Japanese racists! Join in the hate!

I was reading a news article about how Japanese nationalism is gradually moving more into the mainstream, thanks to various forms of entertainment with racist overtones – books, comics, animation – and I was thinking that this method of swaying public opinion is nothing new. If you want to control the hearts and minds of the people, you control the media – just ask Citizen Kane.

What I am surprised about is that this notion has been around so long, I can't believe anyone could still fall for it. (But then again, after just now glancing at my TV set where I can clearly see the Jerry Springer Show, where it appears several women are engaging in the act of beating the shit out of each other in front of an applauding audience, I'm reminded that people will fall for pretty much anything.)

The counter argument to the media swaying the public isn't so much that people are being led to believe something, but entertainment is more of a reflection of what people are already thinking.

What worries me is that, in this day and age, one would be hard-pressed to find a dominant philosophy that teaches tolerance and everybody seems to be out to get everybody else – whether it's the Japanese hating both the Americans and the Chinese, the Muslims hating the Jews and the West, or the Americans hating pretty much everyone, including the Jews, Muslims, the Mexicans, and, in many cases, other Americans who may or may not be black, gay or poverty stricken. I'd worry more, but I'm a little distracted with trying to find a poor black homosexual Muslim of Hispanic decent to feel superior to. (Because I like to fit in, that's why.)

Of particular interest, the article also mentions an opinion that states the "concepts of freedom and democracy" aren't really geared to work in Japan, and in fact, aren't really working in America either. My initial reaction was, bullshit! But then, I saw another article where Jason Kidd of the New Jersey Nets was fined $20,000 by the NBA after he called three officials "three blind mice" because he didn't agree with a call they made following a game.

That comment didn't strike me as anything other than his own opinion, and yet he was fined for saying something that somebody else didn't like.

Okay, touché Japanese racists. Touché.