I thought gamers and anime fans would be liberal - they hate F911

[TrogL]

I'm into anime to a large extent and games to a small extent. I stumbled across the online comic Megatokyo. I will not attempt to describe the plot - it's incomprehensible but incredibly funny.

The website has an online forum where people talk about all sorts of stuff - the storyline, music, physics even politics.

I would have expected their politics to be somewhat liberal. They're a bunch of Freepers.

http://forums.megatokyo.com/index.php?showtopic=1676601

I don't think he hates America. He just makes money off of those who do. He is the PT Barnum of the red/brown tinfoil brigades. I mean where esle can a marginally talented community college drop out become a multi millonare at his age?

...

MM is a is, as everyone else agrees, a dumbass. He's a hollywood liar who suckers teenage librals into believing his lies in an effort to make money and feel like his life isn't wasted, even though it actually is.

...

Michel Moore is one of those media character who enjoys telling the world his views. He knows what to so and who to say it too. Unfortunately, there a lot of idiots out there who prefers to have someone think for them rather than think for themselves.

..

And no, I don't think he hates America. All I have to say is that he was awarded 1st place in a French film festival....

BTW, any Coulter fans on the board?

...

Limbaugh has his problems (drugs being the main impedus behind all of them, IMO, but that's another topic), but not being strong on citations isn't one of them. I'd suggest you read up on the problems he had getting his books published in the early 90's. Ever seen his TV show? Website? They are (were in the case of the TV show) rife with citation. Clinton made it sooooo easy back in the early 90's. Take 30 second clip of Clinton saying X - follow with Clinton saying not X. You could do that all day, until Billy lost Congress to Newt.

...

I would consider the majority of America to be conservative.

:wtf:

[noahmijo]

1. A handful of freeper types on a videogame/anime site

Don't constitute us all.

I recall on Game Informer the editors typically run a 10 question quiz, and a different theme as to where you fit in depending on your score. (typically the higher the score the cooler the character you would idenfity with the best)

There was one that was something like what type of boss or president would you be? The highest score of 10 meant that you would be most like Bill Clinton.

[salvorhardin]

2. Interesting...

Especially considering the strong anti-war message that a lot of anime has. Even war-heavy series such as the perennial Gundam are continuously asking questions such as "Why do we fight? WHow do we know who are enemy is? How does one decide who is really victor? Is it really worth it?"

[Chovexani]

11. Grave of the Fireflies.

The most haunting anime I've ever seen, and one that beautifully expresses anti-war sentiments.

Pro-Environmental themes are also huge in anime and video games. The effect of humans and technology on nature is a very commonplace plot thing. Miyazaki's films explore this alot (Princess Mononoke perhaps the most), and this is a very big thing in RPGs too (especially Square RPGs). Final Fantasy 7 has one of the strongest pro-environmental messages I've ever seen anywhere, and it's "just" a video game. The very last shot of the ending movie says it all.

[amazona]

14. I will not, cannot explain their logic

I know an extremist right-winger who is very much into anime and also actual female domination in his personal life. How this fits in with his anti-feminist politics, I haven't a clue. But apparently it is not uncommon in that crowd.

P.S. I'm not sure if all anime has strong female characters kicking ass but the only examples I've seen are the ones in his collection, so forgive me if I'm assuming something I shouldn't. My point is - I'm completely baffled by the cognitive dissonance.

[durutti]

3. I encourage all fellow progressive geeks to read this essay:

http://flag.blackened.net/liberty/moorcock.html

And I mean geek in the best possible way, of course. ;-)

[chenGOD]

5. Ok I read it...i agree with mostly everything...but this line...

"there is Tolkein and that group of middle-class Christian fantasists who constantly sing the praises of bourgeois virtues and whose villains are thinly disguised working class agitators -- fear of the Mob permeates their rural romances."

How does he get that the Orcs/Saruman/Sauron are working class agitators? Surely the hobbits are much more working class than them? Yes of course LOTR adulates monarchy, but I couldn't really see much in the way of promoting bourgeois virtues.

of course I'm no Michael Moorcock, so what do i know? :shrug:

[Khephra]

13. This is another interesting article on similar themes

"Star Wars" despots vs.
"Star Trek" populists

Why is George Lucas peddling an elitist, anti-democratic agenda under the guise of escapist fun?

By David Brin

http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/1999/06/15/brin_main/index.html

And these follow-up articles:

http://www.davidbrin.com/starwarsarticle1.html

I don't agree with most of his points, but it does make for some interesting reading.

[chenGOD]

4. I stopped reading Megatokyo because of the board there...

and also when the former co-writer left it became way too boring.

Silly of me to leave because of the board, but when I was there it was right after the September 11 attacks. It was impossible to reason with any of them, all they said was "go read more history books on International Diplomacy by people like Kissinger, Strauss, etc etc", "you don't understand what happens in the real world", "Americans are always right"....

There were a hard-core gorup of about 10 of those there, maybe one or two other "progressive-minded" people who were willing to take the energy to debate with me against them, and a whole bunch of apathetic fence-sitters who ended up falling in lockstep and refusing to question the government.

[ucmike]

6. not enough karate in F9/11

[VelmaD]

7. I was part of a gaming group in college...

and the guys I knew were mostly apathetic at best or nihilistic at worst. Either way they really didn't care about politics much and if they did they were usually Libertarians. (I had two theories on why...it was either because they were really republicans but wanted to smoke pot and fuck anything that would let them...or they did it just because people would think it was weird. :eyes:)

Personally your realization doesn't surprise me one bit. What I really remember about those guys was that they lacked social skills, had no empathy for other people, and could be really sexist and racist if they thought no one was looking. (I had to beat a lot of that shit out of the guys I knew.)

[Chovexani]

12. To be fair, fandom has changed a lot.

The type of people you describe are an ever-shrinking lot, or so I've observed over the years. A lot of it just depends on where you are; I'm in NYC and all the gamers & otakus I know are at least politically aware if not active liberals who have significant others and pretty good social skills. Most are into alternative types of culture (goths, Pagans, etc.) so that probably has a lot to do with it. Even at the cons I go to, outside my own circle of friends I meet a lot of like-minded people. S.F. is much the same.

Outside the coasts? Probably different--but that's more a reflection on the culture at large than fandom, I think.

[Deja Q]

8. Answers to those nuts

I don't think he hates America. He just makes money off of those who do. He is the PT Barnum of the red/brown tinfoil brigades. I mean where esle can a marginally talented community college drop out become a multi millonare at his age?

Microsoft?
...

MM is a is, as everyone else agrees, a dumbass. He's a hollywood liar who suckers teenage librals into believing his lies in an effort to make money and feel like his life isn't wasted, even though it actually is.

The same could be used against Dennis Miller, I fail to see the point except that anyone in Hollywood is going to make money, some use more creative means.
...

Michel Moore is one of those media character who enjoys telling the world his views. He knows what to so and who to say it too. Unfortunately, there a lot of idiots out there who prefers to have someone think for them rather than think for themselves.

See above comment. I'll agree that some people will blindly buy the words without doing any research behind it, just as they had with "A Beautiful Mind" and other loose documentary/biopic films.

..

And no, I don't think he hates America. All I have to say is that he was awarded 1st place in a French film festival....

BTW, any Coulter fans on the board?
And the French were right weren't they? Also, the Ann Coulter fans are currently eating horse testicles in Crawford, TX.
...

Limbaugh has his problems (drugs being the main impedus behind all of them, IMO, but that's another topic), but not being strong on citations isn't one of them. I'd suggest you read up on the problems he had getting his books published in the early 90's. Ever seen his TV show? Website? They are (were in the case of the TV show) rife with citation. Clinton made it sooooo easy back in the early 90's. Take 30 second clip of Clinton saying X - follow with Clinton saying not X. You could do that all day, until Billy lost Congress to Newt.

That's impetus, you blood clot... Anyway, the reason why he had problems is because the Media is conservative in nature. They do not like dissent on such a prominent level. They tried it once with Norman Lear's works and realized it got people thinking, and that must never be allowed to happen...
...

I would consider the majority of America to be conservative.

In which case I would consider America to be a very sad country...

[Bucky]

9. Hmmm, people who obsess over escapist diversions *dislike* documentaries?

Some of the gamers who dwell in cyber fantasy realms are attracted to George Bush's rhetoric? You don't say!

[Chovexani]

10. Wow I have encountered exactly the opposite

At AnimeNEXT last weekend I saw people wearing Kerry buttons and lots of cars around the hotel had anti-Bush stickers.

I don't hang out at the Megatokyo boards but at the anime/gamer-type boards I do hang out at freepers are a distinct minority...I guess it all depends on the segment of fandom. I tend to mostly hang around shoujo and yaoi-oriented anime boards/email lists and those skew overwhelming liberal for pretty obvious reasons. The RPG boards I go to are also very liberal, probably because RPG gamers read so much (and we all know freepers can't read :evilgrin:). Bemani boards are usually mostly liberal too...I guess freepers think they are too macho for DDR and Beatmania. :P The only gamer boards where I've seen a lot of freepers are ones for FPS fanboys...go figure. (I enjoy the occasional FPS, I'm just not obsessed with them like I am RPGs, bemani and fighting)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. I've never been part of a gamer community, but

in my teaching days, I noticed that there was a subset of gamers who were, for the want of a better term, arrogant, sollipsistic little toads.