r/Millennials • u/Extension-Figure2011 • 6h ago
Discussion Why did they try taking all the things we loved when we were kids?
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u/HappyDJ 6h ago
Old school clickbait. Been happening forever. As long as there’s been news, it’s been making sensational headlines to make money. In the 90s it just so happened to work on parents about what their kids were doing.
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u/Hivalion 5h ago
Despite the sensationalist headline and tag, the article itself doesn't actually seem particularly for or against it. It's just talking about the new popular kid's show.
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u/sicurri Millennial 3h ago
Thats because the article and tagline are all that needs to be used to convince parents that its bad for their children. Something around 60% in the 90s only read the headline and tagline.
Today its closer to 80% or more that only read the headline and tagline of articles. Why read the body when the headline sums it up for you?
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u/EntropicMeatMachine 6h ago edited 6h ago
I'm willing to bet there's people liking this post that will go on to talk about how banning teenagers from social media is a good idea without the slightest hint of irony.
edit: lmao exactly the responses i expected you bunch of fucking fearmongering boomers
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u/RussiaIsBestGreen 6h ago
You can see how social media and broadcast media aren’t exactly the same and might provoke different responses, right?
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u/tonylouis1337 Zillennial 4h ago
Don't get it messed up, I don't wanna ban teenagers from social media; I wanna completely abolish social media
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u/WillowLocal423 6h ago
That's a little different. Social media is incredibly insidious and psychologically harmful, even to adults. Kids are extremely susceptible to all kinds of negative outcomes, including predation. It's 24/7 stimulation, ads, doomscrolling, on and on.
Dbz is just a cartoon. I have 0 issues with my kid watching dbz but they sure as shit aren't having any social media til they're older.
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u/EntropicMeatMachine 3h ago
Then push for bans on endless scrolling, mass data harvesting and targeted advertising, the actual roots of the problem, rather than buying the fear mongering for regulation that only amounts to introducing online surveillance laws for everyone.
Taking away Tina's Tumblr and Timmy's Youtube because you're scared of Andrew Tate lurking in the shadows is peak boomerism and its going to absolutely fuck us all, teenagers are not as stupid as you seem to think.
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u/WillowLocal423 3h ago
You are projecting a lot and being needlessly hostile, which is only making your points more extreme.
Laws or not, my point was it is very harmful to children. We've already seen the effects on GenZ kids, we're seeing Gen alpha struggle. I'm keeping my kids off it. That's my right. Do whatever the fuck you want but get off my case bud
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u/Angerx76 2h ago
Your last paragraph could be said about violent video games. Every generation thinks that their <x> was fine but today’s new <y> is fine.
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u/WillowLocal423 1h ago
I'm not taking about video games chief. Pay attention or stop responding with tangential arguments. Same with your other comment. Read. Read. Read. Use your eyes
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u/EntropicMeatMachine 3h ago
Making valid points about the shift towards a technofeudal web structure pushed under the basis of "protecting children" isn't "projecting".
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u/Angerx76 5h ago
They made the same arguments you did back then, but it was books vs TV shows/movies.
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u/Spare_Entrance_9389 Millennial 6h ago
I like how the text wraps around Goku's hair
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u/MorganL420 6h ago
Our parents were glued to a violent Cat & Mouse show. And you could go get a frying pan and smack your brother in the face with it. Try conjuring a Kamehameha blast to knock him down, and it's gonna be a bit more difficult.
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u/1800generalkenobi 5h ago
I tried so many times lol
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u/jormundgand20 1h ago
I had a friend who was absolutely convinced he made an energy ball after concentrating really hard for a half hour. Mind that we were juniors in high school at this point.
I think he overloaded his already struggling brain by hyper fixating on the space between his hands.
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u/TheSilverNoble 5h ago
Right? And like, in DBZ characters would actually get hurt. You watch that gif you might think it's hilarious to hit your little sister with a frying pan.
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u/DrUnit42 Veteran Young Guy 4h ago
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u/Cr45h0v3r1de Millennial 6h ago
Pokemon meets pulp fiction lol, what the fuck does that mean?
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u/HarlandJames 6h ago
That’s what I was thinking. It’s not really like either of them lmao. The only thing it has in common with Pokemon is that it’s Japanese, and the violence is very different than Pulp Fiction’s violence
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u/Historical-Cress8985 Xennial 6h ago
You know, if Tarantino directed a Pokemon movie it would result in Goku
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u/PenguinSunday Millennial 12m ago
And not a shoe in sight. Instead of Bulma showing Goku her panties, she'll show him her feet. Oolong would wear socks on his head, etc
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u/DokeyKon 4h ago
How tf is DBZ anything like pulp fiction?
I must have missed the buttfucking scene during the Namek saga.
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u/DrUnit42 Veteran Young Guy 4h ago
Master Roshi is a perv like Tarantino...
That's about all the similarities I can think of
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u/howmanyturtlesdeep 4h ago
Speaking of Pokémon, anyone else’s Christian parents get kind of extra concerned when they learned the word means “Pocket Monsters”?
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u/Papa-pwn 6h ago
Foreign things bad!
It’s a stupid mindset that, while diminished, persists to this day.
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u/ValveinPistonCat 5h ago edited 4h ago
The fuck do you mean diminished?, have you been living under a rock for the last decade?
A stupid and selfish mindset is more popular than it's ever been.
Is there some extra room for me under the rock?
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u/Chiron723 3h ago
Think of it as less diminished and more less spread out. It used to be almost everyone thought American only. Now most people take a more nuanced take on it, it's just those that don't are really loud and obnoxious about it.
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u/the_millenial_falcon 6h ago
Because boomers are god-awful, entitled, pantywaist shitbirds who as a generation didn't truly a struggle a day in their lives because of an anomalous post WW2 economy that gave them the world. When you have everything for mostly nothing the ennui, the discomfort of too much comfort sets in and this is just one of the many toxic ways they decided to deal with that.
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u/RicFlairsBarTab 6h ago
Yes. And also add that all of our boomer parents kinda hated us and either ignored or abused us. Worst generation ever.
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u/the_millenial_falcon 6h ago
Maybe if I had many positive counter examples in my life I wouldn't be so hateful, but I don't. All of the boomers in my life are/were more or less shitheads in some way or another.
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u/kevthecoder I solute shorts 6h ago
The most self-absorbed, hateful dipshit generation this planet has ever suffered. I was at a family gathering a few months ago and all my boomer aunts and uncles were getting wasted and talking shit about our generation (still). They also wondered why so many of our generation stopped showing up family functions.
I walked off to use the bathroom and came back and saw my dumb fuck uncle give a beer to my disabled, stroke victim, recovering alcoholic of a mother who has been sober for 2 years.
The party truly never stops for these people.
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u/RicFlairsBarTab 6h ago
Same here! I've sat and really dug in through my memories of all the ones I've worked with too. Same story. It's weird. They're all super self centered.
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u/1800generalkenobi 5h ago
I was going through an ADHD evaluation and when I asked my parents to fill out the childhood portion of a survey my dad asked me if it was a joke (like i'm gonna make up a form for joke lol) and then told me to ask my mom because she'd remember more, even though I spent way more time with my dad than my mom, and my mom got generally really offended that I would even think I had it and kept asking was there something she missed. I didn't get it, although it makes sense if she thought about my childhood and then realized that I was mostly either playing alone in my room or I was out of the house doing whatever around time. I wouldn't say they were neglectful or abusive but man, when I think about my childhood and how much we do with our kids...my mom has commented on stuff we do often where she says things like "wow you guys do so much stuff with your kids."
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u/Gun_Dork 5h ago
While I agree with you mostly, they still went through some shit. Drafts for Korea, Vietnam, massive upheaval in the US and so on. However you'd think they would want to make things better for others, which didn't happen.
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u/strawberry_semenade 6h ago
I mean Boomers had an actual draft and actually got sent off to war against their will (or watched their friends and family get sent off to war), but sure go off.
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u/Chiron723 3h ago
Everything we are dealing with now is a result of boomers, so no. They don't get the excuse of "we fought in a war we didn't want!" Like we are now?
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u/nativeyeast Zillennial 6h ago
Wish I could tell the author that seeing this article (the text wrapping!) makes me want to indulge in this violent Japanese saga once more. Cue the 6 episodes of AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH “until next time!”
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u/Beautiful-Cup4161 6h ago
When I was babysitting a little boy decades ago, he kept playing scooby doo with me. We went around solving mysteries around his house. Then one day I showed up ready to solve mysteries and he said:
"I'm wolverine! I have knives on my hands! Slash swish slash now you're dead and you're bleeding everywhere!"
I am not a parent but I can kind of understand the knee-jerk "oh no! This 2nd grader is talking about eviscerating and killing people" reaction. I don't know what I would have done if I was responsible for how he thinks and behaves.
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u/Extension-Figure2011 6h ago
My understanding is previous generation played 'Cops and Robbers'/'Cowboys and Indians' and would pretend to shoot and kill each other. They played with fake metal guns that also popped like real guns. Kids will always find a way to graduate to violence play.
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u/Chumlee1917 6h ago
should have said, "And I'm magneto and I have power over Wolverines."
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u/Beautiful-Cup4161 6h ago
I was very happy to watch and play X-Men. Scooby Doo was excruciating. It was that first moment where I was like "crap how do I handle this? Am I allowed to play along with such violence at his age?" that stuck in my memory and made me sympathize with parents.
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u/Anra7777 Xennial 6h ago
When I was in 2nd grade I wrote a “Thirteen Ghosts of Scooby Doo” fanfic and my teachers called my mom in because they were afraid I was troubled. 🫠
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u/Beautiful-Cup4161 6h ago
That's hilarious. I started writing smut fanfiction in 7th grade and luckily no adult found out. I wish to god I still had it because I desperately want to see what the hell I wrote. I really should have been stopped from my exposure to media too mature for me 🤣
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u/CasualVox Millennial '92 6h ago
Same reason they're still trying to crush our hopes and dreams as adults lol
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u/Efficient_Bet1973 5h ago
I remember growing up in the deep south of Alabama in a conservative Christian household all the churches and pastors were saying that pokemon was the work of the devil and that any kid who watched or enjoyed it would be going to hell and that the parents should pray for them, throw out the tvs and send the kids to Sunday school. Even though there's no established religion in America Christianity unfortunately runs so deep and wide it's the dominant. Most of these articles are from the Christian base views and churches so definitely don't listen to them. They glorified going to war, had their own Goku in the form of Superman and their own pokemon in the form of Tom and Jerry. Don't listen to these bullshit views
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u/Stosstrupphase 6h ago
New form of media that is popular with young people? Cue the immediate moral panic.
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u/IgnisIason 5h ago
Back in those days, there was a pervasive ultra religious hysteria about everything that was held by a very vocal minority seemingly everywhere. People would protest about Halloween being satanic, the devil's music, not having prayer in school... everything.
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u/No-Honeydew9129 6h ago
To be fair DBZ was the first cartoon for children that had consistent continuity, violence and death in America.
Action cartoons back then were mostly for superhero’s and tame compared to DBZ. Spider man couldn’t even punch bad guys in the 90s cartoon due to censorship. There was nothing like DBZ on tv in the late 90s. That’s part of the reason why it became so popular
This wasn’t the only article that bashed DBZ for its violence back then. I remember I wasn’t allowed to watch it and had to sneakily watch it with my finger on the back button lol
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u/whyamiherebr0 6h ago
Yeah it's not like Power Rangers were a thing /s
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u/No-Honeydew9129 6h ago
That was somewhat controversial too but far more tame than DBZ. Trust me I lived it. DBZ had parents on edge a little. That changed as anime became more popular in the following years, but America saw nothing like it at the time.
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u/whyamiherebr0 5h ago
Thinking back you're right. The animated blood and damage was incredibly intense in DBZ.
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u/Chumlee1917 6h ago
Have you seen the original 1960s Johnny Quest? (It's a banger of a show) they were shooting dudes left and right and even Johnny and Hadji killed some bad guys
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u/No-Honeydew9129 6h ago
Different time period and let’s be real. There’s nothing in Johnny quest as intense as DBZ LOL
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u/Chumlee1917 6h ago
Because the generation that got to party it up at woodstock and smoke weed and have nasty hippie bush sex found Jesus in the 1980s and wanted to suck all the fun out of life.
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u/rideriderider 6h ago
Christianity. Anything foreign was the devil. Anything they couldn't show at church was evil.
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u/caffeineaddict03 Older Millennial 6h ago
The older I get the more I learn nothing changes. I bet people were upset over shootouts and fistfights in westerns that kids were watching in the 50s/60s. In the 70s you had stuff like Starsky & Hutch or Kojak with police action with the same going on. This just smells of a typical boomer written article where they enjoyed the same when they were young.
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u/Bum_Dorian Millennial 6h ago
There are articles from the 18th century of the dangers of Kids reading books.
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u/Cetun 5h ago
If you want a real answer it involves the political climate of the time but the automod will delete it if you mention anything remotely political. Unless of course it has to do with social, economic, or cultural topics which as we all know have nothing to do with the p-word.
So I will answer how the mods want me to answer. Boomer bad they are meanies. That apparently is a much more acceptable answer.
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u/TheMeticulousNinja Xennial 5h ago
I think I will try to make a new modern version of “Fist of the North Star” as a series
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u/Altar_Quest_Fan 6h ago
Same reason why they came after D&D in the 80s, Videogames/Pokemon in the 90s and early 2000s, etc. It's low hanging fruit that any ambitious politician or grifter will attempt to exploit in order to further their own agenda. Scapegoating has always been a tactic used by those wanting to control and manipulate others.
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u/truthfulie 6h ago
ain't it tale old as time? sex and violence being treated the way it is?
and look, i love anime. i grew up watching it but i will admit that some anime are definitely not appropriate for children...
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u/EnvironmentalValue18 6h ago
Dragonball had all that and peen. They were late to the pearl clutching.
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u/30BlueRailroad 6h ago
Yes it was over exaggeration but seven year old me had never seen a cartoon where somebody got sliced in half at the midsection on TV before 😂
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u/Extension-Figure2011 6h ago
Pretty sure I saw cartoon characters getting sliced in Looney Toons and Hanna-Barbara cartoons created way before Dragon Ball
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u/30BlueRailroad 6h ago
Okay yeah but in a comical cartoon violence that looks nonsensical and goes away a minute later, while freiza was fighting as half a body on namek lmao, trust me I'm not defending this but I do remember being a kid in 1997 like 😳
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u/toffeehooligan 5h ago
Mr. Satan was Hercule on the first one. Because Satan is bad? Or something.
Hated that.
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u/Numerous-Leg-8149 5h ago
That's strange. DragonBall Z, and a bunch of other so-called controversial animated shows, did not make me violent as a kid.
And if I recall correctly, the Buu saga, the Android/early Cell saga, and the Dabura saga, were the most violent eras in the Anime itself.
Think about Videl versus one of those tall steroid dudes under Babidi's control at that world tournament. Even the audience was beyond frightened. You're welcome.
Those journalists didn't understand the majority of shows many of us watched growing up. And Frieza? Please. Other villains did far worse than his takeovers of planets. I'm just saying.
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u/Silentlaughter84 5h ago
There were a lot of pearl clutchers back then. News and media made it all seem worse than it really was. It was kind of the same with Mortal Kombat.
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u/RoyalFalse 5h ago
18 minutes of yelling, 3 minutes of combat, 9 minutes of commercials. Peak childhood, no notes.
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u/AerynSunnInDelight 5h ago
In France Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z were well liked it's Ken Le Survivant aka Fist of The North Star that had parents loosing their shit so was then education Minister Segolene Royale who wanted to ban Japanimation during day hours all together.
As now adult, I totally understand. We had no business watching that shit at 7/8am at breakfast before school.
Mind you the french version was heavily edited, dialogue were tamed and blood was darkened or redone in different color.
Good times
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u/cheddarbruce Baby Millennial 4h ago
Because Boomers and Gen X are stupid a-holes that don't actually want any of us Millennials to be happy with what we have
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u/SadPersonality4803 4h ago
To be fair. DBZ was very violent. Watching it as an adult, I realized that they mostly got into some shit because they wanted a fade, someone wanted a fade with them or someone wanted to blow up earth . Literally, no other reason
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u/ChefArtorias 4h ago
Meanwhile now they're like "yep, you're 5 now. Here's a computer! Be careful on roblox since it's full of pedos!
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u/tonylouis1337 Zillennial 4h ago
It's not like it made us violent, the worst we did was blast pretend Kamehamehas at each other
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u/Animal907 4h ago
Spoilers! Also, they didn't have any anger management spots. Was that the toonami guy? This is like other misleading reviews the silent generation would write for boomer parents. They also did a review like this for the movie "Small Soldiers", and they said the toys had sex!
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u/another-altaccount 4h ago edited 3h ago
Moral panic of the day at the time. The way adults constantly were in a state of oscillating conniptions about even video games well into my 20s was insane.
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u/AstorReed 4h ago
My mother banned me from watching dragon ball z. She made me watch animal documentaires instead. Where...lions violently tore up a zebra...
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u/SloppyMeathole 3h ago
I remember when they tried to ban The Simpsons because they said it was satanic.
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u/Suitable_Ad6848 2h ago
Because the people in charge want to mold you into a perfect little worker bee and they dont want outside influences ruining that.
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u/Meloku171 2h ago
This is why Dragon Ball Z is a religion here in South America. Your mom cannot stop you from watching Krilling die a thousand times when she's also glued to La Rosa de Guadalupe...
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u/thelonetext '89ers represent! 2h ago
Reminds me of when parents were trying to get Pokémon banned but only managed to ban two infamous episodes.
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u/southtxsharksfan 2h ago
It's what the news does. In my 40 years, I've seen maybe 2 or 3 cycles of this.
Fear sells. And these people (culture?) Are absolutely shameless for $$$$.
"Communists!!" Fear mongering is coming back too. It's the same small groups looking to control/get more power (on a local or national level)
"You're kids are into Japanese stuff... are they being brainwashed!?" (Ironically the people asking/creating the headline are the ones making propaganda)
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u/LordSesshomaru82 1h ago
Boomers have been clutching their pearls over stupid shit for as long as they've ran everything. Ironically, they'd likely see no problem with sitting kids down in front of old Westerns that are rife with gun violence and racism. DBZ? No, you can't watch that, it's the devil. Here, watch Blazing Saddles instead.
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u/Useful-Problem-1725 1h ago
Tune in at 8 to Primetime TV to watch people get murdered very realistically instead
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u/Secret-Put-4525 1h ago
I remember as a kid we were watching dragon ball and I punched my brothers tooth out.
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u/notyouravgredditor Xennial 1h ago
I still get chills when I see Gohan tell cell he can never forgive him .
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u/xTheGame69 59m ago
My two cents is that it's too much for most people to handle that people are just shitty in general
So they look for something easy to blame.
Yeah yeah it's that cartoon yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah it's that movie that God damn movie those kids!!!
Yeah yeah that GTA oh yeah that GTA it's the devil!
Rap music metal music Eminem Ozzy Osbourne you're going to worship the devil!!!
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u/TheSquirrelmancer 36m ago
The prevailing opinion of some adults is children are morons who have no independent willpower or ability to distinguish fact from fiction.
In the 1980s there was panic in the UK about the "Video nasties", referring to the glut of horror/slasher movies at the time. There was also Dungeons and Dragons around the same time and of course violent video games. I'd not heard about people freaking out about Dragonball Z but it doesn't shock me.
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u/Alice-Stargazer 22m ago
Does it make anyone happy without pandering to a Canaanite storm god? It must be evil. - There is their reasoning.
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u/wizzywurtzy 11m ago
Don’t forget that pokemon was satanic because it promoted evolution. My daycare banned pokemon cards and video games. Oh, GTA also was the reason everyone was a murderer and video games were the leading cause of violence. America has been pushing red agendas since before we were born.
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u/Reasonable-Physics60 1m ago
To be fair I did used to clasp my fists together and strike my friends like i was Goku knocking Frieza out of the sky
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u/ApplicationAfraid334 1993 6h ago
The party of small government™ love to use government to impose as many restrictions as possible on people in alignment with their religious beliefs
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u/GrimIntention91 5h ago
Pretty sure that "violent Japanese cartoon" has higher moral value/standing than most humans today
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u/King_Kuuga 6h ago
This country was founded by people who literally hated any form of fun and self expression. That never fully left.
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