Many of 2-channelers distrust existing mass media, so the strongly-worded declaration of distrust to the reporter touched their heart.

I’ve tried to explain the concept of ‘Know thyself’ to Japanese friends. The Japanese version of this seems to be ‘Love thyself’.

‘Know thyself’ is an objective analysis of the self, requiring a certain amount of detachment. External advice is also incorporated into the analysis. e.g. if friends start to say “You’re drinking a lot these days”, then you might incoroprate these comments into your personal analysis and try to correct your self-destructive behaviour.

‘Love thyself’ is a subjective analysis of the self, without detachment. No external advice is incorporated into the analysis. Same example, although IMHO few Japanese, are likely to say that you are drinking too much because they too subscribe to the ‘love thyself’ philosophy. They’re too self absorbed to even notice your drinking habits, let alone mention them. If your drinking habit were mentioned, you would most likely take this as a criticizm and question the value of your friendship, because after all, you’re so perfect that you cannot possibly have a drinking problem.