Kristi Noem: “It never ends, but it’s so lazy, to make fun of women and how they look. Only the liberals and the extremists do that. If they wanted to criticize my job, go ahead and do that. But clearly they can’t. They pick something petty like that."
Originally Posted By u/kenistod At 2025-08-08 03:49:56 PM | Source
Thanks for the reply, I think I understand your sentiment but ultimately I still disagree with you. I agree that those who do plastic surgery can be seen as victims to societal pressures and in that sense deserve empathy rather than ridicule. It's a shortsighted solution, because it's often counterproductive (people often look worse & it increases pressure on others that differ from the 'ideal'), ineffective (people often aren't satisfied afterwards and keep going for more surgery), not without danger (there's a shitload of complications happening) and only a short term solution (no matter how much surgery you do, appearances change). A better solution is acceptance, coming to terms with how you look. This solution is safe, durable, and inspiring to others. People generally perceive 'satisfaction with ones appearance' as attractive (of course this is outside the digital realms of Instagram and such, where people don't actually exist, so this shouldn't matter). But we can hardly blame people for shortsightedness. It's a tragedy, but they're not to blame. But this doesn't mean it's not deserving of criticism. Plastic surgery is a mistake. We all make mistakes. I've been an addict for 6 years of my life. It was my way of coming to terms with my family falling apart. It was a tragedy, but it was also a mistake. That's not to suggest that it would be fair to mock me in public. But I was just a depressed teenager, this woman is a prominent fascist figure. If you want to rule the world, you should be willing to face the ridicule. People will ridicule you for every mistake you ever made. If you're an addict and you want to rule the world, be ready for people pointing towards your addictions. Now is that really unfair? She pretends she has the wisdom to decide about wether fascists ICE gangs should hunt down people in the streets, which she clearly deems the right thing to do. Isn't it fair to question her moral authority by pointing out that she shot her own dog (which might've also been a personal tragedy) and that she lacks the wisdom to refrain from deforming her appearance? May Hitler not be ridiculed for his moustache?
I personally would never go out and insult people for such things, I might criticize them for what I deem mistakes, but I generally respect people as a person, and don't reduce them to one particular trait. But context matters here. Like you said, we're talking about South Park. They're satirists. It's their role in our society to satirize people in positions of power. If they had chosen some unknown innocent nobody, I would completely agree that that's unfair. But not by accident, they've chosen a fascist leader.