Current trend? Lolis have been a thing for decades in anime.

Hot take: pedophiles are gross?

Ackshully, she's a 500 year old dragon.

Yea I hate that it's a thing in anime. There are several shows that I liked, but had to stop watching when a recurring loli character entered the story. It's just so wrong to look at children that way (drawn or not) imo, makes my skin crawl!

I don't think this opinion is that unpopular - I don't even like anime but still see these images pop up in memes and comics sometimes, with the laughable defence 'yeah this highly sexualised picture of a (10-16) year old girl is actually a 900 year old in a child's body so it doesn't count' or something.

The term is lolicon I believe. The fact I know that makes me want to cringe.

If you are talking about blatantly kiddie porn, then I absolutely agree with you.

Though it is not a new trend, not particularly an unpopular opinion, or limited to just cringe.

If it’s just cutsie or shortstack type character, then to each their own.

Loli stuff has always been a black hole when it comes to any anime discussion, so I applaud your bravery in breaching the subject.

Well done, FBI agent. The incels are coming out of the goddamn woodwork up in here.

If anime girls are just now becoming cringey in this community, I may need to reconsider going back to Reddit. Hasn’t the anime girl thing always been cringey? Or is Lemmy just more full of teenagers thinking this is cool?

This is definitely not an unpopular opinion. Except on lemmy maybe... there's some weird ass shit on the NSFW instance. Like I try not to kink shame folks but hot damn is it weird sometimes. I got someone banned for reporting their degrading women/get back in the kitchen rape themed shit I stumbled on. People get way too comfy expressing their technically not illegal fetishes.

Are we talking about hentai in general and you just always think its underage, or you specifically talking about underage hentai

The amount of Lolis, "flat is justice" and moe hentai in any given community seems to be directly proportional to the amount of incels, red and otherwise "pilled" people. On a psychological level, I think it has to do with dehumanisation and also a sexual/romantic interest for a partner with less agency and a shallow character.

ITT: Horny incel nerds that can not fathom that despite loli anime has been around forever and despite there are no victims of child abuse in making the imagery etc etc - for normal nerds it is gross and cringe that adults are swooning over sexualized cartoon teenagers.

It's becoming normalized in various Linux and FOSS stuff too. Like the Android distro I tried out recently that looked clean and business and and then the menu backgrounds had anime tweens with balloon tiddies. WTF is this tacky bullshit? What is going on? Why do all these fellow nerds think this is normal or cool or edgy or whatever?

These subjects are hard topics to discuss openly. It doesn't help that when they are being "discussed" it usually ends up as a "it ain't real" vs "shut up, scum" as it did here.

It's fear versus fear and it shows.

"It ain't real" - studies have shown that porn has affected the way people see relationships, often with unrealistic sexual expectations from themselves and their partners. Rationally, they could recognize how different reality is from what is shown in the media, yet unavoidably still felt a pang of disappointment from their expectations not being met.

As a psychological example specifically, stalkers who build an idealized imaginary form of their favourite idol are known to become violent with rage when the idol in question does not meet their self-created expectations. Yes, one can say that the stalker fan had deep mental issues beforehand, and one would be wrong. They had slight mental issues beforehand that were multiplied by repeatedly reinforcing their self-indulged fantasies. A reinforced behaviour will cause the brain to normalize it over time.

"shut up, scum" - studies have shown that vilifying those we fear or are prejudiced against will almost always create a sense of resentment in that individual or group that will have them act exactly as they are claimed to have acted without actual evidence. Retaliatory responses with the sole purpose of doing harm are the most common and factual type of act we humans have repeatedly shown the willingness to perform. There is no sense of a discussion here, only a demand to accept one point of view or face discrimination, shunning, shaming, legal and criminal consequences or isolation. By acting in fear, we bring our own monsters to life.

As humans, knowledge defines us. We seek it, we are it. The constrains are self-imposed either from mutual agreement or authoritarian force. Which is why, in my opinion, we will never as a people reach consensus. Because before we are a society, we are individuals and as individuals, the knowledge we gain, accept and maintain over time is different from one another. And these differences will eventually come into conflict. At that time, in order to coexist, we make compromises with the precept to do no harm to one another, else there can be no peace between us.

...

OP is correct to be worried, but directs this worry at the wrong party. These people are victims of the failings of society and unless society itself can be changed, OPs worries will only create conflict if not thought out constructively. As it did in the comments. Be better OP. Your comfort in not seeing cringe drawings should be the least of your worries and instead focus on your discomfort in knowing you have brought the cringe here into your post instead. Read it and cringe.

Yeah people get in echo chambers especially with the internet and get to thinking all kids of weird behavior is acceptable. Just because it's popular does not make it right!