Why do people become manchildren? Why do they read genre fiction, play video games, watch Star Trek and anime, cosplay?

Why do people become manchildren? Why do they read genre fiction, play video games, watch Star Trek and anime, cosplay?
How does modern philosopher explain it?

Social
Economic
Political

We live in a ridiculous time. You can make a lot of money, a lot of friends, be fashionable, all by being yet another out-of-shape failed indie dev who's wife bought them Minecraft for mowing the lawn

No father figures or meaningful role models

>the girl in the gas mask could be me

Why do you wear the mask?

Why do you care?
None of the activities you described are wrong (except for anime), but if someone plays video games, watches Star Trek, and works 9-5 I see no problem with it.

so my face couldn't be seen, but also because I'm "quirky"
that's not actually me, of course

>He posted it again

they post in the sci-fi fantasy thread too.

its all americas fault btw, you see any culture (from 1980 and back, not in the current amerimutted globalized world) and they had their outcasts and loners, but they werent such freak shows, such retardedly inept socially, or so repulsive to the sight. thank you america.

Manchildren aren't a thing.

>Why do they read genre fiction, play video games, watch Star Trek and anime, cosplay?

Because they find it enjoyable.

>mindless consumerism isnt wrong
dude

>thinks he's above it all while coming to a place festered with that kind of demographic

Fear of the future makes the modern man regress into infantile hobbies. It's not even wrong, it's a decent coping mechanism.

Provide a strong argument against consumerism, I’ll wait.
In the mean time, I’ll produce a strong argument for it.
>The biggest problem in the US is obesity

its terrible. these arent infantile hobbies. the hobby is a very recent thing, its a consumerist catch where they could get younger and younger consumers caught into the market via their parents. kids used to play with cloth dolls for years, sticks, stones, etc. they made their own toys most of the time. nowadays kids arent worth shit, theyre useless and very uncreative, or they are (((creative))) (as in, they make a stormtrooper(tm) mask with gum).

>Provide a strong argument against consumerism
it produces depressed fuckups. as a whole, society suffers.

It's an easy, readymade identity for insecure people to latch on to.

What about mindful consumerism? If I think deeply about video games

>even mentioning video games
dropping you as a person. anyone else wants to debate?

Because it’s fun and a quick release of dopamine. Also video games are art

>It produces depressed fuck-ups
No, it doesn’t. The only thing that produces depressed fuck-ups is fucking up. A king from the 1500’s would kill to be in the position the middle-class American is in now.
>Society, as a whole, suffers.
Society only suffers in the sense that we can obtain comfort that in the past was unobtainable, and now is more easily damaged.
Society blossoms in the sense that we can see the stars, go to the moon, and take pictures of planets from far away. I have access to all the classics on thousands of websites thanks to consumerism. I’m making this post now, thanks to consumerism.

Get a load of this guy. The ladies must love him! He is definitely superior, he looks down on video games!

As with any epidemic there are many factors to consider. Strife will always adapt to process and so our sufferings now are different to those of our ancestors. Most popular activities have quick finishing times or lots of repeat value. There’s a definite correlation between quick results and bragging rights. With the evolution of modern life cultural values have replaced survivability and the zeitgeist now is social media based values, and so the popular thing to do is anything worth bragging about on social media or taking a picture of for instant gratification. Reading in general has become a lost art and so your mention of people reading genre fiction is, depressingly, optimistic at best. There is no need to partake in arduous activities that give us feelings of reward when we can have a quick rush by posting something on Facebook that makes us feel good.
Tl;dr social media has turned people into convenience junkies.

Billions have been spent in behavioral science since WW2. The very best scientists in the world all worked on mass psychology for the US government and the CIA, and they still do, and it's absolutely not happening in secret lol.

>I have access to all the classics on thousands of websites thanks to consumerism.
knowledge is a byproduct of consumerism, alrighty then.
>I’m making this post now, thanks to consumerism.
human interaction is a byproduct of consumerism, ALRIGHTY THEN.

the mind of the amerisheep.

What's wrong with Trek?

>knowledge is a byproduct of consumerism, alrighty then.
Yes? How else would you gain knowledge we wouldn't have access to in our daily lives? You being dense on purpose.

You didn’t read my post. If you did, you would realize than consumerism creates an incentive to spread knowledge. Do you think that anyone would operate power plants without getting paid? Because there’s a reason they’re not doing it for free.

Why do you think it produces these individuals? Do you not know how many happy people there are, enjoying their everyday escapism?
You might have realized that it is merely that, escapism, but to pretend as a whole it MUST produce depressed individuals needs some backing up.

>I have access to all the classics on thousands of websites thanks to consumerism.
And you still never read them.

Do you "look up" at video games? Your life must be a mess desu, I wish you the best.

Why do people become trannies?

>And yet you still never read them
Making an assumption based on no proof, only to prove a point that is both stupid and unproveable.
>Do you look up at video games?
No, I don’t. I’m just saying that looking down on video games for no reason only makes you an unlikeable person.

People enjoy escapism, like people enjoy cigarettes. It's a replacement for being fulfilled, or "the next best thing" after society confines and restricts you.

mental illness

I don't know

>please dont talk down my video nanny, i dont like you
the manchild, everyone.

Manchildren is not inherently bad. Our society thinks it's bad because they do not follow typical passions we expect like money, power, or sexual desires. They have different standards from us, so we label them differently. Video games and anime are usually associated with children, so we consider adults that actively consume them as man-children.

And we're becoming more mentally ill in the west, right?

that scene is like a parody of humankind, an insult to life itself.

>It’s a replacement for being fulfilled
If ‘escapism’ is a replacement for being fulfilled, then what is truly fulfilling? Everyone has different tastes. Someone who is fulfilled by taking long walks in nature is no different than someone who is fulfilled by arguing with strangers over the internet on an anime image board.

Yes, and? That is precisely what I mean. What you just propounded is exactly what I mean to say; it doesn't necessarily produce depressed individuals.
If you argue against this constant "chase" or lack of satiety that causes the hunt, you'll have to substantiate that too.

>Manchildren is not inherently bad.
theres nothing sadder than witnessing wasted potential.

>when your only argument is ad-hominem

>Someone who is fulfilled by taking long walks in nature is no different than someone who is fulfilled by arguing with strangers over the internet on an anime image board.
nature guy is in the right, manchild on Veeky Forums is in the wrong, theres no middle point here, its not up for opinion. its fact.

So you absolutely CANNOT play video games or play spirts or watch TV, because if you do, you are wasting your potential?
Im order to be considered ‘fulfilled’, you must toil away on your type-writer 24/7 with no pleasure or joy in your life to fight against ‘mindless consumerism’ and ‘being a manchild’?
If that’s what fulfilled is, I’m happy being unfulfilled.

playing sports is actualizing your physical potential. of course, actual sports not some americanized version of a sport like nintendo wii or something. tv and videogames prepare you for.. more videogames and tv, they dont make you better at anything else but the same activities.

> used to hang around with people like this
> misunderstanding how to play Yugi Oh and playing video games, watching films on free days

Fun times. Sometimes people in the group would be more embarrassing than others but we didn't let it bother us much.

So you’re in the wrong?
Go take a walk in nature, philisopher user.

You don't need supernormal stimuli to experience joy.
Watching someone play vidya is like watching a retarded bird fascinated by shiny things. You're unironically advocating for evolutionary traps, my man.

All you guys saying it's not wrong nor a problem... Wow. Continue consuming mass media all day and buying toys.

this is true.
if we equate adulthood with "success" then we're quantifying what success is based on our own priorities.
It also has to be said that we live in a world that is actively hostile towards millennials (and younger generations). Things like a stable job or owning a house aren't goals that people feel they're realistically able to fulfill, so they default to things they can enjoy.
Honestly, they have a group of friends they can regularly share their passions with, and that's not a lot of money or an expensive car, but it's a different kind of success.
As long as weebs follow the social courtesies (ie, being appropriate in public, not being rude, not cramming their hobbies down people's throats) then there's no reason to degrade them for it.
I can't play video games for shit, and I stopped being a weeb years ago, but honestly? Sometimes I could find a group of weebs to hang out with. I miss just talking about shit I used to love with people who love it too.

When you say potential, you have a metric. Manchildren have their own metric. If their happiness is their metric, then they succeed, even if they fail to reach their potential by your metric.

There are some objective ways to criticize them, like economical contribution and fertility rate but 'bad' is highly subjective.

>He said, while posting on an anime imageboard
The amount of hypocrisy ITT is staggering

i know its bad for me to be here. i wont defend it only because i like it, restricting it gradually is the only choice, anything else is self harm. im planning to go out town this weekend.

Hey video games are good. don't appreciate your tone, OP

>implying anime is even tolerated here
It's an image board about literature

Jordan Peel, Robin Williams and Guillermo Del Toro all enjoyed video games and anime and those guys are pretty cool.

I like you

I only browse Veeky Forums. And your argument is moronic, would I not drive a car if seatbelts weren't yet implemented, and I was arguing in favor of seatbelts?

My point wasn't about anime, user.

manchildren are a manufactured product, just like what they consume. their metric isnt theirs. and thats hte least of the problems they have.

>Hypocrisy
Let's say you're a citizen of a state, can you still disagree with the state when you're part of it?

The amount of manchildren ITT is staggering.

...

No one cared who she was before she put it on.

Therefore, you are a manchild

what a swell guy. totally well adjusted, broad scoped views on society.

what's your point? He's not wrong and it's his fucking movie.

but I dont like you

fuck off.

i like you too, user

Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

Completely different. No one is forcing you to come here. And don't say stupid shit like "durr you can learn a lot of things by browsing here" because 99% of this board is shit.
>I only browse Veeky Forums
Is this supposed to be a counter-point?
You're a fucking degenerate! No no, I only masturbate to gangbang porn!
Also your analogy doesn't make sense.
Agreed

Racism and sexism is bad, user

Ah, a chance to post this

>cites a post
>responds incoherent garbage
are you OK user? need to sip some mountain dew?

Not an argument my dear manchild.

If you want to stop creating so many "manchildren" reduce the cost and time investment in skills development. Very few college courses should be 4 years and the cost is absurd.

The cost of young adulthood is far too high, it's no surprise people run from it.

Consider the context. He's talking about a manifestation of institutional evil represented in a fairy tale horror film. He's not talking about people who don't go outside.

If anyone appreciates the outsiders, it's Guillermo.

> to ever name the source of human misery in the 21st century [...] would be to turn the host against the parasite which is almost done devouring us from the inside. Basically people try to trivialize staring at screens all day, skyrocketing mental illness, obesity crisis, automation etc with appeals to living standards and entertainment value and if there was ever an intellectual current of thought that was strongly opposed to these things, vocal enough to get the public thinking about it [...] you would have a crisis of confidence in the current system.
I knew Veeky Forums was full of manchildren but I honestly thought this board would deter most of them. Seems like I was wrong. It's kinda sad that some of us spend time posting in lit and philosophical threads, only to get quoted and misunderstood by the hordes of manchildren.

then answer my post again now making sense

He was virtue signalling after Trump won.
He's an idiot, user

yes, but trying use liberal arguments against people to try and undermine bringing attention to actual, observable real world issues is even worse.

And what are those actual, observable world issues he points out?

Because humanity has plateaued. Our era has no major goals or objective that drives the average joe to explore, fight, invent or create. We don't have unknown continents to conquer, we don't have major scientific breakthroughs to make, we don't have wars to fight. The previous generations took the last big hurdles for us and as a result of that people growing up in this day and age are aimless.

Here's how today's average life goes: you go to school with a very faint idea of a job that you'd like to do later. You quickly realise that there are hundreds of thousands that also want the same job and the industry standard for your job is extremely high because of this demand. Your average skills don't cut it and you settle for something simpler and end up in a cushy 9-5 job. Your wage is comfortable and more than enough to afford a nice place to stay, food for you and your family and some extras from time to time. Now that you've settled and your basic needs (shelter, food, social contact) are taken care of, you have an abundance of free time to fill with whatever you want. Qeue video games, Netflix, cosplay, anime, etc.

TL;DR: Our kind has reached a state of comfort that gives the average Joe a copious amount of free time. Combine this free time with mass-media influence and you get a bunch of degenerate manchildren.

Anyone know if Zerzan has some specific texts concerning the internet or the digital world?

>Our kind has reached a state of comfort that gives the average Joe a copious amount of free time
the problem is not the average joe now having time. its that every time the average joe has free time, he degenerates. about 95% of all people, in all eras of history dont know what to do with their free time, they are better as slaves, soldiers, servants, they just cant handle freedom, no matter how advanced the society is, because a society can advance because of the few gifted individuals, but the ample populace are all literal troglodytes just aping of the benefits but never progressing anywhere, just dressing neater.

>Again
I quoted the wrong post. (I meant to quote )
I don't even disagree, what I'm saying is that the vast majority of people arguing against manchildren ITT are manchildren themselves (you're proving this point well enough, with the fact that you post on Veeky Forums and think in memes).

>the vast majority of people arguing against manchildren ITT are manchildren themselves
>people in bad situation think situation is bad
dude

>You quickly realise that there are hundreds of thousands that also want the same job
I think this is true and very interesting as well, because why would you believe otherwise? It's pretty obvious if you think about it, yet it takes a very long time to fully understand it. Why? Is it because we're raised with unrealistic expectations? Is it because our society is run on a muh meritocracy overdrive?

People need to realize that technology has allowed governments to exert power over its citizens more than in any other decade. We like to think of us as civilized democratic countries, but the truth is far from this fake reality manufactured and fed to us by those in power. Manchildren are the result of decades of behavioral research. It is not some random coincidence nor it is the product of modern life. People who refuse to look at this fact, nor have have the propensity to understand it, are simply proving that they indeed need an elite group to control their lives. These people can't fathom that the Elite don't regard them as more than hordes of sheeps handled from one side of the political spectrum to the other, because they are PLEBS. Those who see the government for what it is are only capable of understanding it because they are naturally inclined to be leaders, or at least in a position of power over those who can't.

Late stage capitalism. The discrepancy between the rich and the poor is ridiculous. No one should make 1000x the money as their workers. That it's "fair" is propaganda to get people to promote complicity and infighting against the millions of workers that actually work hard. If you work 40 hours a week, you deserve to have enough money to support yourself. There are thousands of examples of "white capitalism" fucking people over, and people have gotten so fucking complacent that it's physically painful to watch. Walmart failed in europe because they refused to unionize, which is required by law. People die because they can't afford life saving medicine. Epipens cost 600$ dollars now. Ambulance rides cost thousands of dollars in the US. I rode an ambulance once. Do you know how much I paid? 20€. People are planning a school walk out because despite thousands and thousands of gun deaths more than in any other first world country on earth, the US still won't change gun regulation laws.
That's not even counting all the dubious shit corporations do, like build in kill switches so you have to keep buying shit.
These aren't opinions. These are actual, real life issues, and people who try to argue that this is how it should be, or it's fair, they're either rich, idiots, or brainwashed.
Society is give and take. It has to be give and take to work properly. You work, and you pay taxes, and you consume. That's giving. Providing safety, healthcare and education is the taking. These are basic human rights, and they've been privatized. It's wrong.

>people in bad situation think situation is bad
If you read the posts ITT it's pretty clear that those arguing against manchildren don't think of themselves as manchildren (as evidenced by their aura of smug superiority)

>a king from the 1500’s would kill to be in the position the middle-class American is in now
lol

You're right. It's not only about us having time, it's also about having absolute freedom during that time to do whatever we please. It doesn't help that our society promotes this "be whoever you want to be" behavior. The social barriers that prevented people from dressing up as ridiculous fantasy characters all day are gone.

But still, time is a factor. It's kind of hard to waste away entire days if you're a soldier fighting in a war, or if you're on a boat for 2 months crossing an ocean, or if you simply have to work every waking moment to feed yourself and your family.

Maybe, but the goal isn't to set up camps and begin a manchild genocide, but emancipation of manchildren, freeing them from the power of capital.

You got all that from Del Toro's tweet?
I don't think so, go complain about the modern system to someone else, what Del Toro said was and is ridiculous

Personally, I've been through more than my share of shit; Illness, injury, death, etc. Also, there was drunken revelry, a brown eyed girl with dark hair and moonlight pale breasts, minor wins amid major losses.

I think I've earned my Power Ranger's Legacy Tommy.

Shape of Water still looks good and I still want a Guillermo Del Toro x Hideo Kojima video game to happen. Trump shouldn't have won.

>You got all that from Del Toro's tweet?
You didn't?

>the mindless shouldn't have their own pleasures
>the primordial organic activity of consumption is wrong
>capitalism wasn't adopted because it was efficient
dude