post goin around about how adults who are well-adjusted should not watch cartoons designed for kids and stuff like that natch gets a lot of people leavin hot takes everywhere

largely cuz it's a dumb argument and not sensible

stuff designed for kids and families are 99.9 and repeating % of the time designed by adults who grew up on or have an appreciation for what kid-focused media can do, and the appeal for a lot of 'em is legit as a thing to study and learn from

i've seen arguments in the past about how an overreliance on kids' or family-oriented cartoons or games belies a certain sense of emotional immaturity and it's something i don't always buy. sorta in the same vein that violent video games don't really CAUSE violence.

i think the thing being observed is that, yeah, when you're already emotionally compromised in some way, or prone to violence, or whatever, the media that you feel reflects that mindset is gonna attract that kind of person. that's... not exactly a bad thing in and of itself

i mean, hell, people with violent tendencies often find catharsis in violent games. people who are "emotionally immature" might find a space to learn and unpack in a comforting way. and some people will use them in hazardous ways.

it's kinda like saying "well, Taxi Driver is bad because it features a bad person as a protagonist, and there's a pre-teen prostitute in it! john hinckley tried to do a murder because of it!"

i mean, i'd argue he probably woulda done it anyway. taxi driver didn't make him do it.

we always find ways of drawing parallels between the media we consume and the output of people as a set arrangement of values because we want simple explanations, but putting blanket statements on media as an instigator of behavior we deem immature or problematic is badweird

it's a good way of eschewing discussion of the actual catalysts for that behavior. like, yeah, there's def some stuff out there that was made by cruel, emotionally compromised people who probably shouldn'ta made the thing. the game Hatred comes to mind, for instance

but geez, it's almost like we constantly have these discussions about medium versus whether an audience is created by the content that is presented or if it already exists and we simply create things they would intrinsically gravitate to. and it's very often the latter.

there's a lot of artistry in kids' and family-oriented cartoons, especially these days. they're worth exploring. there's plenty of adult-oriented media that does the same. limiting yourself to something strictly because it's age-appropriate or expected of you is real weird.

life is too short to obsess over defining anything not in your demographic as a childish thing to put away

maybe let's have discussions about how people can form healthy relationships with the media they consume before we talk about whether or not certain media will make our kids bloodthirsty satanists who eat drugs