Recent reports have announced that Crunchyroll, the largest anime streaming service, will be replacing Aegisub with Israeli Software, OOONA, to produce subtitles more efficiently. Anime fans across the world are disappointed with this collaboration due to Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians (via a report by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry).
Crunchyroll is also ignoring the needs of groups who require Closed Captions to understand the scenes better. They are isolating a large chunk of their audience in favor of AI-based subtitling, which defeats the point of a streaming service. Overall, this hasn’t been a great year for Crunchyroll, and this won’t be the end of it.
EDIT: Link was taken down thanks to someone in the comments here’s the archive for the page https://web.archive.org/web/20251004184506/https://fandomwire.com/crunchyroll-faces-cancelation-why-anime-fans-are-choosing-piracy-after-latest-update/
https://bsky.app/profile/lamhfada.bsky.social/post/3m2c3udxnjc2u
Yes, we’re a fascist country now.
But more to the point, brining up a country that was founded on Genocide of Native Americans to argue that we shouldn’t speak ill of a country founded on Genocide of Palestinians is wild.
This describes both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Again, weird take unless you’re pushing for us to drop the Nazi label from 1933-1945 Germany.
Are you a fascist?
No, I’m a Leftist.
Ok, so, you are not a fascist country, you are a country run by fascists with fascists in it. But this doesn’t represent the values of the entire population. Especially when trump rigged the election (by his own admission) that means that not even the majority are fascists. And then you have to exclude all those who voted for trump because they were duped by his campaign who aren’t fascist and are just more republican and 4ight leaning than left.
I feel the same way about israel and palestine. We are quick to speak to the separation of hamas and palestine as a whole, but when it comes to israel, the same voices are shouting its the whole country and not just a genocidal organisation and their followers.
I think its an important distinction.
If our country finishes it’s transition to fascism and I did nothing to stop that, I’ll have to own that. Inaction will lump me in with the fascists. Neutrality makes me a guilty party; for evil to triumph, all good men must do is nothing. History isn’t kind to collaborators regardless of their reasons.
I hope you are doing your bit to stop it. You are clearly passionate about it. I just worry that too many people feel hopeless because it looks worse than it really is, which is the very tool the fascists need to win. Much like you say, apathy and inaction is what will destroy the world.
I am sorry to see so many downvoting me during this exchange. I don’t feel like i oppose your views, i just have a different perspective. I think its healthy to allow others views to help to shape your own. Even if all it does it reaffirms your already held beliefs. If i was to think of an example of this, i would compare it to the characters in always sunny in philadelphia. They are not the heroes of the story, they are assholes, they are a charicature example of what not to be. They reaffirm my position against that type of person and those types of views.
I hope you are safe over there. Its a scary place to live right now, or at least it seems it from the outside looking in.