(Untitled)

[baelarion]

I went to youtube tonight to see if I could download a video of Kamikaze attack footage I found for tomorrow's Japanese presentation. Then I looked at the comments. One said, "Well, what can you expect from terrorists?" The other said, "There are still many Japanese today who are willing to become KAMIKAZE

Comments

[lordameth]

When I see comments like those, I always wonder if they come from ignorant Americans (or others), or from Chinese or Koreans with some sort of racial memory issue.

The widespread stupidity of people in general bugs me, as I'm sure it does you, but what really gets on my nerves is the number of people who hold these sort of grudges across generations, and the extent to which they do so, refusing to recognize the passage of time and the concordant changes in government, in attitudes, and in the very people it is who they are hating.

YouTube seems to be especially bad for those sorts of comments, and for heinously anti-Semitic ones too. It's really upsetting sometimes to realize how many people are still out there who believe so strongly in such bullshit.

[baelarion]

To be fair, though, I'm not entirely sure that we should begrudge elderly Chinese or Koreans their anger. Let's face it, the Japanese army did some really horrific things to them (the worst, of course, being Nanking, Unit 731, comfort women, and of course, just general wholesale slaughter). If, say, my family were slaughtered and I was raped repeatedly by members of another country's army, I don't think I'd get over that in a hurry, or, indeed, ever

[kufi]

Ah, YouTube comments. They beat even the IMDB boards for sheer, brutal stupidity. The kind of a stupidity only a grade 3 education and a bag of weed a day can provide.

[baelarion]

No kidding. I want to take every last one of them, smack them upside the head, and march them straight into a classroom, where they should be chained up and taught until society deems it best they be released.

[hebrewlion]

But...but...they WERE essentially terrorists!*

*In the essential sense of the word: quite simply, that they used terror as a weapon. In the modern sense of the word, of course, you are quite correct that the name does not apply. You left out, however, the most compelling reason this is so. Terrorism implies a political agenda and a purely political objective. As a military strategy, terrorism is futile and stupid. Terrorists want a lot of people watching, not a lot of people dead. The Kamikaze pilots quite obviously had a military agenda and a purely military objective.

But the Japanese may, in fact, be crazy right-wing extremists who still want to take over the world. Only time will tell.

[baelarion]

I sure hope you're joking on that last bit, big brother.

(And dammit, I hate it when people I respect call my bluff)

[hebrewlion]

Of course I'm joking on that last bit.

...Or AM I?

--The answer is yes.

...Or IS IT?

[doxasticpirate]

Try not to be offended, the stupidity of Youtube comments is legendary: http://xkcd.com/c202.html

[baelarion]

Oh, my poor head. Barak, quit trying to make me lose all faith in the human race!

Though I guess you're right, I should take it as a specific subset (hopefully a small one) of the community who probably revel in their stupidity.

[lothealian]

it is creepy how true that is...and I am moving to Texas here in 2 months...I am a little scared :P

[baelarion]

Don't feel badly, there are many people in the world who would agree with your family.

I just take notes and remember who's against me for that day when I take over the world and begin taking daily baths in Christian blood. ;-)