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Mesoian

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 28, 2017
26,371

I mean, they had to issue an apology and do multiple episodes to try and course correct people who wholeheartedly followed "giant douche or turd sandwich" as a mantra to not vote.

Like, the show had its occasional point and there was a point where it was hitting really hard and strong on certain issues. But they did a shit ton of damage by convincing people that apathy was way more effective than action.
 

Squid Bunny

One Winged Slayer
Member
Jun 11, 2018
5,339
I think people overestimate the effects TV shows and other types of media have on behavior.
I find it baffling that in a website dedicated to videogames and popular culture, where most users grew up on a heavy media diet, there are those who think it doesn't affect behavior/thinking at all.

South Park didn't create "bad people", but it sure as hell validated the "caring is for morons", "people who (defend x) are actually hypocrites" way of thinking for loads of people.
 

Prax

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,755
I don't think it's South Park's fault that people are morons and valorize characters who are clearly villains or get the wrong morals from what should be a cartoon based on absurdism.

But humans gonna human and many people clearly need to be kept away from a lot of things. Can't even have fun making conspiracy theories about a hollow or flat earth before you get a true believer ruining it all.
 

jimtothehum

Member
Mar 23, 2018
1,489
While I think there is plenty of criticism to given to South Park and its creators, to apply this much significance to the show seems a bit sensationalist.
 

Doober

Banned
Jun 10, 2018
4,295
And I always thought that the man bear pig thing was tongue in check, and they weren't really climate change denialists.

Not to mention that manbearpig ended up being real.

I'll concede that South Park could have been a factor in driving nihilism and political apathy among millenials but I'm pretty sure a far, far bigger cause was coming of age during the Great Recession and having their careers and earning opportunities stunted right out of the gate, while government did fuck-all to help beyond making sure that the folks who caused the entire cock-up were made whole and went unpunished.
 
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tr00per

Member
Nov 4, 2017
890
I wonder what made a generation of young people cynical and angry, distrustful of institutions and traditional politics.

Was it the collapse in living standards and rising levels of debt

Was it the illegal wars based on lies that killed millions of people and continue to rend the world's wounds open for decades

Was it the accelerating climate crisis destroying the planet, burning, drowning, choking and poisoning us all that leaders deny is happening, and when they don't decline to do anything about since it would be too expensive

Was it the return of fascism, white nationalism, ethnic cleansing, concentration camps and xenophobia

Was it the biggest financial collapse since the Great Depression, where insane hyper accelerated greed destroyed the homes and livelihoods of the middle class

No, in fact, it was a cartoon


I love this post. Thank you.
 

keku

Member
Apr 23, 2019
333
What an over reaction.
A friend of mine was just complaining to me that her husband only gets his political news from South Park. That seems to be far too common.

Quoting for page one but her husband is an idiot.

South Park has some shitty takes, but also good ones. Most importantly, it's a comedy satire not meant to be taken seriously.
"Impossible to overstate the cultural damage done" is a huge hyperbole.
 
Oct 25, 2017
34,760
What an over reaction.

Quoting for page one but her husband is an idiot.

South Park has some shitty takes, but also good ones. Most importantly, it's a comedy satire not meant to be taken seriously.
"Impossible to overstate the cultural damage done" is a huge hyperbole.

Exactly. They have good takes and bad takes.
Last season had them call out Hollywood for kowtowing to the Chinese government for money, called out anti-vaxxers for being stupid, and called out the cable companies poor service as a reason why people are switch to streaming platforms.
But they also had that transgender athlete episode which was quite tone-deaf, and the dressing of the season was all that Tegridy Farms shit. I didn't even understand the last episode. "Holidays suck so we should legalize cocaine". What?
 

Onebadlion

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,188
If that tweet hadn't started with "impossible to overstate..." it might have had a bit more credibility, but as it is it comes across as pure hyperbole and way easier to dismiss outright as a result.
 

Aureon

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,819
I mean, not that influential, but just fucking look at what The Simpsons did to nuclear power.
 

Deleted member 49611

Nov 14, 2018
5,052
someone said something and it upset some people. the usual thing on Twitter.
 

Lost Lemurian

Member
Nov 30, 2019
4,293
I just want to point out the Omega-level irony of South Park fans getting extremely upset about this tweet.

I used to love South Park. However, over time, I realized that lots of (most of?) my fellow fans weren't understanding the joke. Like Heisenberg, and the Joker, and Rick and a dozen other characters you could name, people were ignoring the "anti" part of "anti-hero". And while South Park has made a lot of good and progressive points over the years, that message has been entirely drowned out by caricatures they used to make it.

Remember how Dave Chappelle walked away from millions and millions of dollars because he realized that the stereotypes he was lampooning weren't being understood as irony to his white audience? Matt and Trey never had that catharsis.
 

lmcfigs

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
12,091
yeah I recently saw the second-hand smoking episode. Hard to believe the creators thought it was a worthwhile debate whether second hand smoking was bad for you
 

Gawge

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,625
Exactly. They have good takes and bad takes.
Last season had them call out Hollywood for kowtowing to the Chinese government for money, called out anti-vaxxers for being stupid, and called out the cable companies poor service as a reason why people are switch to streaming platforms.
But they also had that transgender athlete episode which was quite tone-deaf, and the dressing of the season was all that Tegridy Farms shit. I didn't even understand the last episode. "Holidays suck so we should legalize cocaine". What?

They may dehumanize trans people, but they do highlight the poor service of cable companies, so it's impossible to say if they are good or bad.
 

Deleted member 52442

User requested account closure
Banned
Jan 24, 2019
10,774
Sooo like the opposite of how South Park do their social critique?


So is her tweet of a comedic nature not meant to be taken seriously? what kind of comparison is this?

I don't even want to like go to bat for the show, in general i think it does more good than bad but its not like a perfect show/satire and its not like you should take ideas you see in it and run with them
 

Deleted member 11413

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
22,961
I'
I just want to point out the Omega-level irony of South Park fans getting extremely upset about this tweet.

I used to love South Park. However, over time, I realized that lots of (most of?) my fellow fans weren't understanding the joke. Like Heisenberg, and the Joker, and Rick and a dozen other characters you could name, people were ignoring the "anti" part of "anti-hero". And while South Park has made a lot of good and progressive points over the years, that message has been entirely drowned out by caricatures they used to make it.

Remember how Dave Chappelle walked away from millions and millions of dollars because he realized that the stereotypes he was lampooning weren't being understood as irony to his white audience? Matt and Trey never had that catharsis.
I remember how Chapelle came back afterward just to shit on trans people and child abuse victims.
 

DarthWalden

Prophet of Truth
The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
6,030
Lol, I don't think South Park has the large reaching audience to make that impact and most of the people who tune into the show and laugh at the jokes do so because they feel the same way about certain topics as the show creators.
 

lazygecko

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,628
South Park led the charge with making apathetic cynicism feel edgy and rebellious in the 90's and 2000's. Concurrently, Putin's regime learned how to weaponize this kind of sentiment as a means to demoralize opposition and further consolidate their power in Russia. After people started to take notice of what a potent political tool this strategy is, it was only a matter of time before these two trends would start intersecting across the west.
 

jon bones

Member
Oct 25, 2017
25,977
NYC
no shock white dudes who got their entire political understanding from "turd vs douche" tried to dox this woman
 

T002 Tyrant

Member
Nov 8, 2018
8,926
I don't think South Park is responsible for an entire generation of douchebaggery, just as videogames don't make a school shooter. South Park for me fell off the wagon so to speak later in its life regarding punching down.
 

Deleted member 52442

User requested account closure
Banned
Jan 24, 2019
10,774
New thread about the whole thing. Twitter just sucks



"mild opinion"

"it seems impossible to overstate the cultural damage done by South Park"

I'm sure she's getting more abuse than necessary because she's 1. a woman 2. going against a show alt-right trolls love but she definitely came out of the gate swinging with an overblown opinion on the negative aspects of the show
 

Palette Swap

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
11,190
"mild opinion"

"it seems impossible to overstate the cultural damage done by South Park"

I'm sure she's getting more abuse than necessary because she's 1. a woman 2. going against a show alt-right trolls love but she definitely came out of the gate swinging with an overblown opinion on the negative aspects of the show
"She shouldn't be getting death threats but that was strongly worded"
OK
 

NoName999

One Winged Slayer
Banned
Oct 29, 2017
5,906
"mild opinion"

"it seems impossible to overstate the cultural damage done by South Park"

I'm sure she's getting more abuse than necessary because she's 1. a woman 2. going against a show alt-right trolls love but she definitely came out of the gate swinging with an overblown opinion on the negative aspects of the show

Imagine victim blaming someone because they used the "wrong" phrasing.
 
Oct 28, 2017
2,959
"mild opinion"

"it seems impossible to overstate the cultural damage done by South Park"

I'm sure she's getting more abuse than necessary because she's 1. a woman 2. going against a show alt-right trolls love but she definitely came out of the gate swinging with an overblown opinion on the negative aspects of the show

I admit her first tweet was worded pretty provocatively. But like, why do people care? She didn't call for the show to be cancelled, she's not involved with it in any way. She's just an entertainment journo and writer with a moderately big twitter following, but not particularly well-known aside form that.
It's possible to just ignore opinions you don't like, but twitter lends itself to this mob behaviour and anytime some nerdy stuff is criticized (particularly by women) that guys have built their whole identity around they lash out
 
Oct 28, 2017
650
I wonder what made a generation of young people cynical and angry, distrustful of institutions and traditional politics.

Was it the collapse in living standards and rising levels of debt

Was it the illegal wars based on lies that killed millions of people and continue to rend the world's wounds open for decades

Was it the accelerating climate crisis destroying the planet, burning, drowning, choking and poisoning us all that leaders deny is happening, and when they don't decline to do anything about since it would be too expensive

Was it the return of fascism, white nationalism, ethnic cleansing, concentration camps and xenophobia

Was it the biggest financial collapse since the Great Depression, where insane hyper accelerated greed destroyed the homes and livelihoods of the middle class

No, in fact, it was a cartoon

Don't forget videogames causing gun violence. Specifically South Park's video game. They've single-handedly ruined our society!!
 
Nov 1, 2017
1,136
I still don't get how people think that pop culture has such a minimal effect on society. Besides the examples that have been brought up in here (birth of a nation and gamergate), you have more than a miniscule amount people voting for Donald in part because a reality TV show convinced them that he was anything other than a moronic sexual abuser.
 

Wraith

Member
Jun 28, 2018
8,892
New thread about the whole thing. Twitter just sucks








I saw that this week and of course the first replies are all "You did this for attention," and "Everyone on the internet gets death threats; grow a spine" and similar garbage.

These people are the worst. It's the same shit women were getting during gamerghazi. Can't critique a thing without people coming out of the woodwork equating said critique with an effort to kill their favorite piece of media, taking it as a personal attack on their very existence.
 

Strax

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,279
Mercilessly mocking trans people is so left wing

Being as shithead person that mocks trans people or generally hating people that don't conform to some made up standards isn't bound to left or right, at least not in my country. One of the biggest bands here are an all-female rap group that starting rapping because they wanted to send a message to young girls about feminism, sex positivity and LGBTQ issues. In recent months it came to light they fired a member for coming out as trans. One of the organizers of Slut Walk blasted a woman for claiming her husband raped her, saying people should not listen to her. She and her husband have faced no backlash from other prominent members/activists in the Slut Walk or the left in general about they might not be the best people to be mouthpieces for rape victims. And when I say left I mean that with a capital L. The most right wing party here is somewhere slightly to the right of Bernie Sanders.