This year ended in much the same way it began: with people arguing about Marie Kondo.
The latest debate to surround the tidying consultant centers around her recently launched online store. "I can think of no greater happiness in life than being surrounded only by the things I love," Kondo writes on the opening page of the digital marketplace, which sells items such as towels, tins, baskets and crystals (Kondo is apparently "never without a crystal").
While there are plenty of valid questions to ask about this endeavor, many opted to react extremely to what is a pretty standard curated shop model embraced by celebrities the world over. What started as goofing on an obvious irony quickly mutated into thinkpieces skewering Kondo's decision and stunt journalism. That morphed into claims of racist criticism aimed at the Japanese personality and deeper analysis of Japan itself.