I just want to run through some common misconceptions about me and my ideology. I wanted to keep these Persona focused, just so it's tangentially related to the point of this story, but I ended up deciding to focus it on Persona & anime (with one exception):
Misconception: I think Persona is a giant conspiracy to brainwash people against ugly people
Ignoring the obvious poor framing here ("brainwash against ugly people" implies it's a bad thing, which it isn't; ugly people deserve to be hated). No, I don't think that Persona is a gigantic allegory for cacophobia. I think cacophobia is one of it's themes; other themes of Persona include being your true self, the power of friendship etc. I don't even think that cacophobia and ugly people being toxic is a primary theme, nor is the series probably even conscious of the theme in the first place, at least not on the scale of "series wide conspiracy".
What I really think: I think Persona is aware that physical appearance equates to value, and is being casually & naturally cacophobic
Unlike the more obvious and clearly intended themes, I think that it's doing much of the cacophobia theming more casually, without even realising what it's doing. But that doesn't mean they aren't still doing it, and that it's not still a part of it.
Misconception: I think Ann canonically hates ugly looking people
This is a whole complicated mess, and I won't get into it too deeply, because I can rant about this for ages and no one would want that. But I will say this: People think that I actually believe that the writers of Persona would make Ann come out and proclaim "jee whizz, those ugly people sure are awful, aren't they folks?". Like, no, I understand they wouldn't do that.
What I really think: Ann displays clear symptoms of cacophobia, and she SHOULD canonically hate ugly looking people, and them not showing this at all is a symptom of Ann's character having sloppy, and even abusive, writing
Ann's character is all over the place. I kinda rant about this on my profile, so I won't go too deep into it here, but I'll just say this: Ann's character has so many conflicting aspects to it about whether or not her beauty matters to her, that it's absolutely insane to me that anyone can look at her character, and seriously claim that her disliking ugly people doesn't make sense. In my "persona arguments 2" chapter, I debunked a common argument people make about Ann's character, where I point out that the point of her character is that her beauty is something she needs to equate to worth, and not make it a mere by-product of herself. People misinterpret this as not wanting people to equate her to her beauty. People just do not grasp Ann, and she's one of the most most misunderstood characters I've ever seen in basically all of fiction; although I can't put that down to the fans primarily, as this is as much a writing flaw as it is anything else.
Misconception: I don't understand that anime artstyle is a thing
This is one common thing I see thrown around a lot. It's the whole "everyone's attractive looking because it's anime" response I often get. This confuses the fuck out of me, because I'm always like, "when the hell did I bring up the artstyle?". This always seems like it says more about the person bringing it up, than it does about me. In any cause, I'm not going to spend too long on this point, because I think anyone with a working brain can grasp the fact that this has nothing to do with my arguments.
What I really think: It has nothing to do with anime art style or tropes. Persona seems to actively go out of it's way to be cacophobic beyond this
When I say "go out of it's way", I don't so much mean consciously, as much as I do casually and without much forethought to it. But this is a common thing you'll see, is people will just toss my arguments away by going "it's anime bro, tropes & artstyle lol", and it's like, that has literally NOTHING to do with any of my arguments (and again, this being the default go to honestly says more about others than it does about me). I know about artstyle and trope trends, but the theming in Persona goes way beyond this.
All of this said, I actually do think that there's a legit argument to be made for why this is a bad argument in the first place, beyond just the fact that it's a massive non-sequitur; as I think anime culture has been generally puppertered by ugly people to manipulate the world into sympathy with them. And I think that anime culture in general has a MASSIVE ugly-people-infestation problem, and an even bigger problem with ugly people using anime as a form of escapism to pretend they're not useless sacks of shit; the whole "no one is ugly in anime" thing I often see tossed around is a toxic by-product of this. But that's neither here nor there regarding this point, so I'll leave it at that.
Misconception: If you're not an anime girl, I'm not interested
I'm not gonna spend too long on this one, only because it's not something I even want to get into too much. Plus it sort of ties into the above one anyway. But I just wanted to include this, because I see it all the time.
What I really think: Anime beauty standards are a heightened form of perfection in beauty, that real life can take a lot from.
Believe it or not, I've had girlfriends and partners, and they've all been real women. Yes, shocking, I know-I'm sure you barely even believe me, but make of it what you want.
Misconception: I hate myself, and I'm self-projecting
Okay, and this is the grand daddy of it all; the single biggest misconception I ever see.
I'm not going to spend a long time ranting about why this is wrong, because it'll be counterproductive. I'm just going to state the facts, and people can take it or leave it.
I will say, that there's some extreme doublethink nonsense going on from the weirdos who seem to think this, and yet can't seem to grasp why nothing they say against me ever seem to shake my resolve.
What I really think: As I'm able to look at it entirely objectively, and I'm not insecure about myself, my ideology is really fortified
I mentioned before, in the chapter where I respond to reviews, that I actually appreciate it when haters call me ugly, because I feel like it aligns with my ideology; that's at the heart of the matter here: I'm not insecure about my position, and I think that legitimately pisses off a lot of people. Which I find hysterical, but I also find it interesting; I think it's a symtom of the fact that my ideology isn't as dumb as people think it is. People on some level are worried of the fact that I represent the objective standard, and they don't. That worries them, which is why they need to pull me down onto their level to feel better about me.
Maybe that comes across as big headed and arrogant. To be frank, I don't give a shit.
You all know this is true, and it's hysterical seeing people run around like chickens, trying to desperately discredit me with this kind of tactic.
