I didn't wanna get involved because god damn that was a massive thread, but it does get me thinking: does fictional media have any influence in the things that people do?
I say yes, if only because the left has been programmed through the Long March through both fictional and nonfictional media, hundreds of shows, etc, and the impact of fictional media on people should be quite obvious, considering we boycott shows for being woke and whatnot, but I guess what I’m trying to ask is how much of an influence is it, and is it worth regulating, why or why not?
I know people on both aspects of that whole loli debate, I know people who like lolis that have had to report people to the cops for pedo shit, and I know a loli lover who admitted to “guiding” someone through their transition, so I can’t say that I really have my own opinion on it tbh, I just think that the issue is gonna come up at some point because if society ever does come back to normal, we’re gonna have to deal with “the people who were trying to enduce my child into transitioning watch these weird Japanese cartoons and the weird Japanese cartoons have depictions of young kids in sexual situations”.
/u/Steampunk_Moustache actually brought up something that I honestly never thought about, and well, maybe they can explain it better here than in that chaotic mess of a thread. What exactly makes art so different? Like it was mentioned several times that anime characters look nothing like actual people (which very much depends on the anime and is not a universal thing), but imo, a human is still a human, so does that matter that much? Like I can go on Twitter or Insta and go searching for a few hundred cosplay girls that either naturally have anime girl bodies or got work done for it, but is it just the literal art styles you’re talking about? I’m gonna stop rambling and let this thread be the thread, as I wanna see this discussion.
The loli debate usually goes that bad IF it's not approached directly. I have noticed on a post I did in the past, an Archcast I watched discussing it and even here that if you address it directly, it does keep out the bad faith ones that just scream pedo at you than trying to discuss the topic.
Now on your first point, does fictional media affect people, yes. It can be inspirational, a form or escapism but more importantly it can be used to explore real life issues with the safety net of being fictional. If the material relates to you on a personal level it can be a form of catharsis for the individual which they can easily disengage from if it begins to be distressing by falling back on it being fictional. An example of this is the Rebuild of Evangelion films as it can easily be taken as giant robots fighting monsters but if you've ever suffered from depression, the themes and story REALLY connects to you. Both elements of the right and left cannot understand this safety net which is why fictional content gets attacked from both sides of the political spectrum.
This is why the left's involvement in fiction is so destructive, they are removing the safety net fictional content had to make it 'more relatable to them'. Without it, their version of fiction becomes nothing more than an infomercial on 'why the left is right'. As for regulation, it should not be regulated and it's dangerous to allow any government to do so. It's self regulated thanks to the markets as we see currently, western fiction that is ideologically contaminated is losing consumers while Asian, mostly Japanese fiction is becoming more an more popular. The market itself age gates it's content because why would it want to give kids adult material they can't fully understand when they can give them age appropriate content they'll want to tell their parents to buy merchandise of.