I'm a PhD student in Japanese studies and Mishima Yukio was part of the curriculum when I was on my Masters. Mishima lived during the Showa era, which means he must have been heavily exposed to military propaganda from a really young age, and his upbringing reflects the era's expectations of men. About the misogyny: Although there were important female characters throughout Japanese history (warriors, artists, monarchs alike), after Buddhism and Confucianism started spreading in the Nara period, men became to be seen as superior to women, and women were basically erased and reduced to certain roles (mostly wives, prostitutes or nuns). The darkest period for women's rights in Japan was the Edo period I think. Although feminism started spreading in Japan during the Meiji period, by the Showa period the government enforced the traditional male ideal due to militarism. This, paired with his sexuality and his inferiority complex, created a turmoil within him.
That's so interesting. Do you have any papers or maybe short books you could recommend that kind pick up on this? I'm especially interested in gender & sexism and gender in literature in Japan.
I’ve worked in an exec role in a multinational conglomerate & can confirm misogyny is still pervasive in Japan. To uphold global standards for equal opportunity, we send compliance staff to all offices. To say that misogyny is entrenched in almost every aspect of day-to-day life, including corporate work, is an understatement. The social expectations on women to be docile (for lack of a better term) makes it almost impossible to get them to advocate for themselves even when we put global HR standards in place.
@@zeex5029 Mahayana Buddhism spread from India to China, from China to the Korean peninsula, and from there to Japan, and the Japanese temples often sent their monks to study in China. By that time, Confucianism was the main ideology in China. Confucianism intermingled with Buddhism, so Buddhist monks often brought Confucian texts with themselves back to Japan, which later shaped Japan's state ideology.
Seeing Mishima and Sneako calling a woman’s genitals “a disgusting gaping hole and an open wound” is a so bizarre, disrespectful, and honestly a fascinating display of one of the most potent forms of misogyny. Straight men saying that a vagina is disgusting is so paradoxical and a window into how deep their hatred for women runs. It’s shocking. (edit. Not that Mishima is straight, but Sneako and Adam 22 are)
It’s a reflection of their own tortured self image. They hate themselves, and hate the fact that they are attracted physically to something “weaker” than they are and that they need women to reproduce. So they devalue it to try and make the conflicting feelings go away.
"Japan has kept political unity since the dawn of time" is the funniest thing he said. Some of Japans most historically significant periods of time are those of extreme political instability (such as the period of years leading up to the edo period).
@@brendan_guile arguably it still has political unity during those wars though, those Shogun/fuedal lords battling for power and influence still bowed to the emperor. They didn't really have political policy back then
@@amazin7006"bow" is a strong word. Like some those shogun were totally cool with installing a puppet emperor so that they could rule Japan legitimately. They were unified in their recognition of the emperor as the legitimate authority, but all parties recognized it only so that they could advance their own interests.
@@d.n5287 You could not "install" an emperor, it was a lineage. Japan still has the same lineage of emperors since the day it was invented. The best a shogun could do was refuse an order from the emperor (who would enforce it after all) but they still maintained the image of stability.
@@amazin7006 of course but the authority was legitimate and thus the lineage had to be legitimate, but ultimately the shogun that brought the emperor to Kyoto would be the one that got the power.
@@MagisterialVoyager ah yeah I understand. I too know very little about PewDiePie. I put on this vid thinking I would just watch for 5 mins and then go to bed but I ended up watching the whole thing and now it's after 3AM 😭
life for sale is one of the most relatable depictions of suicidality i have ever read. i remember feeling such a strong connection to the writer, comforted by the idea that there could have been someone out there who had thought the exact things i had thought for so many years. anyways a week later i found out the author was a japanese facsist who would've absolutely hated my mixed korean ass
I know a Japanese/Korean and he said his Japanese uncle used to give him the books for his birthday. His Korean mother was not happy with this. He himself said he had no opinion on it except that he was a good writer.
Mishima wouldn't have hated you. He formed a political ideology as an extension of various philosophical studies and life experience. You don't have to agree with his opinions. I don't. But at least look at what they were. Racism was not one of them. Mishima did not view himself as part of a master race.
@@georgepantzikis7988 " He formed a political ideology as an extension of various philosophical studies and life experience." a funny way of saying he was racist, but in a Smart Way tm.
To hear Foreign say "I don't think I have enough spoons to deal with that", man, that's so real. (I never have enough spoons.) Always blowing me away with the compassion and knowledge about people's struggles even parallel to his own. And as ever, I love the input overall. Thank you for endeavouring to be a good person, and a great man. Cheers, big man. o7 To Elliot & Noel, not to leave y'all out, and I'm I'm not just adding on a quick, like, "oh & the rest too". I've seen so many guys who fake the funk, pretending to care about progressive causes cos it "gets chicks", and not even genuinely trying or caring about any of it. And, too, guys who aren't wh¡te nor black who fall into a very specific canal into the regressive stuff (often notably "yt supreme assist" >_> eh). Low bar, but y'all are way above that. And it's nice to see lefty guys like y'all - knowledgeable, mindful, and really trying to be sincere and caring and lead with positivity. This isn't meant to sound like a big ole ego stroke nor a parasocial essay on "my favourite CCs". I'm ace, btw, not trying to "get in" with anyone, and we're all aware of the problematic power dynamic for public figures, educators, etc. and fans, students, followers, and so on... Y'all are great, and your work is valuable and appreciated. I guess if I didn't have ADHD, I could've just said, like, "I see your chain", but like, "I see your ongoing work to learn, educate, and improve yourselves and lead others to help to try to make positive changes in the world."
I consider that uncritically liking the ideals of the once troubled Mishima is based on commodified consciousness. one can select to criticize the thing or not. it's part of "don't bring politics on my [area(games/movies/ and even news)]" it's an anti-intelectual line of thought. one can be troubled. but that doesn't justify insulting and bringing hate and damage over others. specially over women. Boys, mans, please search for help, or try to cultivate healthy relationships and mindsets
Mishima is one of my favorite authors as well, but it's for the exact opposite reasons as PewDiePie. You CANNOT understand Mishima's work, as you said, without first understanding his life and his politics. It also requires an in-depth understanding of Japanese society during his lifetime, which was a chaotic and sometimes dangerous confluence of rapid westernization and the social repercussions of the loss of empire. So it's hilarious to me that PewDiePie completely ignores all the implications of Mishima's writing and just goes with the "touch grass, go to gym, sun good" narrative. If anything, Mishima's books are a series of red flags that serve as an example of how men should NOT be. The misogyny is a glaring motif throughout every single one of his books, and it is intimately intertwined with his feelings about nationalism and Japanese traditional society. Yes, Mishima's work is very interesting and even beautiful--But it's interesting because it's a complicated regurgitation of his own personal failures, and the ways in which modernization causes personal and cultural alienation. If you can't read his books through the lens of skepticism towards ultra-conservatism, then his ideas can only be interpreted as somewhat bizarre and incel-ish (unless, of course, you're a weeb incel, in which case you probably love those very same ideas).
to say that his interpretation is as simple as that, and that his loving of Mishima is as simple as that, is reductive. I don't agree with Mishima, but I understand where he was coming at with the body, and how it is a temple we must respect, instead of actively disregard for our mind's sake. This perspective can be taken, and at this point, it'd be reductive to say his relatability and wisdom is just touch grass go gym. And also, his takes on nationalism, and the samarai age are equally important and profound, which I'd imagine Felix also takes inspiration from.
Honestly, I can't believe the heinous things this man did to his own family. For generations, all this man did was traumatize those closest to him. How do you not stop for a second to think about how your actions are impacting your loved ones? I mean killing your own wife is one thing, but then to throw your own son off a cliff, just to test his strength... Oh wrong Mishima
As a fellow Tekken enjoyer I have to wonder just how much of Japanese media (like the Mishima of Tekken) is directly inspired by the type of masculinity and fascist adjacent politic expressed in Mishima's writing. The Mishima bloodline story seems really engrained with this experience of disgust towards disease and physical power being able to overcome any and everything.
@@rinkohorowitz I feel a bit silly now seeing that one of the main points on Kazuya's wikipedia entry being "Kazuya's family name was taken from author Yukio Mishima,[8] who was also used a model for the character's physical appearance.[9] "
Something I find really funny is that Pewdiepie says he likes that Mishima’s sentiment that actions are more important than mere ideology but Pewdiepie is seemingly ignoring the fact that Mishima’s actions were really weird and fucked up, almost even more so than his writing. Pewdiepie seems to respect he fact that Mishima has extreme devotion to his beliefs than that his beliefs are basically evil.
Devotion is a trait worthy of respect, even if that devotion is to the worst of ideas, that fact that a person can dedicate their life to any ideal is interesting
"I have yet too meet a woman who isnt foolish" is a strange way of saying you never really interacted with women besides your traumatizing family members Edit: spelling
Thing is that Mishima has a lot of contradictions because he praised ( a lot) Mari Mori who was one of the best japanese female writers and the creator of Boys love (yaoi) literary genre in Asia. lol
It's so interesting that patriarchal thinking needs to be so hierarchical and competitive. Your body cannot just be your body, it needs to be ranked 'better' than other men's bodies or you have not succeeded.
@@Koba1tthat’s the issue. There will ALWAYS be someone “better” by some metric. It’s an impossible standard to hold yourself or others to, and those that chase it will destroy themselves by doing so. For example, male bodybuilders are notoriously unhealthy, even when they’re not on roids, because of their diets. They take “being healthy” to an unhealthy degree. Measuring success by striving to be the best at everything will always mean you fall short. Olympic athletes often have bodies that differ from sport to sport, like how a power lifter will look vastly different from a swimmer or boxer. It’s great to take care of yourself, but it’s asinine to put down others or constantly put yourself down to venerate some unattainable “peak”.
@virtualgambit577 "It's an impossible standard to hold yourself and others to." Whether one meets the standard is irrelevant. The standard is an object of meditation used to cultivate focus and resolve.
@@zombieboy937 except, the sTaNdArD you talking about is toxic as fùçk Literally the person u replied to alr explained it yet u prefer js random pick one of their sentence n still commented the emptiest bs about it😂
Большинство англоговорящего комьюнити даже не знает что такое нацизм и фашизм, вы просто раскидываетесь данным понятием. Когда в мире действительно существуют люди, которые разделяют эти отвратительные взгляды.
@@Dima32581я думаю они прекрасно знают что это за понятия. Это у нас слово расизм вообще никак не котируется, по дефолту можешь ожидать что твой рандомный знакомый расист и считает это нормой.
As a woman (ew, sorry) whose politics lean heavily on the left, I have to do a whole lot of mental gymnastics to be able to appreciate some of Mishimas work, but then I watch a life in four chapters and I forget about everything cause I'm a mere foolish woman and I love colours and reading is hard🌈💫 jokes aside, always find it hilarious when he's put on some sort of pedestal by self proclaimed alpha males. A whole freaky homosexual with a beautiful prose who commited seppuku? Go off queens!
bro i know this is in jest but i wish women self deprecating about how femme and stupid they are wasnt a trend, i hate it everytime i see it, this is not just about u dw
I do think it's objectively hilarious that man was so messed up he could come untouched just by dramatically roleplaying seppuku in front of a young man
I muttered, "Mishima Yukio" before hitting play on your video. Studying Japanese lit in college with a professor who was a serious fan of the man's work (and possibly the man himself) was a trip. Everyone's in for a wild ride.
@@zeitgeistx5239 You say that, but appealing to westerners while both admiring and loathing them at the same time isn't at all uncommon, Mishima was just special. To be honest, as an European I'd say I admire and loathe the West too.
@@zeitgeistx5239 He admired the Western spirit; expansive, domineering, glorious, violent & powerful. He hated modern Western society; humbled, frail, diseased, sapped & meek. The West went from a collection of warrior-polities fighting for supremacy to a humdrum of babysitter-states racing to the bottom, and Mishima didn't want the same to happen to Japan.
Mishima is proly turning around in his grave if his greatest claim to relevance not even a full century after him is him being a favourite author of a swedish letsplayer
Except he is not. He's still a popular author and well regarded. If he was some esoteric deep cut with zero standing do you think Pewdiepie would know who he was? Midwit.
This "fascist" as you charecterized him, in one of his famous literary story called "Patriotism" told a history of Japanese officer who REFUSED to obey an order from the millitary higher-up command and the JAPANESE EMPEROR HIMSELF to supress a rebellion against the Japanese government. Why? 'Cause the rebels were his classmates and comrades from his military academy there the hero studied. And hero refused to comply an order from the higher-ups and kill his friends from youthful ages. Instead of that, because in understanding of Japanese he committed a dishonesty by not obeying the decree of Emperor - he committed seppuku. Wow! That a "classic fascist" move to choose indeed! Because refusal of autocratic command to kill your own compatriots and like-minded people is indeed a faascist act to do! A true fascist formula and totalitarian view of life from Mishima - don't obey the horrible acts of government and instead commit seppuku without killing yours frieneds! What a *fascist* Mishima is indeed!!!
This "fascist" as you charecterized him, in one of his famous literary story called "Patriotism" told a history of Japanese officer who REFUSED to obey an order from the millitary higher-up command and the JAPANESE EMPEROR HIMSELF to supress a rebellion against the Japanese government. Why? 'Cause the rebels were his classmates and comrades from his military academy there the hero studied. And hero refused to comply an order from the higher-ups and kill his friends from youthful ages. Instead of that, because in understanding of Japanese he committed a dishonesty by not obeying the decree of Emperor - he committed seppuku. Wow! That a "classic fascist" move to choose indeed! Because refusal of autocratic command to kill your own compatriots and like-minded people is indeed a faascist act to do! A true fascist formula and totalitarian view of life from Mishima - don't obey the horrible acts of government and instead commit seppuku without killing yours frieneds! What a *fascist* Mishima is indeed!!!
I also remember pewdiepie saying that he likes jordan peterson and that he's not a right wing writer he is just misunderstood like he is so that's that This was years ago though and it's possible that he's genuinely changed idk
OMG I REMEMBER THAT and didn't he defend some misogynist on a news show who was saying women are "less intelligent" on average when compared to men?? That stuck with me for some reason and idk why, seeing as how at the time I was very much going down the redpill pipeline at the time lol
Pewdiepie used such a big part of the old anti-sjw era of youtube, though I don't think a lot of was intentional, and a lot of it is just what happened when you grow up on the Internet, I mean he was even on friendly terms with Ben Shapiro for a while looking back it's...
@@NotD-kp3byA ton of it was intentional. Pewdie is/was friends with a lot of hardcore anti-sjw youtubers. This man is the typical dude with a Japanese fetish too. Not a fetish of the women, but of what he “needs” Japan to represent. Delusional.
He didn't know much about peterson at the time. He just read 12 rules for life, which is really just a standard self-help book. Jordan Peterson was less publicly right wing at the time.
You must have been under 13 or something, during that time Jordan Peterson was just a milk toast self help guy. His best advice for men was stop being a slob, clean your room and stop being a loser. Anyone who came of age in the 2000's and early 10's would have heard more fouler language and to restrict that was really going against the culture of that time, so yeah pewdiepie and others would have fought against that.
Years ago I was in an internet forum where a half Japanese man living in Japan was chewing Mishima a new asshole. Had Mishima succeeded in what he attempted he would have caused a lot of problems for mixed race and non Japanese Asians in Japan. I still think about his raw vitriol against this author whenever his name is mentioned, because it comes from a real place from a rare perspective. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters is an interesting watch because the part in the movie where Mishima’s revolution is rejected by the Japanese people is haunting. It made me reconsider some of my extremist beliefs, even if I was left leaning in those. The other day I saw a video essay praising Mishima with the premise that “nerds ruined literature” with Stephen King in the thumbnail representing nerds in lit. White men who should know better keep not learning their lesson about Mishima I guess. Edit: Yukio Mishima falls into an archetype which I call the “warrior poet” where an artist takes on the role of both creative and militaristic strongman, and if you’re a young impressionable man without a strong ethos of self discipline this can be very attractive to guys who are uncritical of Ernest Hemingway, Teddy Roosevelt macho BS and John Milius warrior poet rhetoric. I fell for John Milius warrior poet BS back in the day but as I grew older I became more aware that figureheads like Milius and Mishima to a certain extent never served in the military themselves and they glorified stuff about war which is toxic and harmful. Helping my elderly father at Bunnings Warehouse to assist him to do yard work is a far less toxic reflection of strong masculinity that actually helps out my family even if it’s not as superficially cool as sabre-rattling mall katanas.
I saw that video too. That guy is quite hyperbolic with his titles and hes a kinda unhinged dude but sometimes his videos are good. Hes basically a centrist politically but not one of those fake centrists who tend to be alt-right techbros.
not done with the vid yet, but oddly excited about more people knowing about mishima. nothing about the man is aspirational and all of his work is like "what if the most horrible gross little man in the entire word was even horribler and worser" but hes so fascinatingly weird. very interesting subject.
replying to my own damn self to add that for the LONGEST time, i misremembered that mishima set himself on fire. but no, a completely different japanese nationalist at the exact same period of time (a year beforehand) set himself on fire and mishima went "sick." (Kosaburo Eto)
@@crazypika12honestly I think the entire generation of Japanese people that was born around the height of Japanese empire and fought in world war II is completely fascinating. Like they were born into maybe like the craziest honor culture in the world since the Roman empire or some shit, but like in relatively modern times. The way that he ended his life reminds me of this horrific story I heard about the US occupation of Japan. I think the original intention is debated whether it was serious or meant to be like a weird morale boost, but the Japanese military handed out grenades on Okinawa and reminded people of the idea of death before dishonor. And so when the US military landed people started committing Mass suicides and apparently when they ran out of grenades they just started bludgeoning each other to death with sticks and rocks.
You didnt really read anything the man wrote, did ya? Im not saying that he was perfect, od course not, but to say that there is *nothing* aspirational about him, I just cant understand. As a gay man i feel much the same things he felt, I understand him and I feel understood by him. He suffered deeply and he had a campability to affirm himself and his life despite it all, that is aspirational, regardless of his shitty politics.
I’m Japanese(found your channel through your Utada Hikaru vid way back when❤) and as an avid modern Japanese literature lover who has read most of Mishima’s work, his art truly lies (imo obv) in how beautifully he uses the Japanese language which is unfortunately very difficult to convey through different languages. Having said that I 200% agree with you when you say ‘he’s a super weird guy’😂😂😂
yeah its honestly such a shame when things like this happen, im brazillian and every once in a while i see a translation of old brazillian music, and while it still sounds good it really takes off the actual effect of the original play of words that is always difficult to translate. Every time something like that happens, it makes me want to known the most languages i can, to really get the nuance and beauty in each and every one of them (also, japanese is a great language, been learning it but man kanji is hard)
The quote you showed written by Oe Kenzaburo regarding Yukio Mishima's persona and actions is so true . Mishima's self-identification with a typical Japanese archetype, culminating in his ritualistic seppuku while attired in uniform, can be seen as a manifestation of an over-identification with his mask. This phenomenon is reminiscent of the themes explored in the 1959 Italian film Il General Della Rovere, where the main character adopts a false identity and becomes so absorbed in it that he ultimately chooses to sacrifice himself for the cause he has taken on.. In a similar vein, Mishima's actions can be interpreted as a form of self-authentication, where he seeks to merge his individual identity with the archetype he has cultivated. This blurring of lines between reality and fantasy. (full explanation in reply) I really enjoyed this video through and through, you earned yourself a sub. BTW i know nothing of this mishima guy outside of this video.
The movie mentioned in the comment is "Il General Della Rovere" (1959), an Italian film directed by Roberto Rossellini. The film is a drama that tells the story of a con man, Bardone (played by Vittorio De Sica), who is mistaken for a Italian Resistance leader, General della Rovere, by the Nazis. To survive, Bardone decides to play along and pretend to be the General, but as he becomes more deeply embroiled in the role, he begins to identify with the character and ultimately sacrifices himself to protect the Resistance. The commenter is drawing a parallel between the themes of this film and Yukio Mishima's life. Specifically, they are highlighting the idea of self-authentication through the adoption of a persona or archetype. In the case of the film, the main character adopts a false identity and becomes so absorbed in it that he is willing to sacrifice himself for the cause. Similarly, the commenter suggests that Mishima's actions, particularly his ritualistic seppuku, can be seen as a form of self-authentication, where he seeks to merge his individual identity with the archetype of a traditional Japanese warrior. This blurring of lines between reality and performance is a common theme in both the film and Mishima's life. The commenter is arguing that Mishima's actions were a form of performance, where he sought to embody a certain ideal or archetype, rather than a genuine expression of himself. ( some would claims it is genuine as it's authentically occupying a social position. ) Overall, the commenter is using the film as a way to interpret and understand Mishima's actions, and to explore the idea that our identities are often constructed through performance and adherence to certain archetypes or ideals.
I have to admit, Mishima’s work is really good. One of the few fiction writers that I’ve ever enjoyed. He was a fascinatingly weird person that I first heard of when I read Bad Gays: A Homosexual History. I highly recommend their chapter on Mishima and reading Confessions of a Mask to better understand the very Freudian way he expressed his fascinations with life, death and sex.
Also, just read Bad Gays. A very good dissection of the history of problematic queers and how these pre-fascist, fascist, imperialist gays helped to mold the current “failure” of liberal queer rights. Great book and Lemmey and Miller are excellent writers.
Oh yeah, he is one of the greatest prose stylists in Japanese literature. The best English comparison I could come up with is Ford Madox Ford. But Japanese is such a different language from English in literary sensibility that it’s hard to compare to any non-Japanese writer. Honestly, I don’t think PewDiePie even understands the writing and is more for the political aspect of Mishima.
@@loadishstone agreed, the English translations of his works are amazing. My Japanese is still at a baby level of understanding, but I assume in the original they are quite good. His life was fascinating. And I use that term because one could also have a “morbid fascination,” which is what I think I have when it comes to Mishima’s relationship with sex, men, women, fascism and the West.
I thought this too, well I didn’t mind his friends- I do think the video would’ve benefited from the commentary and opinions of a woman, since one of the main discussions was Mishima’s misogyny, bringing someone who is actually effected by Mishima misogynistic views, I think, would’ve brought on a more interesting perspective and would make women viewers feel less uncomfortable having to sit and listen to Mishima’s dehumanizing views of women when there is actually a women actively combatting and commentating on said views.
Idk man half the comments on esoterica are pretty not normal lol. Not digging on people's spiritual experiences but they do seem to be outside the norm lol
I really don't think you can 'seperate the art from the artist' with figures like Mishima because his art *depends* on his misogyny and fascism. Like, his art and life would be *completely* different if he didn't believe the things he did, case in point, he probably wouldn't've tried to stage a coup and kill himself.
@@Cecilia-ky3uw I was thinking about this the other day, I arrived at the conclusion that this phase is a conscious decision for the audience to choose for themselves if they want to separate the art or not.
I love Francis Bacons art. He was not a good man, and if i met him, i would've hated him. But i relate to those viseral feelings in his art. The context is also so important and a lot of why i love the art. I think uncritically enjoying any art and having no curiosity about who made it and why is stupid.
i do think it's important to engage in art critically, and people shouldn't ALWAY shy away from art bc the artist is problematic (it is understandable if ppl feel uncomfortable engaging in it tho) and tbh if the artist is dead i think that phrase is more applicable than artists that are still alive and spreading harmful ideas
Mishima is hilarious in like many fascists that he cosplayed as a lofty warrior of some glorious past, tried to lead an insurrection, got laughed at by the guys he both admired and was horny over and tried to kill himself over that and couldn’t even do that right (the guy he asked to behead him couldn’t cut through the whole way)
Main character syndrome. In some way I feel bad for mishima but not his western followers thinking they're going to change the tide of western civilization into their warped view of heroism.
@@redacted_vombat5742 the west is going down due to it's fragile foundations(slavery, colonisation, r*cism) and the fact that there is a d€€p state within it's most Powerful nation, the USA, who seems to have very questionable and diabolical goals...
100% he's never read anything by Mishima and is just lost in the aesthetic... Which is kinda funny cause of his/his fanbase's (and the whole "alpha manly men" people's) homophobia. Cause Mishima's work is very, very gay. Fascist and gay.
I loved the addition of the reactions from other youtubers, but given so much of this author's work revolves around misogyny, I'm wondering why there wasn't a woman on the discourse too? I thoroughly enjoyed the video regardless haha, but I think that part could have benefited from different perspectives too :)
very fair critique! i chose to bring on folks who talk about masculinity and liberation and could potentially relate to or understand the (superficial) appeal of mishima but i would definitely love to hear people of different gender identities’ perspectives on this as well. and i do recommend meeka le fay’s video as one such example of that! i link it in the description
The only thing I watched from PewDiePie was his old Goat Simulator videos. I'm not joking. That was literally it. I did not care for him. I just liked the funny goat game.
That was my thing witb the majority of channels I watched in his heyday. I stopped caring to watch him after he finished Cry of Fear, occasionally tuning in for Amnesia stories. I always was more interested in the game than the UA-camr as long as they weren't too annoying
20:04 i was saying something like this in my inner monologue as i watched. it was at the descriptions of his characters' deeds that it became glaringly obvious to me he wasn't just a traumatized man, he grew up in a really violent and misogynistic society which just potencialized the trauma anyways gonna keep watching! edit 1: genuinely debatable as to whether he could even be said to have had gay sex. what noah said really resonated with me: its so objectifying and violent that it's barely a desire for love and sexual unification. its violent and abusive and represents a consumption of the other without really giving yourself in the same way. even the most extreme versions of love work differently than this
Everytime I think about a topic too hard this guy makes a video about it it's crazy. Also the reason I've been thinking about pewdipie is bc I used to be a huge fan of his as a teenager, but then one day I suddenly didn't like him anymore and I couldn't wrap my hands around why, now as an adult it's clear why but I hate how the internet tried to gaslight me into thinking he's just a wholesome husband and dad and people who hate on him are just jealous..like this guy is just too weird and I wish I didn't waste my teenage youth watching him religiously
If this UA-cam channel ever comes out with it's own set of skeletons in the closet, it doesn't make any his criticisms any less valid. And in the same way, it doesn't make any of your time spending enjoying game videos with PewDiePie when he was younger any less worthwhile. IMO the thing we should be doing is cherry picking the stuff you like about a person and discarding the rest. Always be skeptical and don't ever put people on a pedestal and you'll be disappointed less.
@@markmywords3817can someone explain to me this distaste towards pewdiepie? I genuinely dont know. Like i have a basic understanding of some of the drama before but i started watching him at the start of the tseries war so i dont know much. Im just confused cus everyone talking about pewds here talks like hes been doing some nefarious the entire time and im kinda perplexed due to my lack of context
@@siri5784 IDK TBH. But I started a bit earlier when he was playing games. Playing games is mostly uncontroversial and universally accepted by anyone... at least compared to opinion and react content. I think the most controversial one are the na zi jokes. But compared to Logan Paul who's into taking videos of unalived people and scamming people, pewds is mildly "cancelable" if you can call him that. I mostly outgrew PewDiePie because life just happened and my interests changed. But I've come to realize IRL that a cult of personality is a dangerous red flag.
@@siri5784 I’ll try to sum it up. Pewdiepie subtly nudged his audience towards alt right ideologies, and never once acknowledged this. He created an online space where alt right groups and nazis felt welcomed, knowing perfectly well that his audience consisted mainly of young teens and children. This led him to become some sort of idol for the alt right, someone they could use to spread their ideologies and dogwhistles in a veiled manner. Just think of the Christchurch shooting, when the shooter said “subscribe to Pewdiepie” before opening fire. That, to me, showed just how deeply he had become embedded in those groups. And he exposed a young, impressionable audience to all of this. For a more detailed and science based take, I’d suggest the video “the pewdiepipeline”, it explains just how Pewdiepie played a role in the alt right pipeline.
@@papercut6020 What? How did he make nazis feel welcome? I remember they hated him when he made a nazi joke, and he apologized. About the shooting, it wasn't pewdiepie's fault that the man chose to do that
Something I've noticed is that gamers rally behind center or center right figures (Pewdiepie, Asmongold) as their representative/thought leader, then shift said leader's overton window just abit further to the right. Shows just how sinister capital G "gamer" culture" really is.
If asmongold and pewdiepie are center than my god the left has truly gone to far into Totalitarianism, though policing incoming if Elon musk ever makes neurolinks a reality, Lol
@@ramoraidLmao the suggestion that someone in a fascist mass shooter's manifesto is considered centre by anyone is madness, he's an antisemite, therefore a nazi
9:33 Mishima is also the name in the video game series Tekken. It is famous for one storyline of the protagonist/antagonist fathers in the game of tossing their son, specifically on a cliff or a volcano. I wonder if the creator of the series was inspired by this man.
Mishima is probably my favorite fiction author, but he was EXCEPTIONALLY odd and extremely problematic, especially towards the end of his life. I think a lot of people online like him because of Sun & Steel and how good the Schrader film was - and many are rightists or outright fascist which is unfortunate. As a leftist, I think as long as you acknowledge his many issues and bad politics, there is no issue with liking him. Also worth noting that much of his light hearted, comedic work is really good and has hardly been translated. I think that shapes how many westerners see him. "Star" is a quick, fun read and was recently translated in 2018/2019 and is way different than his darker work.
I also never liked PewDiePie or watched him (not because of politics really, more because he was kinda cringe when he streamed) and also have been an athlete, lifted, done martial arts and contact sports since I was like 11 and have always been physically very big (I'm 6'6 and 270lbs). So the whole "he taught me how to lift good" or whatever never appealed to me, so maybe that's why I approach and view Mishima differently than more "basement dweller" type right-wingers. Also fwiw his bodybuilding training was pretty trash lol.
The late Ryuichi Sakamoto actually quite liked Mishima's work as a very progressive artist because "He was far-right, I am far-left. Both the left and the right are similar when they go extreme (彼は右翼、僕は過激な左翼でしたが、右も左も過激になると似て来るところがあるのでしょうか。)." Forbidden Colours, Sakamoto's 1983 single with David Sylvian is inspired by Mishima's 1951 novel of the same name.
So many brilliant authors were down right fascists, for example Borges and Pound. And pretty much most of British authors ever were sneering imperialists. Nearly all European philosophers and authors until very recently (in historical time) were white supremacists. As a leftist who studies literature, the list of unproblematic, committed socialist authors, is much shorter than the list of right wingers.
I'm a trans woman and I got to say that this video really made me think about some things. I really hate my body a lot of the time even though I love being a woman and I love being trans. The sorta elaboration on what beauty is in fascist society and how it changes the way people think about their bodies really struck a chord with me. It's made me think about how much social fascism has dictated the way I think about my body, my lack of muscles, my asymmetries. I am also a writer, and I write about female masculine revolutionaries a lot. This video made me reflect, made me compare and constrast the way I write a masculine, female martyr with this weird ultra right views on masculinity and modernity, made me think about where my ideals on masculinity differ as a communist and as a lesbian, and where they've almost *intersected* due to myself being raised under the boot of this body fascist ideology. Thanks for this. Sharing it with everyone I know.
@@Cecilia-ky3uw I don't really understand what the problem is, sorry? It's a phrase that was basically said in the latter half of the video, when they were talking about body expectations under fascism? Social fascism as in the form of toxic social relations that legitimate fascism cultivates?
@@clara-raxxa fascism is ill-defined, it's a point that's been made many times, but stop devaluing it by applying it to the moreso mundane. Social expectations has a clearer meaning, is less tied to other things and is also definitionally more independent. Besides if I remember my reading correctly social fascism actually refers to social democracy.
I'm a gym rat and I can't say I find Mishima's work very motivating. It feels like it comes from a place of negative, to work out to not feel like bad, to not let your body rot, to not look soft. From personal experience and I even think scientific evidence, this negative outlook severely hampers one's progression at whatever endeavor they are trying. Its doesn't even do what you want it to do. Also I find Banes words from the dark Knight more motivating lmao. I just replace darkness with pain and recall those words while going for a heavy set lol.
This was excellent and well-read, Elliot. I had the privilege of taking a course on East Asian literature taught by the same professor teaching the capstone Japanese course at my university. I loved his selections, and part of the course was a very nuanced handling of Mishima's legacy. I found it ultimately impossible not to like the quality of Mishima's prose, which reminds me in many ways of one of his own favorite authors, Georges Bataille--on whom he has produced writing I genuinely enjoy. But there is no author that it benefits one to read without a certain critical distance, and Mishima makes an especially obvious case for this. It's genuinely bizarre to see him whitewashed more impressively than he managed to manifest in his own way. I think you've captured very well with this video the crux of what there is to learn from reading from and about the man. The events of his life and his works of writing and film are suffused with suffering hidden behind an illusory patina of idealized masculinity, rationalizations of trauma and his feelings of ineptitude that have crystallized into a very pure and typical reactionary ressentiment. The question he really leaves us with is not of whether his ideals were noteworthy--they were and are obviously not--but of how a society produces Yukio Mishima. The expectation of self-repression so deeply ingrained in him that it shapeshifted into his every desire, aesthetically, libidinally, and terminally. As if it were a coping mechanism to deal with his horrific upbringing, Mishima depicted his self-loathing and its outward projection as the utmost noble suffering (or the utmost sincerity, if we follow his unsubtle directorial choice) and it made him disdainful of others' honest struggles, which he perceived as weakness and imperfection. My professor characterized Mishima's death by saying that many understand the event to be less of an attempt to leave a mark on Japan's political history as much as it is an extreme moment of mental masturbation. Like many fascists, his political views were ultimately completely unserious; but they were maybe the result of an over-rationalization of his insecurities or, as Foreign Man indicated, of that lifelong attempt to "fix himself" by attaching to an ideal rather than acknowledging his need for the messy and necessary process of being a person. I think that Mishima is worth studying--with a properly maintained critical distance of his ideas, of course--specifically because his personal transformations can teach us much about the people like him, at risk of conflating their own misery with ideology and becoming reactionary, identifying with and idealizing their self-repression instead of questioning it and seeking emancipation from it.
I don't think PewDiePie is a vehement political fascist, partly because he is too recluse and rich to care that much about politics. However he is definitely aesthetically and temperamentally a fascist; in the sense that he is one of those men who have a fetish for power but simultaneously crave allegiance.
i disagree, i think he was a part of the alt right pipeline (specially a couple of years ago), but he doesnt seem like the type of guy that has a fetish for power, he seems like a fairly normal guy, probably even a lib
@@Cecilia-ky3uw See how I said he wasn't a political fascist ? He's probably just a lib who's slightly reactionary like the median European. I'm talking about his aesthetic sensibility and the way he raves about people that used to die for a cause. I'm not referring to a political compass type description and I thought that was pretty clear...
27:57 --> Foreign saying "I genuinely don't know if I'll ever recover from this. I mean like, I don't even think I have the spoons to even deal with that." just twenty-eight minutes into this hour and twenty-two minutes video is so damn funny 🤣🤣🤣And also doesn't bode well for me ...
I hope this comment doesn’t get lost, but I want to say that I’ve read more than 5 Mishima books and they’re beautiful works of art. Art is powerful and being creative can be a weapon. His attempt to realize his ideas through military means failed, but his horrible ideas continue to influence people because they’re beautifully executed. Mishima s work is enjoyable and relatable on very human levels. It’s important to be critical of art beyond our own enjoyment because art is made to make us feel and emotions sometimes make us forget to question things.
You shouldn't question art for it's intentions you should question it solely as art in itself. Art is not about ideology it's about making heard the misunderstood parts of human existence and experience. And about beauty
@@katy2176-p3m you don't have responsibility when viewing art. Art is ultimately made to enjoy or to reflect upon, not necessarily as a call to act even if it's political
@@santiagomm3878 you do have a responsibility if said art spreads toxic or bad ideas to think critically - if you think art is about turning off your brain then I don’t think you really appreciate art
@@katy2176-p3m what I said is exactly the opposite of being mindless. It's judging art for what it is and criticizing it, not acting out without thinking or appreciating what was written trying to censor it That kind of perspective is what leads to mindless consumption At least you gotta think before you say something stupid
As someone who lives in Japan I still see that Mishima is still wierdly revered by some. The idea of Mishima's end (su****e) as well isn't quite as negative as it probably should be. It still the choice for far too many people in the country. People who don't get into a certain school or get a certain job might do it because they feel they dishonored/failed their family. Others might do it to escape the monotonous every day routine (Working 8-12 hours a day for some guy that lives in dubai, going home to sleep 5 hours, then waking up and doing it again). And there are many more who have depression/adhd/autisum etc but are undiagnosed because a huge portion of japan still doesnt believe that these things exist. They usually just believe if you're depressed, its just because you arent trying hard enough...
@@user-jk6ed9ux1t I'm not sure about you buddy but i could understand everything that the OP wrote. Maybe you don't like what's being said, which is different.
@user-jk6ed9ux1t "Write me a proper full-fledged paragraph at this instance, you imbecile! The internet was obviously created for english speaking intellectuals like me, and I absolutely refuse to read anything that doesn't meet my standards in grammatical sucess! So, while I use english poorly (forgetting punctuation, etc.), I will be demanding you to adhere to the writing level of a proper academic. Thank you for understanding..."
an oddly perfectly timed video- i spent this summer reading 3 of Mishima’s novels. i also found his work by chance, picking up confessions of a mask because i thought the synopsis sounded interesting. his books have captured me for the writing style and interesting meditation on death/sex/the body, but they have also been some of the most uncomfortable reads of my life for many reasons. i don’t see a way to read his work and not pick up on the fascism + misogyny unless you are deliberately turning your eye to it. there is a deep fascination i have with his books and his life at large, almost like not being able to look away from a car crash. great synthesis of his life and analysis of his views, a really great watch!
pewdiepie is a weird little man, i kinda figured this out from FMIAFL’s video. but this is also super duper weird 😭 also mishima’s story is so interesting to me, it’s so odd that i haven’t heard of him before.
1:08:35 Funniest misunderstandings I've seen was when a random gymbro on my feed used the lyrics "Shut up, count your calories" from the song "Prom Queen" to, you know, literally say "count your calories". And the fact that he ignored the context is honestly hilarious.
The way you talk about Mishima here reminds me of Lovecraft: a deeply influential writer with a traumatic childhood who hid from their deep insecurities in old-school fascist ideology, Mishima idolizing Imperial Rule and Lovecraft idolizing Victorian scientific racists and Imperialism.
In France the neo nazis tend to love Mishima, they were fascinated by him. I saw that when I was a teen, And I'm 52 years old now ... At the time all I could see in Mishima was a sad pitiful insignificant person (who wanted to have big muscles and big strong legs ... true story).
@@toxinvine239lmao please recuse yourself from this conversation Shapiro is a nationalist far right weirdo and platforming him without pushing back against what he’s saying is the same as agreeing with him
Ōshima Nagisa’s 1971 film The Ceremony follows a formerly aristocratic Japanese family in the aftermath of World War Two and how its war criminal patriarch enacts cruelty on its younger members by demanding strict adherence to traditions and his word. It’s a film that I always associate with Mishima in my mind. It does a fantastic job both providing a sense of context regarding such upper-class family attitudes and also exploring the wake of destruction and suffering such attitudes perpetrate. It’s an interesting look at fascism reproduced via the family system.
Historically, people would use clothing to protect their skin from the sun or parasols. They didn't have the skin cancer link, but they did know sunburn hurt.
Dostoievski, Faulkner, Ezra Pound, TS Eliot, Thomas Mann so on so on. I think that the best writers are "problematic", obviously Mishima is special but not out of the box
I've been a long time pewdiepie content consumer and I would say pewds has been rather apolitical in his content for most of the time unless it suited for some edgy joke he was making at the time (i.e. only in a joking fashion). But the whole vibe is that, I mean, if someday it came to light that he has right leaning political ideals, I wouldn't be surprised
i think the gym bro toxic masculinity is so hard to unpack because it's so rooted in our society even kendrick lamar wants you to do push ups on your lunch break
i started to hate pewdiepie back in 2018 where he was making fun of a poor old lady having a mental breakdown at an airport, who was clearly distressed
I used to be a big fan of pewdiepie way back and I was a right leaning edgy teen then. After I stopped watching I grew up and moved to the left but I would still watch his videos sometimes as I thought he matured and assumed that he grew from that era, but obviously not as much as I would have hoped. As a Chinese person especially it is extremely disappointing to see him engage with content from far right Japanese figures and promote them, although it’s unsurprising now as more and more of people that I look up to(not as much pewdiepie in this case but this is just an example) reveal themselves to be dissapointing in this aspect.
I read Forbidden Colors as a teenager in 1983 along with other queer authors such as Gore Vidal and James Baldwin. It was not easy to find this kind of represenation then so we took what we could get although some things might be flawed.
I originally learned about Mishima from an offhand joke in a BL anime and went down the rabbit hole reading about him. Very cool and interesting guy, you won't often find people quite like that. Definitely recommend checking his stuff out at least once.
I enjoy that the video explores the paths that lead to these ideas instead of just immediate condemnation of something as bad and too dangerous even to analyse. Overall a good video and enjoyable too.
Mishima Yukio is endlessly fascinating to me and is very important to japanese literature, but I do not find him admirable at. Bro was H.P Lovecraft tier
Hmm G Gordon Liddy used to be my neighbor when I was a kid. I remember my mother coming in from a walk talking about how he pulled a gun out on her and her friend for coming too close to his house. My mother was bit of an exaggerator so I don't know if that that really happened or not, but the whole family had to hear about it over and over again for a year so the entire scene is etched vividly into my brain as if I were actually there. smhs
Okay so it seems to me that Pewdiepie liked the idea of devoting yourself to your ideals and that working out / touching grass is good for you. H. P. Lovecraft was a giant racist and people still love his works. I find it troubling that this video tries so hard to link him to fascism when I can't even think of a moment where he has said anything even slightly fascist, and the video doesn't point to one either. The dude did say the n-word and he did do the edgy sign holding thing, but for how much of his life has been catalogued on the internet those two moments years ago defining his personality seems like a stretch. He just seems like a fairly normal dude who works out and plays video games. Some random fan out of millions becoming a mass shooter doesn't mean Pewdiepie has ever advocated for fascist ideals himself. Again I can't think of any bad moments outside of those two. Maybe there are, but I don't know them. Also side-note as a med student: Due to a lot of misinformation and corpo politics the general public can't truly be expected to make the healthy choices. I agree. But we probably should strive to make healthy choices and we should celebrate when people manage to do so. I like to believe that everyone, on the individual level, has the capacity to make positive change even if society does its best to push calorically dense food and a sedentary lifestyle. Nobody should look down on someone for being fat, but the truth is that when your weight starts going higher it is coupled with a higher morbidity and it is in everyone's best interest to be fit.
"I can't even think of a moment where he has said anything even slightly fascist" - racial slurs - "kill all j*ws" - "the sun is black" - characterizing Mishima as merely "controversial" More importantly, the video literally says that pewdiepie probably doesn't think much about fascism. You did not watch it.
Gotou from original japanese Shin Megami Tensei 1 in SNES (Persona was a spin-off to this series) pictures him as a radical, who overthrew the government and serves as the national, martial leader of the Japanese government and military, along with using Terminals to summon demons and return to ancient gods, working alongside them. He was based on Mishima. This being used against the US occupying force lead by Ambassador Thorman (Who's disguised as an agent of YHVH, AKA God), who are planning to use ICBMs to end the demonic invasion on Japan. The ICBMs hit and both are killed, but before that, a resistance movement within Japan, lead by a woman, which Gotou had captured every woman and elementary school girl by that same name into his prison, even if he tried to assure to you personally to try to appeal to his side, that he paid no mind to them. I feel like it may have been another nod to his writings.
There was a great movie made about Mishima by Paul Schrader-best known for writing Taxi Driver, and more recently for making the Ethan Hawke film First Reformed-and the joke has always been has always been that, had Mishima not already existed, Schrader would have invented him.
Mishima discovering Joan of Arc was a woman is basically the reaction of Shang uncovering Mulan lol
"you're a woman I thought I was in love with a clumsy femboy Twink"
💀💀💀 Please, this scalped me.
But I don't think Shang was a raging misogynist. He's just bi
@@Kalitayy If Shang was a mysogynist, he would immediately kill Mulan, but he spared her mercy, knowing he's violating a law of his country.
At least Shang learned to undo his bias. Mishima never did
I'm a PhD student in Japanese studies and Mishima Yukio was part of the curriculum when I was on my Masters. Mishima lived during the Showa era, which means he must have been heavily exposed to military propaganda from a really young age, and his upbringing reflects the era's expectations of men.
About the misogyny: Although there were important female characters throughout Japanese history (warriors, artists, monarchs alike), after Buddhism and Confucianism started spreading in the Nara period, men became to be seen as superior to women, and women were basically erased and reduced to certain roles (mostly wives, prostitutes or nuns). The darkest period for women's rights in Japan was the Edo period I think. Although feminism started spreading in Japan during the Meiji period, by the Showa period the government enforced the traditional male ideal due to militarism. This, paired with his sexuality and his inferiority complex, created a turmoil within him.
That's so interesting. Do you have any papers or maybe short books you could recommend that kind pick up on this? I'm especially interested in gender & sexism and gender in literature in Japan.
How did exactly Buddhism contribute to women's oppression?
@@zeex5029 in a nutshell, Buddhist monks preached patriarchal, misogynistic values to the people.
I’ve worked in an exec role in a multinational conglomerate & can confirm misogyny is still pervasive in Japan. To uphold global standards for equal opportunity, we send compliance staff to all offices. To say that misogyny is entrenched in almost every aspect of day-to-day life, including corporate work, is an understatement. The social expectations on women to be docile (for lack of a better term) makes it almost impossible to get them to advocate for themselves even when we put global HR standards in place.
@@zeex5029 Mahayana Buddhism spread from India to China, from China to the Korean peninsula, and from there to Japan, and the Japanese temples often sent their monks to study in China. By that time, Confucianism was the main ideology in China. Confucianism intermingled with Buddhism, so Buddhist monks often brought Confucian texts with themselves back to Japan, which later shaped Japan's state ideology.
Seeing Mishima and Sneako calling a woman’s genitals “a disgusting gaping hole and an open wound” is a so bizarre, disrespectful, and honestly a fascinating display of one of the most potent forms of misogyny. Straight men saying that a vagina is disgusting is so paradoxical and a window into how deep their hatred for women runs. It’s shocking.
(edit. Not that Mishima is straight, but Sneako and Adam 22 are)
and yet these people keep craving these "disgusting gaping holes"... wonder what that says about them:)
It’s a reflection of their own tortured self image. They hate themselves, and hate the fact that they are attracted physically to something “weaker” than they are and that they need women to reproduce. So they devalue it to try and make the conflicting feelings go away.
sneako be like: i like minors
Sounds like closeted gays ngl
Straight men simultaneously hate women’s genitals and also put them on pedestal.
"Japan has kept political unity since the dawn of time" is the funniest thing he said. Some of Japans most historically significant periods of time are those of extreme political instability (such as the period of years leading up to the edo period).
There is literally an entire period of Japanese history defined by 148 years of warring states and never-ending civil wars, the Sengoku period.
@@brendan_guile arguably it still has political unity during those wars though, those Shogun/fuedal lords battling for power and influence still bowed to the emperor. They didn't really have political policy back then
@@amazin7006"bow" is a strong word. Like some those shogun were totally cool with installing a puppet emperor so that they could rule Japan legitimately. They were unified in their recognition of the emperor as the legitimate authority, but all parties recognized it only so that they could advance their own interests.
@@d.n5287 You could not "install" an emperor, it was a lineage. Japan still has the same lineage of emperors since the day it was invented. The best a shogun could do was refuse an order from the emperor (who would enforce it after all) but they still maintained the image of stability.
@@amazin7006 of course but the authority was legitimate and thus the lineage had to be legitimate, but ultimately the shogun that brought the emperor to Kyoto would be the one that got the power.
anything i learn about pewdiepie has been against my will
lmfao now that I think about it, same.
you clicked on this vid though. definetly not against your will
@@idonotresidehere.5709I subscribe to Elliot not thinking that he will make a video about the P man. It showed up on my feed against my will. 😭😂
@@MagisterialVoyager ah yeah I understand. I too know very little about PewDiePie. I put on this vid thinking I would just watch for 5 mins and then go to bed but I ended up watching the whole thing and now it's after 3AM 😭
I was literally thinking that
life for sale is one of the most relatable depictions of suicidality i have ever read. i remember feeling such a strong connection to the writer, comforted by the idea that there could have been someone out there who had thought the exact things i had thought for so many years. anyways a week later i found out the author was a japanese facsist who would've absolutely hated my mixed korean ass
I know a Japanese/Korean and he said his Japanese uncle used to give him the books for his birthday. His Korean mother was not happy with this. He himself said he had no opinion on it except that he was a good writer.
Mishima wouldn't have hated you. He formed a political ideology as an extension of various philosophical studies and life experience. You don't have to agree with his opinions. I don't. But at least look at what they were. Racism was not one of them. Mishima did not view himself as part of a master race.
Your prof pic makes perfect sense with this post
@@georgepantzikis7988 " He formed a political ideology as an extension of various philosophical studies and life experience." a funny way of saying he was racist, but in a Smart Way tm.
it do be like that sometimes
Thank you for corrupting me with the knowledge of Mishima ❤ very mindful
very demure
@@elliotsangestevez I hope it's not too late, but it looks like Foreign's real name made it into the video chat footage 🙈
@@bryncheeze8970 It seems that his name is already public, the listing of his music has his name already
To hear Foreign say "I don't think I have enough spoons to deal with that", man, that's so real. (I never have enough spoons.) Always blowing me away with the compassion and knowledge about people's struggles even parallel to his own. And as ever, I love the input overall. Thank you for endeavouring to be a good person, and a great man. Cheers, big man. o7
To Elliot & Noel, not to leave y'all out, and I'm I'm not just adding on a quick, like, "oh & the rest too". I've seen so many guys who fake the funk, pretending to care about progressive causes cos it "gets chicks", and not even genuinely trying or caring about any of it. And, too, guys who aren't wh¡te nor black who fall into a very specific canal into the regressive stuff (often notably "yt supreme assist" >_> eh). Low bar, but y'all are way above that. And it's nice to see lefty guys like y'all - knowledgeable, mindful, and really trying to be sincere and caring and lead with positivity. This isn't meant to sound like a big ole ego stroke nor a parasocial essay on "my favourite CCs". I'm ace, btw, not trying to "get in" with anyone, and we're all aware of the problematic power dynamic for public figures, educators, etc. and fans, students, followers, and so on...
Y'all are great, and your work is valuable and appreciated. I guess if I didn't have ADHD, I could've just said, like, "I see your chain", but like, "I see your ongoing work to learn, educate, and improve yourselves and lead others to help to try to make positive changes in the world."
I consider that uncritically liking the ideals of the once troubled Mishima is based on commodified consciousness.
one can select to criticize the thing or not. it's part of "don't bring politics on my [area(games/movies/ and even news)]"
it's an anti-intelectual line of thought.
one can be troubled. but that doesn't justify insulting and bringing hate and damage over others. specially over women.
Boys, mans, please search for help, or try to cultivate healthy relationships and mindsets
Mishima is one of my favorite authors as well, but it's for the exact opposite reasons as PewDiePie. You CANNOT understand Mishima's work, as you said, without first understanding his life and his politics. It also requires an in-depth understanding of Japanese society during his lifetime, which was a chaotic and sometimes dangerous confluence of rapid westernization and the social repercussions of the loss of empire.
So it's hilarious to me that PewDiePie completely ignores all the implications of Mishima's writing and just goes with the "touch grass, go to gym, sun good" narrative. If anything, Mishima's books are a series of red flags that serve as an example of how men should NOT be. The misogyny is a glaring motif throughout every single one of his books, and it is intimately intertwined with his feelings about nationalism and Japanese traditional society.
Yes, Mishima's work is very interesting and even beautiful--But it's interesting because it's a complicated regurgitation of his own personal failures, and the ways in which modernization causes personal and cultural alienation. If you can't read his books through the lens of skepticism towards ultra-conservatism, then his ideas can only be interpreted as somewhat bizarre and incel-ish (unless, of course, you're a weeb incel, in which case you probably love those very same ideas).
to say that his interpretation is as simple as that, and that his loving of Mishima is as simple as that, is reductive. I don't agree with Mishima, but I understand where he was coming at with the body, and how it is a temple we must respect, instead of actively disregard for our mind's sake. This perspective can be taken, and at this point, it'd be reductive to say his relatability and wisdom is just touch grass go gym. And also, his takes on nationalism, and the samarai age are equally important and profound, which I'd imagine Felix also takes inspiration from.
@@user-pj3rk2mf9r Nah bro, just be like everyone else, you can only like things ironically
Ah, I see.
He knows. I mean look up what hos now wifes dog was called
This is how I feel about Eminem lmao
Honestly, I can't believe the heinous things this man did to his own family. For generations, all this man did was traumatize those closest to him. How do you not stop for a second to think about how your actions are impacting your loved ones? I mean killing your own wife is one thing, but then to throw your own son off a cliff, just to test his strength...
Oh wrong Mishima
Yea he a little confused but he got the right spirit tho
As a fellow Tekken enjoyer I have to wonder just how much of Japanese media (like the Mishima of Tekken) is directly inspired by the type of masculinity and fascist adjacent politic expressed in Mishima's writing. The Mishima bloodline story seems really engrained with this experience of disgust towards disease and physical power being able to overcome any and everything.
@@capnbarky2682The Mishima family is definitely inspired by him.
@@rinkohorowitz I feel a bit silly now seeing that one of the main points on Kazuya's wikipedia entry being "Kazuya's family name was taken from author Yukio Mishima,[8] who was also used a model for the character's physical appearance.[9] "
@@capnbarky2682 as a lot of people say, bushido is the root of almost all problems in japan
mishima: a let's play in four chapters
i love your stuff!
@@elliotsangestevez want to be friends now
yes pls
@@elliotsangesteveznow let's see how femenist author describe men.
@@SafavidAfsharid3197 you thought you cooked 💀
Something I find really funny is that Pewdiepie says he likes that Mishima’s sentiment that actions are more important than mere ideology but Pewdiepie is seemingly ignoring the fact that Mishima’s actions were really weird and fucked up, almost even more so than his writing. Pewdiepie seems to respect he fact that Mishima has extreme devotion to his beliefs than that his beliefs are basically evil.
Devotion is a trait worthy of respect, even if that devotion is to the worst of ideas, that fact that a person can dedicate their life to any ideal is interesting
"I have yet too meet a woman who isnt foolish" is a strange way of saying you never really interacted with women besides your traumatizing family members
Edit: spelling
Thing is that Mishima has a lot of contradictions because he praised ( a lot) Mari Mori who was one of the best japanese female writers and the creator of Boys love (yaoi) literary genre in Asia. lol
It's so interesting that patriarchal thinking needs to be so hierarchical and competitive. Your body cannot just be your body, it needs to be ranked 'better' than other men's bodies or you have not succeeded.
That's how you get progress. Veneration of the weak is how you get entropy.
@@Koba1tthat’s the issue. There will ALWAYS be someone “better” by some metric. It’s an impossible standard to hold yourself or others to, and those that chase it will destroy themselves by doing so. For example, male bodybuilders are notoriously unhealthy, even when they’re not on roids, because of their diets. They take “being healthy” to an unhealthy degree. Measuring success by striving to be the best at everything will always mean you fall short. Olympic athletes often have bodies that differ from sport to sport, like how a power lifter will look vastly different from a swimmer or boxer. It’s great to take care of yourself, but it’s asinine to put down others or constantly put yourself down to venerate some unattainable “peak”.
@virtualgambit577 "It's an impossible standard to hold yourself and others to." Whether one meets the standard is irrelevant. The standard is an object of meditation used to cultivate focus and resolve.
Fr it's so sad😂
@@zombieboy937 except, the sTaNdArD you talking about is toxic as fùçk Literally the person u replied to alr explained it yet u prefer js random pick one of their sentence n still commented the emptiest bs about it😂
hes never gonna beat the nazi allegations lmao
They like to use it for clicks, like let it go the man is……a MAN now
Большинство англоговорящего комьюнити даже не знает что такое нацизм и фашизм, вы просто раскидываетесь данным понятием. Когда в мире действительно существуют люди, которые разделяют эти отвратительные взгляды.
@@Dima32581никогда не понимала почему русскоговорящая публика так его любит. после нескольких месяцев в Москве поняла, почему
@@glupik1234 кого любит?
@@Dima32581я думаю они прекрасно знают что это за понятия. Это у нас слово расизм вообще никак не котируется, по дефолту можешь ожидать что твой рандомный знакомый расист и считает это нормой.
Dude just seemed to have constant repressed homosexual feelings. That and he seemed like he was depressed as shit.
@@sturdybutter why do you sounds like you about to touch children?
As a woman (ew, sorry) whose politics lean heavily on the left, I have to do a whole lot of mental gymnastics to be able to appreciate some of Mishimas work, but then I watch a life in four chapters and I forget about everything cause I'm a mere foolish woman and I love colours and reading is hard🌈💫
jokes aside, always find it hilarious when he's put on some sort of pedestal by self proclaimed alpha males. A whole freaky homosexual with a beautiful prose who commited seppuku? Go off queens!
I love everything about this comment
This comment will make a Victorian child disintegrate (in a positive way. … The comment, not the disintegration). 😂
bro i know this is in jest but i wish women self deprecating about how femme and stupid they are wasnt a trend, i hate it everytime i see it, this is not just about u dw
I say this in the best of praise, you should be a troll on right leaning sides of the internet they would melt 🤣
@@MagisterialVoyageroop didn’t realize we basically said the same thing lol
I do think it's objectively hilarious that man was so messed up he could come untouched just by dramatically roleplaying seppuku in front of a young man
Right??? This is why I'm obsessed with this man. A very unique type of pervert
**looks at timeline** cant wait for my 7 course meal
“[Japan] has kept political unity since the dawn of time.”
That century of near-constant civil war was a one off, clearly
To be honest as history of countries goes, Japan is a unity one
I muttered, "Mishima Yukio" before hitting play on your video. Studying Japanese lit in college with a professor who was a serious fan of the man's work (and possibly the man himself) was a trip. Everyone's in for a wild ride.
Only because Mishima spoke English and wanted to appeal to Westerners while at the same time admiring and loathing the West.
@@zeitgeistx5239 You say that, but appealing to westerners while both admiring and loathing them at the same time isn't at all uncommon, Mishima was just special. To be honest, as an European I'd say I admire and loathe the West too.
@LoreCatan as someone from the west, I too admire and loathe it
@@zeitgeistx5239 He admired the Western spirit; expansive, domineering, glorious, violent & powerful. He hated modern Western society; humbled, frail, diseased, sapped & meek. The West went from a collection of warrior-polities fighting for supremacy to a humdrum of babysitter-states racing to the bottom, and Mishima didn't want the same to happen to Japan.
@@Nykandros 😂
Mishima is proly turning around in his grave if his greatest claim to relevance not even a full century after him is him being a favourite author of a swedish letsplayer
Except he is not. He's still a popular author and well regarded. If he was some esoteric deep cut with zero standing do you think Pewdiepie would know who he was? Midwit.
"weird" is a very unusual way of spelling "japanese fascist"
holy shit shut up
@@moctezoomano u 🙄
Tbf to be a facist u have to be weird
This "fascist" as you charecterized him, in one of his famous literary story called "Patriotism" told a history of Japanese officer who REFUSED to obey an order from the millitary higher-up command and the JAPANESE EMPEROR HIMSELF to supress a rebellion against the Japanese government. Why? 'Cause the rebels were his classmates and comrades from his military academy there the hero studied. And hero refused to comply an order from the higher-ups and kill his friends from youthful ages.
Instead of that, because in understanding of Japanese he committed a dishonesty by not obeying the decree of Emperor - he committed seppuku.
Wow! That a "classic fascist" move to choose indeed! Because refusal of autocratic command to kill your own compatriots and like-minded people is indeed a faascist act to do!
A true fascist formula and totalitarian view of life from Mishima - don't obey the horrible acts of government and instead commit seppuku without killing yours frieneds!
What a *fascist* Mishima is indeed!!!
This "fascist" as you charecterized him, in one of his famous literary story called "Patriotism" told a history of Japanese officer who REFUSED to obey an order from the millitary higher-up command and the JAPANESE EMPEROR HIMSELF to supress a rebellion against the Japanese government. Why? 'Cause the rebels were his classmates and comrades from his military academy there the hero studied. And hero refused to comply an order from the higher-ups and kill his friends from youthful ages.
Instead of that, because in understanding of Japanese he committed a dishonesty by not obeying the decree of Emperor - he committed seppuku.
Wow! That a "classic fascist" move to choose indeed! Because refusal of autocratic command to kill your own compatriots and like-minded people is indeed a faascist act to do!
A true fascist formula and totalitarian view of life from Mishima - don't obey the horrible acts of government and instead commit seppuku without killing yours frieneds!
What a *fascist* Mishima is indeed!!!
I also remember pewdiepie saying that he likes jordan peterson and that he's not a right wing writer he is just misunderstood like he is so that's that
This was years ago though and it's possible that he's genuinely changed idk
OMG I REMEMBER THAT and didn't he defend some misogynist on a news show who was saying women are "less intelligent" on average when compared to men?? That stuck with me for some reason and idk why, seeing as how at the time I was very much going down the redpill pipeline at the time lol
Pewdiepie used such a big part of the old anti-sjw era of youtube, though I don't think a lot of was intentional, and a lot of it is just what happened when you grow up on the Internet, I mean he was even on friendly terms with Ben Shapiro for a while looking back it's...
@@NotD-kp3byA ton of it was intentional. Pewdie is/was friends with a lot of hardcore anti-sjw youtubers. This man is the typical dude with a Japanese fetish too. Not a fetish of the women, but of what he “needs” Japan to represent. Delusional.
He didn't know much about peterson at the time. He just read 12 rules for life, which is really just a standard self-help book. Jordan Peterson was less publicly right wing at the time.
You must have been under 13 or something, during that time Jordan Peterson was just a milk toast self help guy. His best advice for men was stop being a slob, clean your room and stop being a loser.
Anyone who came of age in the 2000's and early 10's would have heard more fouler language and to restrict that was really going against the culture of that time, so yeah pewdiepie and others would have fought against that.
Years ago I was in an internet forum where a half Japanese man living in Japan was chewing Mishima a new asshole. Had Mishima succeeded in what he attempted he would have caused a lot of problems for mixed race and non Japanese Asians in Japan. I still think about his raw vitriol against this author whenever his name is mentioned, because it comes from a real place from a rare perspective. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters is an interesting watch because the part in the movie where Mishima’s revolution is rejected by the Japanese people is haunting. It made me reconsider some of my extremist beliefs, even if I was left leaning in those. The other day I saw a video essay praising Mishima with the premise that “nerds ruined literature” with Stephen King in the thumbnail representing nerds in lit. White men who should know better keep not learning their lesson about Mishima I guess.
Edit: Yukio Mishima falls into an archetype which I call the “warrior poet” where an artist takes on the role of both creative and militaristic strongman, and if you’re a young impressionable man without a strong ethos of self discipline this can be very attractive to guys who are uncritical of Ernest Hemingway, Teddy Roosevelt macho BS and John Milius warrior poet rhetoric. I fell for John Milius warrior poet BS back in the day but as I grew older I became more aware that figureheads like Milius and Mishima to a certain extent never served in the military themselves and they glorified stuff about war which is toxic and harmful. Helping my elderly father at Bunnings Warehouse to assist him to do yard work is a far less toxic reflection of strong masculinity that actually helps out my family even if it’s not as superficially cool as sabre-rattling mall katanas.
I saw that video too. That guy is quite hyperbolic with his titles and hes a kinda unhinged dude but sometimes his videos are good. Hes basically a centrist politically but not one of those fake centrists who tend to be alt-right techbros.
what's the problem with hemingway?
Is it kino corner?
Wait, it was a literature video
@@kostajovanovic3711 the channel is write conscious if you wondered about the video
Yukio Mishima, a self professed nerd, pointing at other nerds: "fucking nerd"
not done with the vid yet, but oddly excited about more people knowing about mishima. nothing about the man is aspirational and all of his work is like "what if the most horrible gross little man in the entire word was even horribler and worser" but hes so fascinatingly weird. very interesting subject.
What a weird takeaway from his books
replying to my own damn self to add that for the LONGEST time, i misremembered that mishima set himself on fire. but no, a completely different japanese nationalist at the exact same period of time (a year beforehand) set himself on fire and mishima went "sick." (Kosaburo Eto)
@@crazypika12honestly I think the entire generation of Japanese people that was born around the height of Japanese empire and fought in world war II is completely fascinating. Like they were born into maybe like the craziest honor culture in the world since the Roman empire or some shit, but like in relatively modern times. The way that he ended his life reminds me of this horrific story I heard about the US occupation of Japan. I think the original intention is debated whether it was serious or meant to be like a weird morale boost, but the Japanese military handed out grenades on Okinawa and reminded people of the idea of death before dishonor. And so when the US military landed people started committing Mass suicides and apparently when they ran out of grenades they just started bludgeoning each other to death with sticks and rocks.
@@t_ylr One of my favorite points of history too. Love seeing how the country developed after that point.
You didnt really read anything the man wrote, did ya? Im not saying that he was perfect, od course not, but to say that there is *nothing* aspirational about him, I just cant understand. As a gay man i feel much the same things he felt, I understand him and I feel understood by him. He suffered deeply and he had a campability to affirm himself and his life despite it all, that is aspirational, regardless of his shitty politics.
I’m Japanese(found your channel through your Utada Hikaru vid way back when❤) and as an avid modern Japanese literature lover who has read most of Mishima’s work, his art truly lies (imo obv) in how beautifully he uses the Japanese language which is unfortunately very difficult to convey through different languages. Having said that I 200% agree with you when you say ‘he’s a super weird guy’😂😂😂
Hello.your Beautiful country Japan 🗾 respect
yeah its honestly such a shame when things like this happen, im brazillian and every once in a while i see a translation of old brazillian music, and while it still sounds good it really takes off the actual effect of the original play of words that is always difficult to translate. Every time something like that happens, it makes me want to known the most languages i can, to really get the nuance and beauty in each and every one of them (also, japanese is a great language, been learning it but man kanji is hard)
@@ultimateidiot2344oh wow thats so cool you’re studying Japanese! Have fun learning❤
the pain of being an editor is realizing too late and having to live with "MISsogyny"
The quote you showed written by Oe Kenzaburo regarding Yukio Mishima's persona and actions is so true . Mishima's self-identification with a typical Japanese archetype, culminating in his ritualistic seppuku while attired in uniform, can be seen as a manifestation of an over-identification with his mask. This phenomenon is reminiscent of the themes explored in the 1959 Italian film Il General Della Rovere, where the main character adopts a false identity and becomes so absorbed in it that he ultimately chooses to sacrifice himself for the cause he has taken on..
In a similar vein, Mishima's actions can be interpreted as a form of self-authentication, where he seeks to merge his individual identity with the archetype he has cultivated. This blurring of lines between reality and fantasy.
(full explanation in reply)
I really enjoyed this video through and through, you earned yourself a sub. BTW i know nothing of this mishima guy outside of this video.
The movie mentioned in the comment is "Il General Della Rovere" (1959), an Italian film directed by Roberto Rossellini. The film is a drama that tells the story of a con man, Bardone (played by Vittorio De Sica), who is mistaken for a Italian Resistance leader, General della Rovere, by the Nazis.
To survive, Bardone decides to play along and pretend to be the General, but as he becomes more deeply embroiled in the role, he begins to identify with the character and ultimately sacrifices himself to protect the Resistance.
The commenter is drawing a parallel between the themes of this film and Yukio Mishima's life. Specifically, they are highlighting the idea of self-authentication through the adoption of a persona or archetype.
In the case of the film, the main character adopts a false identity and becomes so absorbed in it that he is willing to sacrifice himself for the cause. Similarly, the commenter suggests that Mishima's actions, particularly his ritualistic seppuku, can be seen as a form of self-authentication, where he seeks to merge his individual identity with the archetype of a traditional Japanese warrior.
This blurring of lines between reality and performance is a common theme in both the film and Mishima's life. The commenter is arguing that Mishima's actions were a form of performance, where he sought to embody a certain ideal or archetype, rather than a genuine expression of himself. ( some would claims it is genuine as it's authentically occupying a social position. )
Overall, the commenter is using the film as a way to interpret and understand Mishima's actions, and to explore the idea that our identities are often constructed through performance and adherence to certain archetypes or ideals.
lmao introducing mishima as pewdiepies favourite author is so funny to me
I have to admit, Mishima’s work is really good. One of the few fiction writers that I’ve ever enjoyed.
He was a fascinatingly weird person that I first heard of when I read Bad Gays: A Homosexual History. I highly recommend their chapter on Mishima and reading Confessions of a Mask to better understand the very Freudian way he expressed his fascinations with life, death and sex.
Also, just read Bad Gays. A very good dissection of the history of problematic queers and how these pre-fascist, fascist, imperialist gays helped to mold the current “failure” of liberal queer rights. Great book and Lemmey and Miller are excellent writers.
Oh yeah, he is one of the greatest prose stylists in Japanese literature. The best English comparison I could come up with is Ford Madox Ford. But Japanese is such a different language from English in literary sensibility that it’s hard to compare to any non-Japanese writer.
Honestly, I don’t think PewDiePie even understands the writing and is more for the political aspect of Mishima.
@@loadishstone agreed, the English translations of his works are amazing. My Japanese is still at a baby level of understanding, but I assume in the original they are quite good.
His life was fascinating. And I use that term because one could also have a “morbid fascination,” which is what I think I have when it comes to Mishima’s relationship with sex, men, women, fascism and the West.
You should have brought a woman to speak and give her insight about the topic
Right? Where are the japanese and women's opinions? Its just every other race but a japanese person.
I'm pretty sure a Japanese person is going to know Mishima + he was just introducing his UA-camr buds to the guy. It's not that deep
I thought this too, well I didn’t mind his friends- I do think the video would’ve benefited from the commentary and opinions of a woman, since one of the main discussions was Mishima’s misogyny, bringing someone who is actually effected by Mishima misogynistic views, I think, would’ve brought on a more interesting perspective and would make women viewers feel less uncomfortable having to sit and listen to Mishima’s dehumanizing views of women when there is actually a women actively combatting and commentating on said views.
I´m a woman and Mishima is one of my fav authors. Ask me anything.
@@SAR-re1fxwhy?
not to be too parasocial but elliots been kinda hot lately
its not easy to pull off this type of hair imo! he werks it
@@andre-cmyk ugh the half bun ,tell me about it😌
elliot's always serving face (and hair). I'm not even attracted to men but I have eyes lol
I’d be easily delulu for him 💀
I thought the same
This kind of reminds me of people that defend Jordan Peterson on the basis that his book taught them to get their life together.
56:25 As regular Esoterica viewer, I can say that the comments under that video were definitely not normal 💀
Idk man half the comments on esoterica are pretty not normal lol. Not digging on people's spiritual experiences but they do seem to be outside the norm lol
@@wisconsinengines Yeah they're not normal but those were REALLY not normal
@wisconsinengines it's got a pretty chill "Coast to Coast AM" vibe, except the host is a little bit more academically rigorous
I really don't think you can 'seperate the art from the artist' with figures like Mishima because his art *depends* on his misogyny and fascism. Like, his art and life would be *completely* different if he didn't believe the things he did, case in point, he probably wouldn't've tried to stage a coup and kill himself.
I dislike the phrase, part of the art of the book is tied to the art that is the artist themselves.
@@Cecilia-ky3uw I was thinking about this the other day, I arrived at the conclusion that this phase is a conscious decision for the audience to choose for themselves if they want to separate the art or not.
I love Francis Bacons art. He was not a good man, and if i met him, i would've hated him. But i relate to those viseral feelings in his art. The context is also so important and a lot of why i love the art.
I think uncritically enjoying any art and having no curiosity about who made it and why is stupid.
i do think it's important to engage in art critically, and people shouldn't ALWAY shy away from art bc the artist is problematic (it is understandable if ppl feel uncomfortable engaging in it tho) and tbh if the artist is dead i think that phrase is more applicable than artists that are still alive and spreading harmful ideas
Mishima is hilarious in like many fascists that he cosplayed as a lofty warrior of some glorious past, tried to lead an insurrection, got laughed at by the guys he both admired and was horny over and tried to kill himself over that and couldn’t even do that right (the guy he asked to behead him couldn’t cut through the whole way)
😂😂😂😂😂
Fascists doing what is best, taking big fat Ls and looking like an embarrassing weirdo
jesus
Main character syndrome.
In some way I feel bad for mishima but not his western followers thinking they're going to change the tide of western civilization into their warped view of heroism.
@@redacted_vombat5742 the west is going down due to it's fragile foundations(slavery, colonisation, r*cism) and the fact that there is a d€€p state within it's most Powerful nation, the USA, who seems to have very questionable and diabolical goals...
100% he's never read anything by Mishima and is just lost in the aesthetic...
Which is kinda funny cause of his/his fanbase's (and the whole "alpha manly men" people's) homophobia.
Cause Mishima's work is very, very gay. Fascist and gay.
how is his audience homophobic? Where does this come from
he's audience are alt right dudes that can tolerate the fascist gays to a point
@@db5094these dumfuks live in their bubble.
100% you never watch Pewdiepie
@@enzky He's pretty mild for a couple of years now, feels like a foil to the 2016 one
I loved the addition of the reactions from other youtubers, but given so much of this author's work revolves around misogyny, I'm wondering why there wasn't a woman on the discourse too? I thoroughly enjoyed the video regardless haha, but I think that part could have benefited from different perspectives too :)
very fair critique! i chose to bring on folks who talk about masculinity and liberation and could potentially relate to or understand the (superficial) appeal of mishima but i would definitely love to hear people of different gender identities’ perspectives on this as well. and i do recommend meeka le fay’s video as one such example of that! i link it in the description
It's like watching one of those comedy shows with a laugh track.
🤣
The only thing I watched from PewDiePie was his old Goat Simulator videos. I'm not joking. That was literally it. I did not care for him. I just liked the funny goat game.
It's a fun game fs
Can you recommend any good videos covering Goat Simulator 3?
@@jonathantonner4263 Sorry man it was like 9 years ago I haven't kept up with the Goat Simulator lore
@@PosiWritesStories valid!
That was my thing witb the majority of channels I watched in his heyday. I stopped caring to watch him after he finished Cry of Fear, occasionally tuning in for Amnesia stories. I always was more interested in the game than the UA-camr as long as they weren't too annoying
20:04 i was saying something like this in my inner monologue as i watched. it was at the descriptions of his characters' deeds that it became glaringly obvious to me he wasn't just a traumatized man, he grew up in a really violent and misogynistic society which just potencialized the trauma
anyways gonna keep watching!
edit 1: genuinely debatable as to whether he could even be said to have had gay sex. what noah said really resonated with me: its so objectifying and violent that it's barely a desire for love and sexual unification. its violent and abusive and represents a consumption of the other without really giving yourself in the same way. even the most extreme versions of love work differently than this
At least Lovecraft fans admitt Lovecraft was an asshole
Cool fact I just found out but Ryuichi Sakamoto’s (of Yellow Magic Orchestra) dad actually helped start Mishima’s literary career
Everytime I think about a topic too hard this guy makes a video about it it's crazy.
Also the reason I've been thinking about pewdipie is bc I used to be a huge fan of his as a teenager, but then one day I suddenly didn't like him anymore and I couldn't wrap my hands around why, now as an adult it's clear why but I hate how the internet tried to gaslight me into thinking he's just a wholesome husband and dad and people who hate on him are just jealous..like this guy is just too weird and I wish I didn't waste my teenage youth watching him religiously
If this UA-cam channel ever comes out with it's own set of skeletons in the closet, it doesn't make any his criticisms any less valid.
And in the same way, it doesn't make any of your time spending enjoying game videos with PewDiePie when he was younger any less worthwhile.
IMO the thing we should be doing is cherry picking the stuff you like about a person and discarding the rest. Always be skeptical and don't ever put people on a pedestal and you'll be disappointed less.
@@markmywords3817can someone explain to me this distaste towards pewdiepie? I genuinely dont know. Like i have a basic understanding of some of the drama before but i started watching him at the start of the tseries war so i dont know much. Im just confused cus everyone talking about pewds here talks like hes been doing some nefarious the entire time and im kinda perplexed due to my lack of context
@@siri5784 IDK TBH. But I started a bit earlier when he was playing games.
Playing games is mostly uncontroversial and universally accepted by anyone... at least compared to opinion and react content.
I think the most controversial one are the na zi jokes.
But compared to Logan Paul who's into taking videos of unalived people and scamming people, pewds is mildly "cancelable" if you can call him that.
I mostly outgrew PewDiePie because life just happened and my interests changed.
But I've come to realize IRL that a cult of personality is a dangerous red flag.
@@siri5784 I’ll try to sum it up. Pewdiepie subtly nudged his audience towards alt right ideologies, and never once acknowledged this. He created an online space where alt right groups and nazis felt welcomed, knowing perfectly well that his audience consisted mainly of young teens and children. This led him to become some sort of idol for the alt right, someone they could use to spread their ideologies and dogwhistles in a veiled manner. Just think of the Christchurch shooting, when the shooter said “subscribe to Pewdiepie” before opening fire. That, to me, showed just how deeply he had become embedded in those groups. And he exposed a young, impressionable audience to all of this.
For a more detailed and science based take, I’d suggest the video “the pewdiepipeline”, it explains just how Pewdiepie played a role in the alt right pipeline.
@@papercut6020 What? How did he make nazis feel welcome? I remember they hated him when he made a nazi joke, and he apologized. About the shooting, it wasn't pewdiepie's fault that the man chose to do that
"Drake-esque stuff" SKDSJASKDHASKDJHJAJAJJJ
Something I've noticed is that gamers rally behind center or center right figures (Pewdiepie, Asmongold) as their representative/thought leader, then shift said leader's overton window just abit further to the right.
Shows just how sinister capital G "gamer" culture" really is.
If asmongold and pewdiepie are center than my god the left has truly gone to far into Totalitarianism, though policing incoming if Elon musk ever makes neurolinks a reality, Lol
@@ramoraidLmao the suggestion that someone in a fascist mass shooter's manifesto is considered centre by anyone is madness, he's an antisemite, therefore a nazi
I think that's what has happened.
@@ramoraid what does a single word of this mean
it's crazy to see the open racism in Asmongold's video covering the riots in the UK
9:33 Mishima is also the name in the video game series Tekken. It is famous for one storyline of the protagonist/antagonist fathers in the game of tossing their son, specifically on a cliff or a volcano. I wonder if the creator of the series was inspired by this man.
Mishima is probably my favorite fiction author, but he was EXCEPTIONALLY odd and extremely problematic, especially towards the end of his life.
I think a lot of people online like him because of Sun & Steel and how good the Schrader film was - and many are rightists or outright fascist which is unfortunate.
As a leftist, I think as long as you acknowledge his many issues and bad politics, there is no issue with liking him.
Also worth noting that much of his light hearted, comedic work is really good and has hardly been translated. I think that shapes how many westerners see him. "Star" is a quick, fun read and was recently translated in 2018/2019 and is way different than his darker work.
I also never liked PewDiePie or watched him (not because of politics really, more because he was kinda cringe when he streamed) and also have been an athlete, lifted, done martial arts and contact sports since I was like 11 and have always been physically very big (I'm 6'6 and 270lbs). So the whole "he taught me how to lift good" or whatever never appealed to me, so maybe that's why I approach and view Mishima differently than more "basement dweller" type right-wingers.
Also fwiw his bodybuilding training was pretty trash lol.
The late Ryuichi Sakamoto actually quite liked Mishima's work as a very progressive artist because "He was far-right, I am far-left. Both the left and the right are similar when they go extreme (彼は右翼、僕は過激な左翼でしたが、右も左も過激になると似て来るところがあるのでしょうか。)." Forbidden Colours, Sakamoto's 1983 single with David Sylvian is inspired by Mishima's 1951 novel of the same name.
@@handeggchan1057Pewds is just cryptofash and has too much to lose to go mask off.
So many brilliant authors were down right fascists, for example Borges and Pound. And pretty much most of British authors ever were sneering imperialists. Nearly all European philosophers and authors until very recently (in historical time) were white supremacists.
As a leftist who studies literature, the list of unproblematic, committed socialist authors, is much shorter than the list of right wingers.
@@cfromnowhere Another commenter said his father helped start Mishima's literary career. I think that's why he looked to him in a good light.
I'm a trans woman and I got to say that this video really made me think about some things. I really hate my body a lot of the time even though I love being a woman and I love being trans. The sorta elaboration on what beauty is in fascist society and how it changes the way people think about their bodies really struck a chord with me. It's made me think about how much social fascism has dictated the way I think about my body, my lack of muscles, my asymmetries.
I am also a writer, and I write about female masculine revolutionaries a lot. This video made me reflect, made me compare and constrast the way I write a masculine, female martyr with this weird ultra right views on masculinity and modernity, made me think about where my ideals on masculinity differ as a communist and as a lesbian, and where they've almost *intersected* due to myself being raised under the boot of this body fascist ideology.
Thanks for this. Sharing it with everyone I know.
Social Fascism, jesus lord. Can we just say social expectations?
@@Cecilia-ky3uw i mean she is a writer and a communist, so being flowery with words is part of the course lol
@@ultimateidiot2344 yes bit sincerely this genuinely fucks with people's minds
@@Cecilia-ky3uw I don't really understand what the problem is, sorry? It's a phrase that was basically said in the latter half of the video, when they were talking about body expectations under fascism? Social fascism as in the form of toxic social relations that legitimate fascism cultivates?
@@clara-raxxa fascism is ill-defined, it's a point that's been made many times, but stop devaluing it by applying it to the moreso mundane. Social expectations has a clearer meaning, is less tied to other things and is also definitionally more independent. Besides if I remember my reading correctly social fascism actually refers to social democracy.
I'm a gym rat and I can't say I find Mishima's work very motivating. It feels like it comes from a place of negative, to work out to not feel like bad, to not let your body rot, to not look soft. From personal experience and I even think scientific evidence, this negative outlook severely hampers one's progression at whatever endeavor they are trying. Its doesn't even do what you want it to do.
Also I find Banes words from the dark Knight more motivating lmao. I just replace darkness with pain and recall those words while going for a heavy set lol.
This was excellent and well-read, Elliot. I had the privilege of taking a course on East Asian literature taught by the same professor teaching the capstone Japanese course at my university. I loved his selections, and part of the course was a very nuanced handling of Mishima's legacy. I found it ultimately impossible not to like the quality of Mishima's prose, which reminds me in many ways of one of his own favorite authors, Georges Bataille--on whom he has produced writing I genuinely enjoy.
But there is no author that it benefits one to read without a certain critical distance, and Mishima makes an especially obvious case for this. It's genuinely bizarre to see him whitewashed more impressively than he managed to manifest in his own way. I think you've captured very well with this video the crux of what there is to learn from reading from and about the man. The events of his life and his works of writing and film are suffused with suffering hidden behind an illusory patina of idealized masculinity, rationalizations of trauma and his feelings of ineptitude that have crystallized into a very pure and typical reactionary ressentiment.
The question he really leaves us with is not of whether his ideals were noteworthy--they were and are obviously not--but of how a society produces Yukio Mishima. The expectation of self-repression so deeply ingrained in him that it shapeshifted into his every desire, aesthetically, libidinally, and terminally. As if it were a coping mechanism to deal with his horrific upbringing, Mishima depicted his self-loathing and its outward projection as the utmost noble suffering (or the utmost sincerity, if we follow his unsubtle directorial choice) and it made him disdainful of others' honest struggles, which he perceived as weakness and imperfection.
My professor characterized Mishima's death by saying that many understand the event to be less of an attempt to leave a mark on Japan's political history as much as it is an extreme moment of mental masturbation. Like many fascists, his political views were ultimately completely unserious; but they were maybe the result of an over-rationalization of his insecurities or, as Foreign Man indicated, of that lifelong attempt to "fix himself" by attaching to an ideal rather than acknowledging his need for the messy and necessary process of being a person. I think that Mishima is worth studying--with a properly maintained critical distance of his ideas, of course--specifically because his personal transformations can teach us much about the people like him, at risk of conflating their own misery with ideology and becoming reactionary, identifying with and idealizing their self-repression instead of questioning it and seeking emancipation from it.
I don't think PewDiePie is a vehement political fascist, partly because he is too recluse and rich to care that much about politics. However he is definitely aesthetically and temperamentally a fascist; in the sense that he is one of those men who have a fetish for power but simultaneously crave allegiance.
Mr, get a grip on reality and watch what he's doing nowadays, he's just a chill family man with childish-edgy tendencies.
How in the fk did you arrive to this conclusion without projecting your own views to him...
i disagree, i think he was a part of the alt right pipeline (specially a couple of years ago), but he doesnt seem like the type of guy that has a fetish for power, he seems like a fairly normal guy, probably even a lib
you have to be delusional
@@Cecilia-ky3uw See how I said he wasn't a political fascist ? He's probably just a lib who's slightly reactionary like the median European. I'm talking about his aesthetic sensibility and the way he raves about people that used to die for a cause. I'm not referring to a political compass type description and I thought that was pretty clear...
27:57 --> Foreign saying "I genuinely don't know if I'll ever recover from this. I mean like, I don't even think I have the spoons to even deal with that." just twenty-eight minutes into this hour and twenty-two minutes video is so damn funny 🤣🤣🤣And also doesn't bode well for me ...
I hope this comment doesn’t get lost, but I want to say that I’ve read more than 5 Mishima books and they’re beautiful works of art. Art is powerful and being creative can be a weapon. His attempt to realize his ideas through military means failed, but his horrible ideas continue to influence people because they’re beautifully executed. Mishima s work is enjoyable and relatable on very human levels. It’s important to be critical of art beyond our own enjoyment because art is made to make us feel and emotions sometimes make us forget to question things.
You shouldn't question art for it's intentions you should question it solely as art in itself. Art is not about ideology it's about making heard the misunderstood parts of human existence and experience. And about beauty
@@santiagomm3878 no that's a way to escape your own responsiblity and pretend art exists in a vacuum.
@@katy2176-p3m you don't have responsibility when viewing art. Art is ultimately made to enjoy or to reflect upon, not necessarily as a call to act even if it's political
@@santiagomm3878 you do have a responsibility if said art spreads toxic or bad ideas to think critically - if you think art is about turning off your brain then I don’t think you really appreciate art
@@katy2176-p3m what I said is exactly the opposite of being mindless. It's judging art for what it is and criticizing it, not acting out without thinking or appreciating what was written trying to censor it
That kind of perspective is what leads to mindless consumption
At least you gotta think before you say something stupid
As someone who lives in Japan I still see that Mishima is still wierdly revered by some. The idea of Mishima's end (su****e) as well isn't quite as negative as it probably should be. It still the choice for far too many people in the country. People who don't get into a certain school or get a certain job might do it because they feel they dishonored/failed their family. Others might do it to escape the monotonous every day routine (Working 8-12 hours a day for some guy that lives in dubai, going home to sleep 5 hours, then waking up and doing it again). And there are many more who have depression/adhd/autisum etc but are undiagnosed because a huge portion of japan still doesnt believe that these things exist. They usually just believe if you're depressed, its just because you arent trying hard enough...
thank you for this insight!
Learn proper English first
@@user-jk6ed9ux1t サンキュウーフォアユアメッセージ、またレッツスピークアゲイン。
@@user-jk6ed9ux1t I'm not sure about you buddy but i could understand everything that the OP wrote. Maybe you don't like what's being said, which is different.
@user-jk6ed9ux1t "Write me a proper full-fledged paragraph at this instance, you imbecile! The internet was obviously created for english speaking intellectuals like me, and I absolutely refuse to read anything that doesn't meet my standards in grammatical sucess! So, while I use english poorly (forgetting punctuation, etc.), I will be demanding you to adhere to the writing level of a proper academic. Thank you for understanding..."
He died dressed like Captain Crunch.
We about to eat good
we all know by context clues pewdiepie is a conservative or agrees with some of conservative values
an oddly perfectly timed video- i spent this summer reading 3 of Mishima’s novels. i also found his work by chance, picking up confessions of a mask because i thought the synopsis sounded interesting. his books have captured me for the writing style and interesting meditation on death/sex/the body, but they have also been some of the most uncomfortable reads of my life for many reasons. i don’t see a way to read his work and not pick up on the fascism + misogyny unless you are deliberately turning your eye to it.
there is a deep fascination i have with his books and his life at large, almost like not being able to look away from a car crash. great synthesis of his life and analysis of his views, a really great watch!
pewdiepie is a weird little man, i kinda figured this out from FMIAFL’s video. but this is also super duper weird 😭 also mishima’s story is so interesting to me, it’s so odd that i haven’t heard of him before.
Who’s video id love to watch
@@CuntyFernandoAlonso foreignmaninaforeignland
1:08:35 Funniest misunderstandings I've seen was when a random gymbro on my feed used the lyrics "Shut up, count your calories" from the song "Prom Queen" to, you know, literally say "count your calories". And the fact that he ignored the context is honestly hilarious.
most people are ignorant and confidently so. It's the root of all conflict.
It's okay to be gay.
it'd be interesting if Elliot literally said the same thing. oh, wait, he did.
Of course, he was sincere when he said it
It's ok to be Takei
The way you talk about Mishima here reminds me of Lovecraft: a deeply influential writer with a traumatic childhood who hid from their deep insecurities in old-school fascist ideology, Mishima idolizing Imperial Rule and Lovecraft idolizing Victorian scientific racists and Imperialism.
In France the neo nazis tend to love Mishima, they were fascinated by him. I saw that when I was a teen, And I'm 52 years old now ...
At the time all I could see in Mishima was a sad pitiful insignificant person (who wanted to have big muscles and big strong legs ... true story).
You remind me of elf senshi in the best way
12:53
"If this beautiful knight was a woman and not a man, what was there left?"
😂😂😂
What a loser
"The bugman pretends to be motivated by compassion, when in truth he is motivated by a titanic hatred of the well turned out and beautiful"
does this refer to Mishima or Elliott
@@dressigvil Almost certainly Elliott
I cant believe people still think Felix isnt far right in his politics. Like genuinely, how???
You have no idea how far people will go for their “fav”
But why do you care? Is he preaching his views on his audience and trying to covert people i don't get why this is such a big deal?
@@toxinvine239 He literally had Ben Shapiro in a video
@@metallsnubben 1. I don't know who at really is I heard of him I don't really know what he's about. But which video is it and what's the context
@@toxinvine239lmao please recuse yourself from this conversation Shapiro is a nationalist far right weirdo and platforming him without pushing back against what he’s saying is the same as agreeing with him
Well done with Japanese name and word pronunciation in the video. It's rare that youtubers actually do the work for that.
Mishima with Joan of Arc is like some people discovering Samus Aran is a girl at the end of Metroid.
Its giving sukuna is his own warning tag on AO3
Ōshima Nagisa’s 1971 film The Ceremony follows a formerly aristocratic Japanese family in the aftermath of World War Two and how its war criminal patriarch enacts cruelty on its younger members by demanding strict adherence to traditions and his word. It’s a film that I always associate with Mishima in my mind. It does a fantastic job both providing a sense of context regarding such upper-class family attitudes and also exploring the wake of destruction and suffering such attitudes perpetrate. It’s an interesting look at fascism reproduced via the family system.
bro is Eren Yeager
Historically, people would use clothing to protect their skin from the sun or parasols. They didn't have the skin cancer link, but they did know sunburn hurt.
Wow. I am surprised that so many would publicly endorse Mishima. His perspective is so transparently toxic and problematic.
Dostoievski, Faulkner, Ezra Pound, TS Eliot, Thomas Mann so on so on.
I think that the best writers are "problematic", obviously Mishima is special but not out of the box
Picking up Sun and Steel in the bookshop and being like "oh cool a Samurai story!"
The surrogate audience idea is really fun!
I've been a long time pewdiepie content consumer and I would say pewds has been rather apolitical in his content for most of the time unless it suited for some edgy joke he was making at the time (i.e. only in a joking fashion). But the whole vibe is that, I mean, if someday it came to light that he has right leaning political ideals, I wouldn't be surprised
i think the gym bro toxic masculinity is so hard to unpack because it's so rooted in our society even kendrick lamar wants you to do push ups on your lunch break
Yukio Mishima did NOT create a military, there was no accompanying state 😳😳
Yes I'd like to hear of your military that you made
i started to hate pewdiepie back in 2018 where he was making fun of a poor old lady having a mental breakdown at an airport, who was clearly distressed
I used to be a big fan of pewdiepie way back and I was a right leaning edgy teen then. After I stopped watching I grew up and moved to the left but I would still watch his videos sometimes as I thought he matured and assumed that he grew from that era, but obviously not as much as I would have hoped. As a Chinese person especially it is extremely disappointing to see him engage with content from far right Japanese figures and promote them, although it’s unsurprising now as more and more of people that I look up to(not as much pewdiepie in this case but this is just an example) reveal themselves to be dissapointing in this aspect.
Imagine thinking gobbling up whatever opinions from grifters counts as maturity.
I’m not surprised he’s into an edgy fascist. I’m kinda surprised that he reads high lit.
My favorite author is H.P Lovecraft, even if he was a crazy racist that doesn't mean that he didn't change the game for horror literature
PewDiePie is NOT cutesy, NOT mindful, and NOT demure 😡👎
I read Forbidden Colors as a teenager in 1983 along with other queer authors such as Gore Vidal and James Baldwin. It was not easy to find this kind of represenation then so we took what we could get although some things might be flawed.
I originally learned about Mishima from an offhand joke in a BL anime and went down the rabbit hole reading about him. Very cool and interesting guy, you won't often find people quite like that. Definitely recommend checking his stuff out at least once.
I enjoy that the video explores the paths that lead to these ideas instead of just immediate condemnation of something as bad and too dangerous even to analyse. Overall a good video and enjoyable too.
Mishima Yukio is endlessly fascinating to me and is very important to japanese literature, but I do not find him admirable at. Bro was H.P Lovecraft tier
at all*
Hmm G Gordon Liddy used to be my neighbor when I was a kid. I remember my mother coming in from a walk talking about how he pulled a gun out on her and her friend for coming too close to his house. My mother was bit of an exaggerator so I don't know if that that really happened or not, but the whole family had to hear about it over and over again for a year so the entire scene is etched vividly into my brain as if I were actually there. smhs
Over an hour??? ❤❤❤
Okay so it seems to me that Pewdiepie liked the idea of devoting yourself to your ideals and that working out / touching grass is good for you. H. P. Lovecraft was a giant racist and people still love his works. I find it troubling that this video tries so hard to link him to fascism when I can't even think of a moment where he has said anything even slightly fascist, and the video doesn't point to one either. The dude did say the n-word and he did do the edgy sign holding thing, but for how much of his life has been catalogued on the internet those two moments years ago defining his personality seems like a stretch. He just seems like a fairly normal dude who works out and plays video games. Some random fan out of millions becoming a mass shooter doesn't mean Pewdiepie has ever advocated for fascist ideals himself. Again I can't think of any bad moments outside of those two. Maybe there are, but I don't know them.
Also side-note as a med student: Due to a lot of misinformation and corpo politics the general public can't truly be expected to make the healthy choices. I agree. But we probably should strive to make healthy choices and we should celebrate when people manage to do so. I like to believe that everyone, on the individual level, has the capacity to make positive change even if society does its best to push calorically dense food and a sedentary lifestyle. Nobody should look down on someone for being fat, but the truth is that when your weight starts going higher it is coupled with a higher morbidity and it is in everyone's best interest to be fit.
"I can't even think of a moment where he has said anything even slightly fascist"
- racial slurs
- "kill all j*ws"
- "the sun is black"
- characterizing Mishima as merely "controversial"
More importantly, the video literally says that pewdiepie probably doesn't think much about fascism. You did not watch it.
You’ve got that in praise of shadows look about you
Damn, foreign man in a foreign land is so insightful.
I never had such a good grasp on the psychoanalytic relation between sex and death than when I learned about Mishima.
Gotou from original japanese Shin Megami Tensei 1 in SNES (Persona was a spin-off to this series) pictures him as a radical, who overthrew the government and serves as the national, martial leader of the Japanese government and military, along with using Terminals to summon demons and return to ancient gods, working alongside them. He was based on Mishima. This being used against the US occupying force lead by Ambassador Thorman (Who's disguised as an agent of YHVH, AKA God), who are planning to use ICBMs to end the demonic invasion on Japan.
The ICBMs hit and both are killed, but before that, a resistance movement within Japan, lead by a woman, which Gotou had captured every woman and elementary school girl by that same name into his prison, even if he tried to assure to you personally to try to appeal to his side, that he paid no mind to them. I feel like it may have been another nod to his writings.
"ethnically homogeneous and unilingual" I think a few folk might argue in opposition to that...
"The rhetoric is a costume for the inherent insecurity of the reactionary.". Very nice. I'll be stealing that.
There was a great movie made about Mishima by Paul Schrader-best known for writing Taxi Driver, and more recently for making the Ethan Hawke film First Reformed-and the joke has always been has always been that, had Mishima not already existed, Schrader would have invented him.
Also: ELLIOT WHIT THE PALESTINO SHIRT
pewdiepie himself is weird