The Japanese didn't occupy America for 50 years, and repeatedly invade it over hundreds of years prior to the occupation. That's the key difference. You seem to think that Korea was only occupied during WW2 or something. They were formally a protectorate starting in 1905, which meant that they faced brutality at the…

This comment is dead-on. As you say, the main difference is that the Germans, in contrition for the crimes of the Nazi regime, have become actively anti-fascist in every way, and go to great pains to educate their public about the horrors of that slice of German history. Japan, on the other hand, papers over it,…

No. You get fucked, you leatherneck piece of shit.

The "human shields" myth is just that, a myth. There is no significant evidence which demonstrates that Hamas actually does what they're accused of doing in this regard. Again, you can't just fire into a densely-populated place like Gaza, kill a bunch of civilians, and then say, "Well, it's their own fault, because…

No, what I said is very true. Lip-service notwithstanding, every single real-world action Israel is taking undermines the statehood of the Palestinian people. They claim that Gaza is independent (lip-service), but they maintain an economic blockade, control the movement of Gazans, and command its airspace. The illegal…

Furthermore, it's a myth that Hamas started this latest outbreak of violence. Even the Times of Israel (the publication that briefly ran a piece justifying the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza) reported that security sources believed the first rockets were fired in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike. Previous to…

That's not a reasonable thing to expect at all. I can't believe you're actually advancing this notion seriously, that people backed into a corner shouldn't fight with every single fiber of their beings to survive. That is the core argument Israel makes, and somehow the West finds it utterly convincing. But if Hamas…

Israel doesn't recognize the right for the Palestinians to have land of their own. Israel says it doesn't exert control over Gaza, but it has an economic blockade in place, doesn't allow citizens to cross at the borders, and completely controls Gaza airspace. Gaza is a ghetto. Israelis should, quite simply, know…

Any place in Gaza where weaponry could be adequately hidden (i.e. not immediately tracked by Israel and destroyed) is highly likely to be an area with civilians living in it. Do you expect Hamas to build dedicated armories and only launch rockets from these locations? They'd be decimated before they could even finish…

If Israel's goal were truly to get rid of the rockets, they would come to the table in good faith, stop the settlements, allow people in Gaza freedom of movement, and commit themselves—in deed—to a two-state solution which respects Palestinians' right to exist, and doesn't seek to undermine that goal in a sideways…

Nobody's blaming Israelis for "not dying enough." That is a willful, and purposely ungenerous, reading of the point. The point is that, when 1 Israeli dies, the Israeli political establishment thinks it's okay for retaliation to mean tens or hundreds of Palestinians dying. This is a running de facto policy of the…

Who else "stays down"? If it were Israel being battered like this, you wouldn't say the same thing. To accept this and move on, as it were, simply means more of the status quo for Palestinians. It means being choked off and eradicated the slow way. What group of human beings could be expected to simply accept that…

Then maybe the answer is for open world games to not attempt to draw the player out to all of these far-flung areas directly, but just to make them available, and lay some sort of diversion out there for people to discover if/when they choose to make the trek. One of the most underrated aspects of GTAV, for me, is how…

I haven't seen Kawai yet, so I'll take your word for it. But I think slice-of-life anime, in general, get a bit of a bad rap from Richard. The vast majority of anime that could be called slice-of-life only have that as a single element, among many. Silver Spoon falls into this category, as it's also a comedy, a…

Actually, that is what most lives are like. Most people don't have tidy little narrative arcs. But anyway, I feel like the criticism that slice-of-life shows "go nowhere" is often wildly overstated. Sure, maybe there are no existential crises, supernatural powers, or robots as tall as buildings, but that doesn't mean…

The hardline stances taken by government officials don't make things any easier, but what I can say, at least from the Korean side of things, is that feelings are still quite raw over here. It's not like this is something that will die off with the oldest living generation or something. Experiences of post-war poverty…

Haven't seen this show yet, but I seriously have no clue why you seem to hate the slice-of-life genre so much. It's one of the best things anime brings to the table.

I'm not sure what quantity should have to do with it. One would expect that the ratio of quality to crap would remain the same either way, and I just don't think it has. Of course, one can't help but base this on a general perception, because the alternative is that you have to watch every single show that comes out,…

There's been a lot of anime for a long time. Have you ever watched Touch? It's fucking beautiful to look at. And again, we're not talking about a 13-episode series or something. This show went to, I think, 101 episodes. The quality was just so much better when they weren't exporting the labor and computerizing the…

I didn't say everything was amazing in the 90s. I'm saying that the average current show looks worse than the average show from back then, from skimpy backgrounds to dodgy animations to inelegant CGI.