Live data from Hacker News

Japan's 'Naked Hermit' Pried from Island Utopia After 29 Years

news.com.au

81–90 of 136 posts

Re: Japan's 'Naked Hermit' Pried from Island Utopia After 29 Years

#81
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...of candy. (In any case, isn't public nakedness also a crime? It is in many countries.)

It maybe a crime in highly religious counties but it's actually perfectly legal in many countries (as well as some states in the US). In the UK you can get arrested for "indecent exposure", which I believe basically means someone has to be offered by your nakedness. Which means nude beaches, organised naked cycle events and such like are all perfectly legal. I wouldn't class myself as a naturist but I am often surpri…

For more on the UK approach, see the long saga of Stephen Gough, the Naked Rambler.

And sometimes naked plane rider, which is rather asking for trouble. Rambling yes. Naked on a plane, please do not.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Gough?wprov=sfla1

Re: Japan's 'Naked Hermit' Pried from Island Utopia After 29 Years

#83
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn’t jump the gun on that. OP was clearly trying to create a worse case scernaio so that a reader may see the story from the perspective of a land owner vs the first comment which while a beautiful sentiment doesn’t really take practicalities like liability into consideration.

Arbitrarily defining someone as mentally ill in order to take away their chosen way life is an age old strawman.

That's not what the term "strawman" means. What you mean is it's an excuse used to oppress people, and that may be true but you'd have to give supporting cases. (Certainly it has been the case for LGBTQ people being oppressed in the past, even currently in some countries.)

Mental illness is also a real thing and a real problem, and people with serious problems who need medication often live outside the bounds of normal society. But that issue is not going to be solved here, and I think it's a distraction from the actual topic because the reality is he was on other people's property where he wasn't welcome.

Re: Japan's 'Naked Hermit' Pried from Island Utopia After 29 Years

#85
Regardless of the fact that his family sent him money or that he bought food and water for the money from local villagers, he was maybe our last true old style hermit.

There used to be a time when hermits were more common and people largely tolerated that. So I still think it's sad he was removed from the island and not allowed to live out his life the way he wanted.

Re: Japan's 'Naked Hermit' Pried from Island Utopia After 29 Years

#87
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arbitrarily defining someone as mentally ill in order to take away their chosen way life is an age old strawman.

That's not what the term "strawman" means. What you mean is it's an excuse used to oppress people, and that may be true but you'd have to give supporting cases. (Certainly it has been the case for LGBTQ people being oppressed in the past, even currently in some countries.) Mental illness is also a real thing and a real problem, and people with serious problems who need medication often live outside the bounds of norm…

I think they're describing your applying a mental disorder to someone when there's no evidence of that anywhere in the article-to justify your position against the comment you responded to-as being a strawman.

Because it is.

Re: Japan's 'Naked Hermit' Pried from Island Utopia After 29 Years

#88
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arbitrarily defining someone as mentally ill in order to take away their chosen way life is an age old strawman.

That's not what the term "strawman" means. What you mean is it's an excuse used to oppress people, and that may be true but you'd have to give supporting cases. (Certainly it has been the case for LGBTQ people being oppressed in the past, even currently in some countries.) Mental illness is also a real thing and a real problem, and people with serious problems who need medication often live outside the bounds of norm…

>I think it's a distraction from the actual topic

Precisely my point.

>that may be true but you'd have to give supporting cases.

There are countless examples throughout history if you'd like to learn.

Runaway slaves, gays, masturbators, marijuana smokers, and political dissidents have all been classified as mentally ill and oppressed as a result of their lifestyles.

For more comprehensive, historically cited writeup, check out The Manufacture of Madness

https://www.amazon.com/Manufacture-Madness-Comparative-Inqui...

Re: Japan's 'Naked Hermit' Pried from Island Utopia After 29 Years

#89
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what I was guessing. But since I don't understand Japanese, I can't read the article to check. But looking at photos of the island, it doesn't look like a good place to farm. So that's what led me to believe the island and the property might not be the same thing.

> since I don’t understand Japanese, I can’t read the article to check. Sure you can! https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https... * Does my comment seem flippant or 100% unhelpful or something? I’m super confused why it’s getting downvoted to death. I understand the parent might have been asking for nuance of translation, but I meant this to be helpful; you can in fact get a pretty good sense for…

I'm conflicted between gratitude for the translation link and anxiety over its NSFW picture. Damn this cube-shaped panopticon.

Re: Japan's 'Naked Hermit' Pried from Island Utopia After 29 Years

#90
post #46

The items he's using in that video don't look like they are 3 decades old. Searching a bit, I found a wiki with more info about him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sotobanari > Sotobanari had one human inhabitant, a eighty-two-year-old man named Masafumi Nagasaki, who had lived there in semi-isolation for three decades (1989 - 2018), nude, and bought food and water from a settlement an hour away by boat weekly with ¥1…

And he mentioned using a lighter. Of course it would run of fuel.
Post reply on HN