "evil?" When the most selfish wish collides with the most selfless wish…?

Could there be a third party to all of this - something both "good" and "evil" would equally abhor?

These subjects don't fit neatly into the western view of morality and ethics… And our insistence on binding these characters to our labels cheapen the discussion. While "Teddy-bear Lucifer" is a hilarious take on Kyuuby, its values and ideals are something radically different from what we classify as "evil" - yet somehow even more horrifying than the depths of selfish desires.

Humans used for food… Where did they get that idea?

Another fun Anime along similar lines is Kill La Kill (the name is a play on words as Kiru is the way Japanese are taught to pronounce "Kill" in English, yet Kiru means to cut). The symbolism of it is more nuanced to Japanese history and customs (the red thread of fate, amaterasu as the sun goddess, the names of places associated with Oda Nobunaga, and the use of kanji in names that represent taoist dragon-gods), but many of the themes transfer.

Although Kill la Kill is a bit less focused on existentialism at the personal level and deals a bit more with the broad concept of fate and human nature. "Listen well you pigs in human clothing, for that is the reality of this world."

"People do not live for the sake of clothing. We will be the ones to decide humanity's future."

Everything about the show is built on symbolism. The red thread of fate is what makes the clothing the characters wear - the greater one's role in society, the more of their clothing is made of this thread, such that "god robes" are made entirely out of it. Thus, the rebel group "Nudist Beach" is a hilariously appropriate play on the theme of people rejecting fate and seeking to be humans, rather than 'pigs in human clothing.'

I mean, sure, there are brainless serial productions in anime - but who do you think is running the underground manga translations and picking the good ones (well… Mostly). There is a reason why Japanese and Korean "cartoons" are translated at a much higher rate than those of any other nation. If you look at where we have Marine bases, it makes a lot of sense. If you look at chan culture and how it came about… It makes sense.

I suspect some of our nightshifters are actually responsible for funding/commissioning a number of manga/anime works - but that is based on some stuff I can't verify. There are a lot of shadow games going on out there.

>>4986347

Abortion is a distraction and trap for people to get caught in.

It distracts from the obvious. Women would not be seeking abortions if they were in healthy and supportive relationships. Without fully realizing it, we have changed the criteria by which women select men for partnering, and the conditions under which they engage in sex. We have normalized casual sex and flings/fuckbuddies. This leaves women with a lack of options when they draw the "surprise" card from the deck of possibilities.

In other ways, they can feel that some men will try to "cling" to them by knocking them up as a means of control. They have been led to believe sex and relationships are fleeting thrills - it's no surprise they would react with disdain toward a man desiring a child with them, at first - and view abortion as a "reproductive right" to be able to escape such plans/scenarios.

Women's entertainment and literature is filled with such ideas of men looking to impregnate a girl in an effort to control her - and any such examples in reality easily support the fear, common or not.

The trap is trying to argue that abortion is murder and is wrong. Because the above has been missed, there can be no productive debate about the subject of abortion. You are talking to people who have been led to believe that the natural impulse of people to build a family is an attempt to oppress and entrap them. You can't fight it symptom-to-cause, you have to fight it at the cause.

The trap only further entrenches the left.

>>4986486

It's the end times. Whitman was wrong; not with a whimper, but a bang.

Humans aren't so dull as to let the battle for their future end in any other way.

Granted, each end is a new beginning. Destiny, cycles, death and rebirth…

To put it in military terms, completion of this evolution is mandatory. Performance will determine the casualties.

I expected we'd be crawling through the end of it with our teeth after being dismembered… But an ending where we all cross the finish into a new start aboard the same ship works well, too. Drama doesn't all need to be tragic and nihilistic. Fairy Tail was fun. Ultear and Minerva were great characters, and I enjoyed them greatly. I always find myself drawn to the possibility of characters going from "evil" to good. Probably to a fault, and admittedly more so for women than men (pretty + dangerous = hot and will probably kill me, but can't blame a moth for flying to flame).

Like Melascula from Nanatsu no Taizai… "That is pretty, surely it won't kill me if I am nice." Of course, even she learned to praise the sun.

I got distracted. Point is - I am a sucker for the idea where redeemable characters find redemption, and not through death. That is kind of cheap.

Although my troll persona is certainly a far more hateful and judgmental being. Or… Perhaps more the raw embodiment of arrogance, yet with a point. "The Emperor of the U.S." is an interesting figure I find some commonality with. If I have a past life, that man is a strong candidate in so many ways it's not even funny.

>>4986622

If we go crazy and then make it back to sanity in time for beer, do we still get dropped from the running?

Or… Just what is crazy when dealing with this stuff?

Asking for a fren….

>>4986637

The missile knows where it is at all times. It knows this because it knows where it isn't. By subtracting where it is from where it isn't, or where it isn't from where it is, whichever is greater….

https://youtu.be/bZe5J8SVCYQ

Actually, proportional navigation is much simpler, but that's another discussion.

I'm never lost… I just… Am not always sure where I am expected to be, kek.

>>4986660

I think we can reduce things to elemental truths. Regardless of whether or not Jesus existed, or what "he actually said" - we can debate the ideas presented by theology, philosophy, etc.

I have used the example, before - if something claiming to be your god was about to sentence your friend to hell for, say, dancing - then would you stand by that judgment or would you argue against it - even suggest that the thing in front of you can't be your god?

We can expand this concept outward and question our understanding of divine doctrine. Why would god tell us not to steal from each other? We can put the logic of this commandment to a test and generally determine that, regardless of whether God actually etched it in stone - the commandment is valid as a law not just because "God said so" - but because it is necessary for human beings to function as a society.

We probably agree, then, that God's authority comes primarily from something of a physical law or consequence. The divine evidences itself through law of consequence moreso than an arbitrary decree.

From there, we are left to debate what things actually extend from these laws of consequence, and what things are purely an arbitrary insertion by man, or a distorted perception of something more fundamental. This is a rather complicated process and will differ from person to person to some extent.

If we speak in these terms, however, then we are talking about a god that is not confined to religion and can be communicated across religious histories, so long as people from them are willing to speak on such a level. Obviously, if people believe their book is the undisputed word of god and that it is absolute in its authority - then they do not believe humans can logically analyze god's rule or that their beliefs are irrelevant - going back to the question of who would contest the judgment of god upon their friend.