Meaning
It's no wonder Japanese men hang themselves in the park on a daily basis there. I feel bad for them: where is the meaning in their lives? They're almost all atheists, single, no children... beyond that, the guy in this video has zero autonomy. He's an ant in an ant farm. He's living the WEF future state now. What if there is an emergency, and the food supply is disrupted? What kinds of upwards mobility does he even have-- how do you raise a family in three hundred square feet? Maybe he could double his space to six hundred square feet! But could he even afford it, with real estate prices there?
The only saving grace is that he gets to at least work on a video game all day, which is a lot more interesting than what most people grind away at in their lives. But even then, it's fascinating to see how to everyone there it's "just a job": rote, you just kind of show up, make your little tree or grass 3D models, bring cookies to sit in your cube for the guy who filled in for you the prior week, then rinse and repeat. It's no wonder companies like this have such a difficult time with creativity these days! This kind of environment is fine for making spreadsheet software, or for writing device drivers. But first-order artistic endeavors will never come out of an environment like this one.
Think back to the book "Masters of Doom", where Romero was ripping doors off of hinges and they were throwing proverbial mud at the wall all day with crazy ideas and concepts, while cussing each other out. The creativity was like a fire hydrant, because the atmosphere was so informal. Or the Oliver Twins, who were living in a 100 degree F shed while sleeping on the floor, with the flexibility to make whatever kind of games they wanted, very informal, living and breathing their creations. I bet even at Capcom in their 80s and 90s hey-days were a very different culture from what is seen in this video.
I also have questions about the product itself: the director guy is an overweight otaku-looking dude, you can't possibly tell me it was his idea to put black strong womyn lesbian characters in his game, or the flaming gay black guy wearing garter straps-- who exactly up the chain at Capcom made those calls, and made him do it? Also, why stick with polygons yet again? Why does the game play like a close-range grappler, more akin to Tekken than Street Fighter II-- was that his shot, or someone else's?
I see that the falling testosterone is full at play in Japan too. The forty-something audio dude, three quarters the way through the video, is the first person who actually looks like an adult! Everyone else to that point look like adult-sized bodies with twelve year-old faces attached to them. Meanwhile, someone in the comments said they are Indian, and if they left stuff in their cube like the Japanese do it'd get stolen immediately. That could be a whole separate blog post.
I also thought their lunch time was sad: celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of a game series, while eating lunch "with" their friends while separated by magical virus-stopping plexiglass. But who knows, maybe that guy would visit my life for a day, and hate it? Too much open space, "where is everyone??" lack of population density, and so on. To each his own, I guess. But his is not the lifestyle for me: with my temperament, I wouldn't make it a month into the job before I'd rock the boat too much and get shitcanned.
All of that said, they seem like nice people. I'd totally hang out with this Japanese dude and play some video games, even as I do feel sorry for him in a lot of ways.
Makes Sense
This segues into why The Establishment in this country is harping on nonsensically about "white supremacy!", getting rid of rifles, "January 6th!!", shoving people into expensive external combustion cars with no range, and so on-- people like me scare them, it's that simple: way too much autonomy! White rural people grow their own food, they have their own land, they have oftentimes numerous vehicles, they live far away from facial recognition cameras, they believe in a higher power than the State, they have children they want to protect...
It's very difficult to track and control people who have that much freedom, and that's why so many of the present-day state measures are specifically targeting white rural Christians: if I were a member of the Powers that Be I'd be taking the same steps: "We need to reign in these people."
Foot Soldiers
The Establishment and their unwitting "useful idiots" are creating an army of foot soldiers to do the bidding I described above. Imagine attending a right-wing political rally, getting accused of some bogus crime, then getting assigned the woman in the aforelinked video? As either prosecution or defense, she would ignore all of the facts and try to get you put away for good. In her own words:
"We joined this institution [her 'university'] to be equipped with the necessary legal skills to protect our communities; to protect the organizers fighting endlessly day in day out, with no accolades, no cameras, no PhD grants, working to lift the facade of legal neutrality and confront the systems of oppression that wreak violence on them."
And there you have it: "justice" means her team wins, and her ideological opponents lose. It's as plain as the nose on your face.
Cars
To finish on a positive and fun note, I emailed my sales manager buddy and asked him to swap me from the GR Supra list to the GR Corolla one. His reply: "Want to be on both, and get whichever comes first?" Then it dawned on me: having the 86 and the Supra would actually work for our use cases-- I hadn't ever considered that permutation of vehicles before!
Summer is easy: three full-time vehicles.
As for winter: by complete chance we happen to live on a paved highway, and the routes to our church and into town are also on semi-major highways. So the plowing situation for us here is almost as good as it was in metropolitan Murderapolis-- or even better if you want to be technical, since Murderapolis itself barely plowed at all, it seemed to us. On plowed roads, the 86 will function just fine as a full-time winter vehicle: I did it for thirteen winters with my old 350z, daily driving it to and from work in inclement weather. And not only did it work, but it was a lot of fun too.
Meanwhile, we will still have the 2014 WRX, which is in phenomenal condition and is "low miles" for a Subaru-- a meager ~100k. The Supra can stay garaged all winter. That's two winter vehicles, just like we've always been successful with. Next year when my in-laws move in, they will be bringing two more Subarus up-- a ~2015 Crosstrek XV and 2021 Forester-- to go along with a 4x4-capable ~2012 Ford F-150. So in worst-case scenarios like a blizzard and we had to go someplace, we could borrow one of their cars if there was no other option.
I really sense that this is a win-win situation: I've been dreaming of and will be thrilled if the Supra "wins" this race. At the same time, part of me thinks I'd almost enjoy the GR Corolla's personality more. Who is to say? I'm sure I will like either car, in its own right. As for the wife she loves the 86 and has been driving it even more than I have: she has no qualms about using it essentially full-time, since it can easily fit both kids: son in the back, daughter in the passenger seat.