When I was a sophomore in high school my English teacher, Ms. Brooks, gave us a small list of questions that pertained to “To Kill a Mockingbird”, our assigned reading at that time. They were discussion questions for which we had to write notes to prepare for class the next day. I don’t remember what the questions were, but I remember writing a lot of notes since “To Kill a Mockingbird” was one of the books I most enjoyed reading for that class.
When we entered the classroom the next day, Ms. Brooks had us rearrange the classroom so the desks formed two circles in the middle of the room. Ms. Brooks explained the format of the discussion: a Socratic seminar. I was horrified. I knew, no matter what the topic of discussion was, there would be a smug dude (probably wearing a navy blazer and khakis; you know the type) sitting next to me anxiously waiting for a lull in the conversation so he could mutter the fateful words, “I respect your point, buuuuut just to play devil’s advocate here . . .”
Thankfully, my experiences with in-class discussions at college are very different. When someone brings up a different viewpoint of the matter at hand, it comes from a place of having a different understanding, and not from the desire to sound cool because they’re bringing up the opposite point of view.
Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with having a different perspective than the people around you. I love Shonen anime like “One Piece” and “Hunter x Hunter”. My girlfriend vehemently hates them. But we have learned to live with those differences. I don’t try to force her to watch anime with me, and she does not try to stop me from watching them. She does, however, cut me off when I start to mansplain the power systems and the overarching meanings behind fights and how Zoro could beat Sanji in a fight.
Having differing opinions is normal. But going out of your way to have different opinions is something else: contrarianism.
Being a contrarian means challenging common ideas. In order to be a contrarian, you have to eat, sleep and breathe having the opposite mindset to mainstream people. Unlike playing devil’s advocate, contrarianism isn’t a way to think about the current topic of discussion. It’s a way to think about every topic of discussion. It’s a lifestyle.
The power of contrarianism comes when challenging commonly accepted ideas. Flat-Earthers, people who believe the moon landing was a hoax, and anyone who wholeheartedly believes something that can be described as a conspiracy theory, all fall into this category.
Contrarianism, in this form, can be dangerous. While challenging the status quo is beneficial, which we will go into more detail later, following narratives that are based solely on believing an alternative to the norm is harmful.
Another example of this, although to a lesser degree, would be hot takes. A hot take is when someone makes a quick, provocative and often shallow comment about something that the majority of people agree upon.
Bringing anime back into the mix, there are plenty of hot takes to go around. Most are aimed to elicit a strong reaction—scrutinizing small details or plot holes and using that as evidence to say something like, “Naruto is bad and overrated.”
Hot takes that are designed like this can be classified as ragebait. Ragebait is a form of content that is meant to create a high amount of engagement. This is common on social media, but can also be found in tabloids. If the title, caption, or headline, makes you think something like “huh that makes no sense, let me comment to tell them they’re wrong,” then a contrarian has successfully used ragebait to manipulate you.
Contrarianism can lead to positive outcomes though. During World War II, Abraham Wald, a Hungarian statistician, was part of a team tasked with figuring out the best way to reinforce U.S. bomber planes to minimize losses. After missions, a large number of planes would not return, and the ones that did were riddled with bullet holes.
Most of the team figured reinforcing planes based on the bullet hole patterns on the ones that came back would lead to a higher rate of planes returning after each mission. Wald figured the contrary. The planes that did not come back were shot in the vital spots. Therefore, the spots that had no bullet holes on the planes that returned were the spots where the other planes were shot and could not return. Due to considering the contrary, Wald deduced the situation as an example of survivorship bias, where using the surviving planes as a model was not effective in reinforcing future planes.
So with all that said, contrarianism as a theory is great! But the way people put that theory into practice can be dangerous. Uncontrolled contrarianism can lead to a lot of conflict around politics, society, or anime. So don’t be the person that thinks they’re a great debater because they’re the smug fella that says, “Great point you have there Colin. However, I’m gonna play devil’s advocate . . .”
Josh Steen 
Adaelle Stobie 
Will Cunningham