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Todd Ellner's avatar

This echoes the myth that Karate was a way that Okinawan peasants defended themselves against rapacious samurai when we know the truth was much different and more prosaic. Capoeira? Haitian machete fencing during the revolution against France? Absolutely elements of class resistance. But very different context

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Robert Tuck's avatar

I think emphasizing the underdog angle is just savvy marketing, too. I’d have to dig up the quote, but I think Stephen K. Hayes wrote somewhere that ninja were just ordinary folks finding ways to defend their families, just like the Patriots during the American Revolution. Just your average Revolutionary Patriot Ninja.

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