Honglou Meng

People can assume what they want about me! I don't care. But fireworks do need to be set off, and you lit the wick. And I don't need any lessons in civility from a barbarian.

Funny, you don't seem in the least bit apologetic for launching such a personal attack. I don't think I'm the arrogant one here. You are. You make presumptions about people, and then justify them as it suits you.

I could make personal comments just as nasty as yours, but then, that would be stooping to your level. And yes, now I am being condescending, because you and your tone have proved your own implicit claim: that you have an air of ignorance and inferiority complex about you.

Well said! And well done you, for taking such comment to task!

Forgive me. I just don't see the irony in using 'intellectual' as a word of abuse. But that's just me.

Again, I don't see anyone below who claims to be intellectually superior. Perhaps I'm missing something.

Meanwhile, let me quote your own words to you: "those of you who feel certain of your intellectual superiority are often pseudo-intellectuals with an inflated sense of your own abilities"

"Those of YOU... are... pseudo-intellectuals... with an inflated sense of your own abilities." These are not @sweetcat's words. They are yours. @sweetcat did not insult me personally by using the word "you", and calling me a "pseudo-intellectual", when I have said nothing to merit any of it. I just asked a simple question -- whether being (NOT proclaiming to be) an intellectual was a bad thing. Your statement was a personal, upsetting attack. The anonymity of this forum allows people like you to get away with it. Allow me to call your response for the bollocks that it is.

Those of "you"? Did I ever claim to be one? Or identify as one? Has anyone else below? If so, please point it out to me. Who is setting up the strawman here by calling people "intellectuals" just in order to bash them? Not bash their opinions, but bash *them*? Why are you attacking me, personally? Do you think attacking people, rather than their ideas, is the mature way to behave? Is that superior to the apparent inferiority you detect in "self-proclaimed intellectuals"? Is that better than even the mediocre thought of a pseudo-intellectual?

The pseudo-intellectuals may well have an inflated sense of their abilities. But of abilities they have some. I detect none in your comment, save disdain for people who don't share your opinion, and a desire to dismiss them.

Love is a bit generous. Straight Lethargy?

The amount of self-proclaimed anti-intellectualism in this forum astonishes me! Who would want to be proud of that?

Since when has being an intellectual become a bad thing?

Not at all! I don't believe in being rude (unless the other person is rude to me, in which case I call them out on it).

This is a complex issue, and deserves nuanced thought.

I'll just leave this here:

https://kisskh.at/776231-smells-like-green-spirit#comment-19103330

What the hell is this show? Why is it tonally so jarring? Why did Yanagida suddenly become such a cartoon villain with cartoon music? Why, in one of the darkest moments of the show so far, did the tone jump from comedy to tragedy, manga to realism, pathos to bathos, all at once and all over the place? I'm not sure whether it interrogates the conventions of how sexual assault is depicted, or is just insensitive to the point of aestheticising it.

On the other hand, the episode was very, very good on the aftermath of what happens. It is extremely common for victims of sexual assault to empathise with their perpetrators. They want to know why they did it. It is to the show's credit that it handles it well, and sensitively. It is also extremely common for sexual abuse in schools to go unreported, esp. in Japan. That also felt all too real. Of course, the rapist gets away scot-free. Homophobia, victim-blaming, and fear win the day.

Kirino is my favourite character. What a mensch!

Well, that took a dark turn really, really fast... More thoughts below:

Ooh, I've just added this to my PTW list.

I think this is an area that's not quite well known outside the LBGT community, which, as always, is on the frontline of the battle against HIV. Most straight people I talk to know nothing about PEP/PrEP or U=U, let alone the very important moral debates that have been happening over the last ten years on this matter. I think it's always easier to portray the gay community as reckless -- which straight people have been doing since Christ was born -- than it is to ask us what determines our choices in the first place. But I fear I'm just ranting...

My friend, in my experience, take care when speaking about this issue on this forum. (Fellow gay man here.) Since we are in the post-PEP, PrEP, U=U world, things are no longer as simple as they used to be. When we have a medical certainty that the virus is untransmittable, the dynamics of what to disclose is no longer simple, whereas the stigma remains as overwhelming as ever. I try and talk to people about this, but I get a lot of pushback.

I'm not saying that what Yeong does in the show is right. (In my review, I address this explicitly.) It is still an on-going discussion within the LGBTQ community and medical scholarship. However, I have found it unwise to engage anonymous people on the matter online.

From my review:

I have distilled 10 important life lessons for gay/bi men from this show. Have I missed anything?

1. Don't go out with a philosopher. Ever.
2. Don't date Christians. Or rather, practising Christians of the born-again, evangelical sort.
3. If you're going to go to bed with a guy on the DL, don't fall in love with him. As a wise woman once advised: Use him, abuse him, lose him.
4. If a guy asks you to hide who you are in public, or in front of other people, run.
5. If it seems like you're dating one prick after another, or one closet-case after another, take a good look at yourself in the mirror. Maybe it's you, Linda!
6. Always keep a good group of friends around you who understand you.
7. Learn about PEP, PrEP, U=U, STDs, and when in doubt, always use a condom.
8. If you are lucky enough to find a man with whom you can be yourself, don't ever let him go.
9. Loving another person is perhaps the hardest thing in the world to do. And for all its highs, rushes, longings, and satisfactions, it also has its long periods of languor, stupor, pain, and disappointment. Don't confuse these for signs of failure and give up.
10. There is a reason we have appropriated the word 'gay' for ourselves. We are lovely, funny, messy, sexy, gorgeous, insane creatures. Embrace it!

Thanks! I don't have a TT account. But I'll see if I can watch them without an account! 😀

Something tells me that this was a sarcastic barb, aimed at gently suggesting I fuck off entirely from BL land if I hate it so much, lest I exist in this world as an anti-BL spoil sport. (Or maybe such a reading has been forced on me by Jasper's comment below. If so, forgive me.)

In any event, I love BLs. But this year's crop has been, for me, very disappointing. That is all. Apparently, it upsets people if I say so. Even if I am a gay man, and even when the world of BL depends on lives such as mine for fodder. But then, BL still remains a genre run predominantly by and for straight people. So, why be surprised?

Okay, Jasper. Why do you take this so personally? When did I "shit on" other people? Did I "shit on" you, as you put it? Did I ask anyone to appease me? Did I anoint myself a universal critic? Where did I ask that a show be realistic? Can you point it out to me? (In fact, in my comments below and in my review, I explicitly say the show isn't realistic.) Also, did I call you, personally, mediocre? Why do you confuse opinions about a TV show with opinions about a person? Are the two indistinguishable for you?

You have seen a lot of good series? Great, good for you! I haven't. Opinions can differ. And I have just as much a right to speak mine, here, as you have the right to speak yours, anywhere. Is this section restricted to your opinions only? The good opinions only? The "correct" opinions only? Who are you to tell me what comment is necessary and what not? To turn your own logic on you -- it is *your* comment that was unnecessary. Didn't like my comment? Who asked you to reply? But you wanted to, didn't you? It is the same with me and any TV show. I see a show, and then I respond, whether with love or disappointment, as is my right, or even contempt. Who are you to say otherwise?

Lastly, I'm a gay man and a BL lover too. Don't you dare tell me what to watch when it comes to male-male romance, much less suggest I quit gay content! I don't know your gender or your sexuality: but (straight) people have been telling gay people what to do and what not to do long enough! Stop policing other people's voices. BL no more belongs to you than this comment section does. And I sleep better at night knowing that I can disagree with people, without the need to suppress or censor them, as you seem to want to, all because of a TV show.

Sincerely,
The Voice of Reason.

P. S. (A.) Just putting 'lol' at the end of a sentence does not make it funny, soften your tone, or make it logical. You can thank me later.