the american government reacted accordingly. a full investigation was launched to hold the culprits responsible – what nation could have sanctioned such a brutal attack on so many innocents? what kind of soulless country could, regardless of vendetta, allow such a heinous crime? 

by 2002, the united states had their answer. the investigation was complete. A 600 page document known as the Congressional Report on 9/11 was released. approx 20 pages detailing the workings of the nation responsible were produced. The report was published. 

Except the name of the country responsible for 9/11 was redacted in the report. blackened out with a sharpie. It would remain redacted for 14 years. The country in question? Saudi Arabia. 

Instead of declaring to the world who was involved in orchestrating 9/11, the u.s. would hide this information for over a decade. 

Instead, they would point fingers at Iraq, whilst knowing that iraq had nothing to do with the attack in the first place. They would orchestrate journalistic propaganda in the new york times about “weapons of mass destruction” – a narrative that had been proven false by their very own intelligence officers, a narrative that had been shot down by every journalist that had ever stepped foot in Niger (where the purported ingredients of mass destruction were coming from). Regardless, the New York Times would dutifully publish the perverted stories anyway. NYT editors would say “to not invade iraq is the bigger mistake”. 

In 2003, the months of building up false stories in the media, propaganda in every mainstream newspaper, journal and t.v. show would pay off. The u.s. would invade iraq. 

from 2003 -  2011 the country of iraq would be brutalized in ways never seen before by mankind. modern, 21st century warfare would decimate the very spirit of iraq. at least 460 000 innocent, iraqi civilians murdered in 8 years. entire generations were wiped out in less than a decade. we will never know their names. 

waves of sexual violence committed upon “captured” cities ensued at the hands of american soldiers. many of the survivors, if not dead at the hands of their occupiers, would take their own lives. we will never know their names. 

in 2011, the blood in iraq is finally dry. we’ve leeched all of it. we’ve procured the natural resources we came for – it’s time to head out. the so called WMD we came for were never found, they did not exist, they were never real to begin with. A far cry from how things got started, we start seeing articles about the falsehood of the iraq war. the same publishers who willingly handed out propaganda to the masses about WMD in Saddam’s hands are now saying “wait…we’ve made an error.” the narrative shifts. the occupation ends 3 years after a new commander in chief is granted the power to end it. in its wake we leave behind military bases and mercenaries that are ready to activate whenever called upon. 

That same year, the u.s. supports various popular movements across the arab world. tens of regimes are flipped. 

and in that same year, using the same weapons left behind by valiant american rapists and invaders, an army of another kind of mercenaries is born. they call themselves ISIL, then ISIS. 

ISIS vows to cleanse the muslim world of shia muslims, minority sect muslims, christians, yezidis, Jewish people. ISIS also vows they are enemies of the u.s. America vows vice versa. Their feud is a celebrated one. ISIS, the evil nemesis of the Brave & Courageous America. 

But then, 2012 happens. America, losing their influence and control over the levant, start funding ISIS factions. America starts funding Al-Qaeda factions. 

The same NYT that once convinced us that Iraq had WMD is now INSISTING that these al-qaeda factions, that themselves claim to be brothers of al-qaeda, are moderate rebels simply looking for democracy and liberation. people believe it. 

America’s proxies in the levant go on to destroy the region in unimaginable ways–and then, 2018 happens. 

Iraqis & Iranians destroy ISIS. Indisputably, action from both nations led to the destruction of ISIS, now a paid member of the U.S. military. America, once using ISIS and AQ factions to regain control over the levant struggles to position themselves as the heroes – attempting pathetically to play both sides of the same coin. Again, the same way outlets like NYT backtracked their Iraq war propaganda, they start apologizing for identical mistakes in naming actual american funded terrorists as “freedom fighters.” another cycle ends. 

ISIS is gone, but the real loss is America’s. They’ve lost the barbaric feudalistic control they once held in the region via ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Their terrorist assets have been reduced to ashes by a people they once themselves invaded from 2003 - 2011.

This brings us to today. The united states has assassinated Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s second in command. this is akin to another nation murdering the likes of mike pence, joe biden or dick cheney. it is an act of war. 4000 troops have been deployed to the Iraq-Iran region. It is an invasion. 

And just as in 2003 the NYT & MSM justified the faulty invasion of iraq, and just as in 2012 the NYT & MSM justified the funding of ISIS & AQ factions, in 2020, a new propaganda will circulate to justify the illegal assassination of sovereign leaders. 

New propaganda will circulate to justify a new era of bloodshed in Iraq & Iran and the rape and murder of innocents.  New propaganda will vilify young, brown children as terrorists.  New propaganda will circulate to return us to the year 2003. 

There is nothing I can do within my capacity to help anyone. I am completely useless in saving any of the lives that will be taken in the next several years. 

All I can do is ask that when you see a piece of information that attempts to justify the actions of the u.s. on foreign soil, in any foreign nation, that you reduce it to ashes. They lied to you in 2003, they did it again in 2011, they are doing it again in 2020. 

RUH ROW

Both BNHA and MP100 explore themes of value as an individual and in society—value judgments of who is average, who is extraordinary, and who is inferior. From the very beginning, BNHA asserts that people are not of equal value, but anyone can improve themselves to meet or exceed the average and become valuable and worthy. I don’t like that one bit—it assigns worth to each individual based on their level of mental and physical ability. It seems like a positive message at first glance, but upon further inspection it’s just desolate.

BNHA asserts that if you physically can’t conform to norms, the only acceptable route to happiness is to do the impossible and exceed those norms. MP100 asserts that if you can’t conform, you are still no better or worse than anyone else, and the path to fulfillment is treating yourself and others with respect.

MP100 answers the question of who is worthy and who is not with the idea that nobody is special—not in a positive way, or a negative way. (“If everyone is not special, maybe you can be what you want to be”.) In the end, whether your ability level in one area or another is within the bell curve, or if it’s at the extreme edge of the range of human experiences, you are good enough to value yourself and be valued by others, but you are not superior, either.

What makes Midoriya different from the established norms around him is something that he must change about his nature as a person. What makes Mob different is his powers and his neurodivergence, and while he’s insecure about both of these things and afraid of the way they manifest in combination (reaching 100% and having a meltdown), the narrative shows that those are neutral qualities and he can do whatever he wants with the hand he’s been dealt in life. (“Mob, Mob, What do you want?” “Mob, Mob, whatever you want!”)

Midoriya’s happiness relies on meeting and exceeding the social norms set for his body and future—gaining a quirk and becoming a hero. He has to change to be treated with any respect. But Mob’s happiness relies on learning that it is okay to be who he is.

I remember with absolute clarity watching the first episode of BNHA and being excited about halfway through about the journey ahead of Deku as a quirkless hero - you know, exploring the idea that the worth of a person is not based purely on natural ability. One might even argue that that’s the route that was set up from the start, what with Bakugou mercilessly bullying Deku about how worthless he was without a quirk. Classic proving the bully wrong. Needless to say, I was left completely baffled when he just… got a quirk from All Might. Like yeah he was a Good Person with Heroic Traits, but… the whole thing felt off to me. It was unexpected to be sure, but not in a good way.

The message of the whole thing came across very clearly as, ‘Deku was worthless without a quirk, but because he’s a good person (not that that means anything if he’s quirkless) he gets to escape his worthlessness by being gifted what he lacked.’ In essence, if he’d remained quirkless he would’ve remained worthless, no matter how good of a person he was.

All of this isn’t even to mention the fact that BNHA has somehow fallen into the exact trap that Naruto did but worse - that being that the audience is introduced to the idea that the system is flawed but… that’s it. We know the system is flawed but nothing will be done about it ever. Some heroes/ninjas are still good, so… the system remains exactly as it is. Stain is wrong just like Sasuke was wrong - for murdering the Good People in an attempt to fix the system. Both are punished by the narrative for their methods and nothing changes as a result of their presence. BNHA is only worse because it manages to shove our faces in the horribly flawed system and say, ‘Endeavor WAS a bad hero - now he’s not. The system is fine the way it is as long as horrible, power hungry child abusers can be redeemed to make it so.’

Mob Psycho 100 recognises that systems based on power are inherently flawed and actively tears them down when they arise. The persuit of power is not noble and not cool. The least powerful character in the series (Reigen) is consistently shown to be of as much worth as his exponentially more powerful peers - he is the one to de-escalate dangerous situations a lot of the time purely because he is the responsible adult. Mob is never more valuable just because he is the most powerful. Ritsu is not rewarded for his persuit of power, nor was he treated as worthless before he obtained his power. The most valuable thing anyone in this series can be is a good person, regardless of how powerful they are.

We aren’t expected to sympathize with or root for Souchirou either, even when he realises his mistakes. He is punished for hurting people. (Endeavour should be in prison, is what I’m trying to say here).

Overall, Mob Psycho 100 manages to be everything BNHA isn’t. I rarely, if ever, found myself disappointed by the routes Mob Psycho 100 chose to take with its characters and narrative. Mob Psycho even manages to treat it’s child characters with respect despite constantly reminding us that they are, in fact, children and should be treated as such. No sexualization, no ‘the children HAVE to fight because… Uh… Of course they do.’ Adults taking responsibility in dangerous situations in Mob Psycho is a given and is treated as correct every time. BNHA seems to think that children not only can but SHOULD ignore their own safety for the sake of being cooler heroes or whatever - as if the adults are incompetent. The only props I can give to BNHA on that front are that Bakugou was allowed a ‘childish’ moment of weakness when he buckles under the pressure of being expected to fight alongside or instead of actual pro heroes and the guilt he feels over being unable to.

It’s because of shots like this:

and this

and this (literal tears on her face)

Look at how utterly alone Marinette is

Even in this last shot.

Yes, she’s farthest from Adrien, but she’s also estranged from every single one of the people who have been shown to be her closest friends: Alya, Juleka, Rose, Mylène, Alix. She’s nowhere near any them.

It really emphasizes how Master Fu is absent and she’s the guardian: she’s on her own now.

Yes, she has Tikki, but Tikki can’t tell her to take a break. Marinette is the only Ladybug available.

She doesn’t really have Chat Noir because they can’t know each other’s identities and he’s given up on her romantically.

She doesn’t have Adrien because she gave him up so he could be happy with Kagami.

She doesn’t have Alya or the girl gang because she can’t tell them what’s going on (same for her parents).

She can’t even tell Luka, but at least he said it’s okay for her to say nothing, right?

It’s just so frustrating. So unfair. She’s fourteen and she has a secret that’s so detrimental to the well-being of others that she is forced to isolate herself from everyone.

And in the end, all she can really do is take the moment with Luka playing his guitar and breathe it all in. Because at any given day, hour, minute, second, she’ll have to go back to her double life as Ladybug.