this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
112 points (100.0% liked)
askchapo
22763 readers
554 users here now
Ask Hexbear is the place to ask and answer ~~thought-provoking~~ questions.
Rules:
-
Posts must ask a question.
-
If the question asked is serious, answer seriously.
-
Questions where you want to learn more about socialism are allowed, but questions in bad faith are not.
-
Try [email protected] if you're having questions about regarding moderation, site policy, the site itself, development, volunteering or the mod team.
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Everyone realized South Park's messaging was horrible even back then, but ”that's the joke bro, they're being misanthropic edgelords for the lulz!”, which in itself led to some even worse stuff from South Park poisoned people.
I wish that were the case. I still get into go-nowhere arguments, sometimes, with fans that claim that "Matt and Trey make fun of everything and everyone" and therefore it's also so wholesomely nonpolitical in the balance.
I doubt South Park often makes fun of smug enlightened centrism, apathy as a lazy response to actual political issues that actually affect living people's lives, or for that matter the rich white asshole libertarianism of Matt and Trey.
The Harley f-slur episode did it for me. A couple years prior, my closest friends all got together and agreed to stop using the f-slur. We had no out queer friends (god it took me so long to admit dicks are good actually), and we were just "this is dumb to just use constantly". The word was so ingrained in our lexicon and a bunch of idiot 13 year olds decide amongst themselves that enough was enough. Then like 2 years later that episode came out. Was a quick "well this is dog shit" realization.
They embrace it. There was an ep where Stan starts drinking to accept things. It's literally "caring will make you unfunny, lonely, and lame".
Every time I hear someone claim that entertainment has no effect on people's attitudes, beliefs, or behavior, I can glance back in time at the cultural ripples that occured each time South Park programmed its consumers to do something like, say, dismiss climate change entirely as a concept by getting credulous smug "nonpoliticals" to say "MANBEARPIG LOL" to terminate further thought.
Or that time they popularized redhead hate in the US
I didn't even know redhead hate was a thing or have to hear about it until that episode aired and then it was everywhere around me "as a joke" for a while.
When
got elected, that very biting critique suddenly went silent because Matt and Trey are cowards and always have been.
Watching this is definitely not one of my proudest life phases. I remember it really got to me with neurodivergence and how they chose to depict that. Also it's incredibly violent to fat people, the way Cartman gets portayed and what the supposed reasons are for his behaviour.
Someone posted a Red Sails article here yesterday that goes over the way entertainment conditions us to the status quo. I think South Park is a perfect example of that, in making horrible be supposedly mainstream.
Could you send a link to that? It may be useful the next inevitable time some treat defender chants "entertainment has no effect on people" at me, usually prepackaged with whatever salad bar leftist jargon they add to it.
Here you go: https://redsails.org/masses-elites-and-rebels/
Appreciated!