[ holy shit. ]

[ just realised my josh turned 100 this past birthday. holy shit. ]

[ SHIT. ]

You know, I never quite understand why I feel compelled to post on my blog when it is my birthday, especially considering how I have been incredibly inactive all the while prior. I know I mentioned that it was “appropriate” to remind people of one’s persisting being around the time of one’s birth a few years ago, but the impulse nevertheless still baffles me.

(It isn’t my birthday, by the by. Just thought I might let you know before anyone makes any assumptions.)

psychuser replied to your post:

i see where youre coming from, but i dont agree

usodanee replied to your post: considering the person literally forgets what they were last thinking of, i’d say it still overwrites their thoughts. megs’ was different because it didn’t leave room for any other thoughts, but any kind of messing with thoughts is mind control. it’s not like he’s like “hey buddy how would you like this thought” and gave them a choice. they were even unaware of imprinting happening to them, so even the resistance only happened unconsciously.  and neku was hesitant about the mind reading thing but still did it, because the story/game demanded it. neku however was also worried about using imprint on a guy when shiki and him first tested it out, because his mind was totally overwritten by it. imprinting leaves people with no choice and forces a certain thought onto them. no matter the reason, it’s invading their individual thought process and not everyone would be cool with such a method

fxbricatedrxality replied to your post: ((Maybe imprinting in lower does… would be kind of like something called ‘nudging’? I can’t link, but it’s kind of like… subliminal advertising gives off the wrong impression but that’s the best synonym I can come up with. It’s prevalent in behavioral science and economics. I’m finding this discussion really interesting and it made me think of this, so, no clue if it’s really relevant but I thought I’d bring it up? Just ignore this otherwise.))

psychuser:

[ so i was lurking my dash for the first time in 300 years and i noticed your convo with willow so i just wanted to say some things. pardon for butting in, but like, i just wanted to hopefully clarify some stuff? the game describes hanekoma’s imprinting as large-scale and powerful. but that’s the thing. his imprinting is something along the lines of "enjoy the moment more" and "gather" iirc, which people are inspired to think. they don't have to suddenly do it, by no means is anyone suddenly walking outside and having fun because they saw his work, forgetting about all their troubles the moment they look. the power level of an imprint simply seems to mean that the imprint is more pervasive, not that it has a better ability to overwrite anything. like, if you watch neku imprinting -- his imprints are fairly mediocre, at times being dismissed by his imprintees quite rapidly. a more powerful imprint seems to mean it is simply less likely to be dismissed as quickly. long story short, in his viewer’s minds, his imprints are essentially just extremely pervasive intrusive thoughts. so yes, sure, hanekoma abuses the concept of intrusive thoughts on a large scale basis but... that in and of itself cannot be called mind control, imho. like, if you poke your friend 3000 times asking them to buy you a chocolate bar... sure that might be annoying and manipulative, but at the end of the day it is your friend’s decision to make, if they buy you the chocolate bar or not. you didn’t mind control them into doing it, and they certainly don’t forget any thoughts they were having prior to your poking. besides, the point of hanekoma’s imprinting isn’t to make anyone think anything other than their own personal idea of “good things” when they look at his art. he doesn’t tell them how to think, other than to “enjoy more”, which i wouldn’t really say an objectively negative thing, considering it isn’t even him saying “never be negative ever”. it’s is about the same as your dentist saying to brush your teeth more, but directly to your mind. having people feel good and inspired = more creative and productive activity = humans better refining their soul = happy rgers and happy higher plane. his work’s popularity isn’t because he tricks people into liking his work, people like his work because they feel so positively after seeing it -- however “positive” might transcribe for them -- and also feel inclined to come back and look at it, thus repeating the cycle ad infinitum. many npcs speak about how his art in a way that indicates them all having different individual, albeit positive opinions, so... also, while hanekoma’s in-game exposition is unreliable af, his secret reports are the direct opposite of that; they are the most succinct and veritable things in the game. that’s where the majority of the info re: imprinting comes from comes from so i wouldn’t really doubt those. that said all of this is moot if you feel using intrusive thoughts is the same as mind control anyway but i at least figured i would say smth on that regardless,,, wwwah. //skeedaddles. ]

But when is it ever not?

You wouldn’t be incorrect, no.