Japan doesn’t give a **** about you

And that’s the real secret to global pop-cultural success

The Atlantic essay by Spencer Kornhaber asking “Is This the Worst-Ever Era of American Pop Culture?” sparked a great deal of commentary in the two weeks since it dropped. Friends W. David Marx, Noah Smith, and others have weighed in as to whether we’ve really entered a “cultural dark age,” and if so, why. The argument goes that American television, film…