Exposing the Grift: Go Woke Go Broke

[Blayt7hh]

that' historian is bulshitting with the "there is no question he wasn't a samurai" part. fuck yeah there's questions. all he did in his explanation was mention that Nobunaga gave that guy a house a sword and a stipend. he gave the same, as Toranaga, to Anjin in Shogun, and that guy was never a samurai. it's a bullshit conclusion that comes from his interpretation. it not FACT for one second.

and that kazuma guy you quoted last, check out his articles - he writes only culture war horseshit. colonialism in japan, how gay are some game characters, etc.

William Adam’s, the real life Anjin, was made a hatomoto. So yes he was a samurai, and a high ranking one at that.

 

[Flower2dPeople]

William Adam’s, the real life Anjin, was made a hatomoto. So yes he was a samurai, and a high ranking one at that.

DEI Samurai.

 

[Nizam al-Mulk]

So, it’s true that we can’t say with 100% certainty that he was a Samurai. That is because no written record of his title exists today. So if the “expert” they consulted said that he was unquestionably a samurai, they’re wrong and probably lying for simplicities sake.

What we do know about him is he was Oda’s retainer, he was granted swords, and he was granted a stipend. All things that are exclusive to samurai’s of the era. So we can say that he almost certainly was named a samurai. The fact that an exact record showing it is not so surprising. These events were over 400 years ago today and would have belonged to one of the clans that did not end up winning the civil war.

Culturally it is also true that modern Japan today considers him to have been a samurai. He’s appeared in many, many games movies and anime’s as a samurai. I say all of this as a lifelong samurai fanboy. I knew who Yasuke was long before this silly controversy

In the 2023 Oda Nubunaga biography which was an important movie for a historic Japanese movie studio he did not.

He was probably more important than a samurai the same way the King of Ethiopia did not let go of the first white dude that visited his kingdom.

 

[Fox by the Sea]

William Adam’s, the real life Anjin, was made a hatomoto. So yes he was a samurai, and a high ranking one at that.

He was a samurai the same way Hasbulla is close to the MMA world.
A curiosity.

 

[WhiteMousse]

I made a thread that was somewhat related to this. It's since become a wasteland of fingerpointing and idea-skirting. I'll say here what I said there.

I don't think that the word "Woke" is usually helpful in these discussions because it's unfocused and it can be applied or peeled off at will depending on who is talking. It's better to identify specific things within a work and explain why they take issue. And I'll go a step further, probably to the chagrin of people who lean right-- I don't care if a game or movie is "woke", or is based on, or possesses, leftist ideology. I care if it's good. I think Baldur's Gate III is a perfect example of a work that is at least left-leaning, and it was fantastic. I don't think I'd call The Last of Us II woke, but a lot of people did and they were enraged, and then disappointed when it did very well. And if someone wants to make a game that is just chock-full of leftist ideas, they should be allowed to do that without being hassled. Free expression of ideas needs to be paramount here.

My issue is two-pronged. Ham-fisting ideology of any kind into a cinematic work or game runs the risk of ruining it because you're creating the work along the guidelines of whatever ideology you espouse. You're going to make decisions and either insert or omit content based on that ideology. That's not to say it can't be done successfully, but a lot of times it's not. Then what you have is a sub-par production, and you're met with accusations that the reason it failed is because you went "woke". That's a half-truth. It's not that it's woke, it's that it was politically motivated at the expense of the product. The fact that it's happening more often with games that lean left is a function of more left-leaning people being in the industry, not the leftism itself. There are right-leaning productions that do very poorly too. I think I can just mention those Christian-based movies and that part of the discussion is settled.

The second and much bigger problem is when people from large organizations, primarily those in journalism, attempt to use their weight to stifle, ban or otherwise censor the voices of those who reject such movies, shows or games. A company whose service is fine-tuning video game narratives and inclusion called "Sweet Baby Inc" got its shit pushed in when they tried to get a single guy banned for creating a Steam group that identified and listed games associated with the company for those who wish to avoid or boycott them. They also got the game journalism company "Kotaku" to outright lie and say that this guy and his group started a "hate campaign" against the company. Boycotting a company is not a hate campaign. Starting a group that identifies, criticizes and avoids games involving said company is not a hate campaign. Trying to get a person banned and his Steam group dismantled, and trying to use the force of journalism pursuant to that goal is harassment.

In the midst of all this is people talking past each other. We got people magnifying images to single out a trans flag that's a simple easter egg, and others claiming that the term "DEI" is the same as the N-word.

Adding to this is the issue of YouTubers searching for any conceivable occurrence of leftist doctrine and magnifying it in order to farm clicks and comments. I get a kick out of the 90 IQ people spamming their word of the week, "grifter" but there are absolutely people who don't really care about these things, only about their own algorithm and pocket. They farm these guys 24/7 and probably get a little worried whenever a few days go by and nothing big has happened.

 

[Blayt7hh]

He was a samurai the same way Hasbulla is close to the MMA world.
A curiosity.

Factually incorrect. He was made a samurai because he had a special skillset and knowledge that no one in Japan had. Tokugawa used that to his benefit.

What is happening here is you have a preconceived notion of what being a samurai meant. For you it means a guy in armor fighting in the battlefield. But they were a lot more than that. Tokugawa had like 100,000 samurai he could use for that purpose. He had 1 William Adams that could do the things Adams could do. So no Adams was not going to be charging into battle, but he held the literal title and was respected as such.

White people would not have been a curiosity to someone like Tokugawa at that point. Christians had been trading in Japan for almost 50 years at that point. While a commoner wouldn’t haven’t seen them often, someone like Tokugawa would have. How many of those were made hatomoto?

 

[Fox by the Sea]

Factually incorrect. He was made a samurai because he had a special skillset and knowledge that no one in Japan had. Tokugawa used that to his benefit.

What is happening here is you have a preconceived notion of what being a samurai meant. For you it means a guy in armor fighting in the battlefield. But they were a lot more than that. Tokugawa had like 100,000 samurai he could use for that purpose. He had 1 William Adams that could do the things Adams could do. So no Adams was not going to be charging into battle, but he held the literal title and was respected as such.

White people would not have been a curiosity to someone like Tokugawa at that point. Christians had been trading in Japan for almost 50 years at that point. While a commoner wouldn’t haven’t seen them often, someone like Tokugawa would have. How many of those were made hatomoto?

This is what dudebros online will say about hasbulla 400 years from now lmao

 

[Blayt7hh]

This is what dudebros online will say about hasbulla 400 years from now lmao

You’re out of your depth on this topic. Instead of listening and maybe doing a little of research of your own, you’re deciding to stick to your guns. Embarrassing. That’s why you don’t have any actual rebuttals.

 

[Fox by the Sea]

You’re out of your depth on this topic. Instead of listening and maybe doing a little of research of your own, you’re deciding to stick to your guns. Embarrassing. That’s why you don’t have any actual rebuttals.

You don't have to be this upset

 

[Nizam al-Mulk]

I made a thread that was somewhat related to this. It's since become a wasteland of fingerpointing and idea-skirting. I'll say here what I said there.

I don't think that the word "Woke" is usually helpful in these discussions because it's unfocused and it can be applied or peeled off at will depending on who is talking. It's better to identify specific things within a work and explain why they take issue. And I'll go a step further, probably to the chagrin of people who lean right-- I don't care if a game or movie is "woke", or is based on, or possesses, leftist ideology. I care if it's good. I think Baldur's Gate III is a perfect example of a work that is at least left-leaning, and it was fantastic. I don't think I'd call The Last of Us II woke, but a lot of people did and they were enraged, and then disappointed when it did very well. And if someone wants to make a game that is just chock-full of leftist ideas, they should be allowed to do that without being hassled. Free expression of ideas needs to be paramount here.

My issue is two-pronged. Ham-fisting ideology of any kind into a cinematic work or game runs the risk of ruining it because you're creating the work along the guidelines of whatever ideology you espouse. You're going to make decisions and either insert or omit content based on that ideology. That's not to say it can't be done successfully, but a lot of times it's not. Then what you have is a sub-par production, and you're met with accusations that the reason it failed is because you went "woke". That's a half-truth. It's not that it's woke, it's that it was politically motivated at the expense of the product. The fact that it's happening more often with games that lean left is a function of more left-leaning people being in the industry, not the leftism itself. There are right-leaning productions that do very poorly too. I think I can just mention those Christian-based movies and that part of the discussion is settled.

The second and much bigger problem is when people from large organizations, primarily those in journalism, attempt to use their weight to stifle, ban or otherwise censor the voices of those who reject such movies, shows or games. A company whose service is fine-tuning video game narratives and inclusion called "Sweet Baby Inc" got its shit pushed in when they tried to get a single guy banned for creating a Steam group that identified and listed games associated with the company for those who wish to avoid or boycott them. They also got the game journalism company "Kotaku" to outright lie and say that this guy and his group started a "hate campaign" against the company. Boycotting a company is not a hate campaign. Starting a group that identifies, criticizes and avoids games involving said company is not a hate campaign. Trying to get a person banned and his Steam group dismantled, and trying to use the force of journalism pursuant to that goal is harassment.

In the midst of all this is people talking past each other. We got people magnifying images to single out a trans flag that's a simple easter egg, and others claiming that the term "DEI" is the same as the N-word.

Adding to this is the issue of YouTubers searching for any conceivable occurrence of leftist doctrine and magnifying it in order to farm clicks and comments. I get a kick out of the 90 IQ people spamming their word of the week, "grifter" but there are absolutely people who don't really care about these things, only about their own algorithm and pocket. They farm these guys 24/7 and probably get a little worried whenever a few days go by and nothing big has happened.

Left and right is simplistic hogwash, it's like saying baddies and goodies.

 

[AWilder]

You don't have to be this upset

Lmao, still not a rebuttal.

 

[Blayt7hh]

You don't have to be this upset

I’m not upset. Im pointing out that you’re behaving like a clown.

I was being respectful at first and just stating the facts assuming you simply didn’t know the information. Clearly you didn’t know the information and that is fine. But then you go on to act like the jackass you are

 

[panamaican]

Factually incorrect. He was made a samurai because he had a special skillset and knowledge that no one in Japan had. Tokugawa used that to his benefit.

What is happening here is you have a preconceived notion of what being a samurai meant. For you it means a guy in armor fighting in the battlefield. But they were a lot more than that. Tokugawa had like 100,000 samurai he could use for that purpose. He had 1 William Adams that could do the things Adams could do. So no Adams was not going to be charging into battle, but he held the literal title and was respected as such.

White people would not have been a curiosity to someone like Tokugawa at that point. Christians had been trading in Japan for almost 50 years at that point. While a commoner wouldn’t haven’t seen them often, someone like Tokugawa would have. How many of those were made hatomoto?

I think that's an important point that people don't realize about samurai. How often the title applied to people who had civil service jobs in the government.

 

[Fox by the Sea]

I’m not upset. Im pointing out that you’re behaving like a clown.

I was being respectful at first and just stating the facts assuming you simply didn’t know the information. Clearly you didn’t know the information and that is fine. But then you go on to act like the jackass you are

not reading another post about hasbulla

 

[Blayt7hh]

not reading another post about hasbulla

“Hey everyone look at me! Give me attention!”

 

[Fox by the Sea]

“Hey everyone look at me! Give me attention!”

ok, i'll give you some attention if you shut up about it.
get under the table.

 

[Hog-train]

So, it’s true that we can’t say with 100% certainty that he was a Samurai. That is because no written record of his title exists today. So if the “expert” they consulted said that he was unquestionably a samurai, they’re wrong and probably lying for simplicities sake.

What we do know about him is he was Oda’s retainer, he was granted swords, and he was granted a stipend. All things that are exclusive to samurai’s of the era. So we can say that he almost certainly was named a samurai. The fact that an exact record showing it is not so surprising. These events were over 400 years ago today and would have belonged to one of the clans that did not end up winning the civil war.

Culturally it is also true that modern Japan today considers him to have been a samurai. He’s appeared in many, many games movies and anime’s as a samurai. I say all of this as a lifelong samurai fanboy. I knew who Yasuke was long before this silly controversy

Ok but I still maintain it's tone deaf having a black guy be the main protagonist in feudal Japan killing a bunch of Japanese people. With a backdrop of hip hop music to boot.

 

[Blayt7hh]

Ok but I still maintain it's tone deaf having a black guy be the main protagonist in feudal Japan killing a bunch of Japanese people. With a backdrop of hip hop music to boot.

That is actually a different discussion and one that I am sympathetic to. A lot of AC fans have clamored for a game to be set in Japan for a long time. They obviously wanted to be a Japanese dude romping through the era that inspired the AC gameplay. So yeah I totally get that.

It is tone deaf. To the people that are disappointed with it, I would suggest they just don’t buy the game. Assassin’s Creed games have been mediocre and played out for a long time. Much better games can scratch the same itch, including the far, far superior Ghost of Tsushima. I’m not buying the game. I agree it looks like trash.

I was just weighing in on the historical legitimacy of him. But like I said with William Adams in that conversation I was having with that waste of space fox sea, even though Yasuke probably was a samurai no he was not wading into battle.

 

[GreatSaintGuillotine]

Ok but I still maintain it's tone deaf having a black guy be the main protagonist in feudal Japan killing a bunch of Japanese people. With a backdrop of hip hop music to boot.

It matches a bunch of media surrounding Yasuke that Japan has produced before. They apparently love them some Yasuke

 

[WhiteMousse]

i’ve only seen a few choice cuts from tos & likely even less of the tos movies, so i have no dog in this one

I've seen TOS so many times I look like this