In this post, I'll describe a phenomenon I'll call the xenophilic paradox. This idea is this: people that are very interested in foreign cultures often dislike or feel alienated from the place they themselves are from—while wishing that people of the cultures they admire do not become more cosmpolitan, they themselves contribute to making these cultures more in their likeness.

For instance, you may get a linguist who is studying some population XYZ. The linguist is most interested in talking to monolingual speakers of XYZ and wishes to learn and understand the culture of XYZ. However, the linguist is a foreign agent who necessarily introduces foreign thinking/concepts/etc. upon contact.

The Weeb

In the West, there are lot of people that have at least a superficial interest in places/cultures that they themselves are not ethnically connected with. For example, there are the weebs who fawn after all things Japanese. Weebs cringe at each other and the Japanese cringe at weebs. But many people continue down weebdom as a path of escapism from their issues they refuse to confront.

There is a phenomenon called the itasha or "painful to look at car". Do a quick image search and you will see many examples of cars plastered with anime stuff. Why would such a thing exist?

The illustrator exercises control over the canvas they control—they can establish homogeneity of style, good composition, consistency with some standards (e.g. how some character is supposed to look).

The weeb seeks a perfect little ordered world—even if fictional—which illustrators can depict. Rather than meeting the people around them, the weeb turns to some 2D ideals.

• They watch Naruto train instead of training themselves
• They drool over cooking mangas while not doing the dishes in their own living spaces
• They spend thousands of dollars on games, merchandise, etc. and fail to invest in their own futures—the prototypical consoomer
• They nostalgia LARP a childhood they never had (e.g. Japanese high school drama stuff)

Oftentimes, the weeb is self-loathing. So why does the weeb keep on weebing?

To become a weeb is easy. All you do is choose escapism over work and let your own psychology drive you deeper and deeper into obscure places. For some, this may be spending hours creating lewd drawings for very specific audiences. For others, this may be becoming insufferably boring to talk to because of having a compulsive desire to share details about a pantheon of 2D characters to any even slightly polite ear.

The weeb is able to find some beauty in the things of Japan,

• fine craftsmanship
• appreciation of the natural world
• law and order
• ethnicity
• arts/music celebrating simple, good things

If only we could be like (idealized) Japan?!, they wonder. Then, they go to the voting booth and choose all the things that make them disgusted by their own nations.

Redemption of the Weeb

The weeb chooses false idols—fictions made up by men—to place first and serve. Weebness may manifest in having shelves covered with anime figuirines, meticulously cared for, cleaned, etc. Computers may be configured all around the experience of some fictional entity.

Redemption of the weeb takes the same form as someone who worships money, career/prestige, fame, etc.