Comment by dmazin
7 hours ago
As much I loved this show growing up, an interesting thing about South Park is that they essentially defined the alt right (in the sense of a disenfranchised young man, often lashing out at marginalized groups and political correctness etc). Am I wrong or did there use to be an article called “South Park conservative” that basically described what eventually became “alt-right”?
Edit: found it at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Park_Republican
You aren’t wrong that there is/was a group of people that consider themselves South Park Conservative but the creators reject the notion that South Park is specifically liberal or conservative, because their intent is to parody any people they can. The creators dislike political correctness but they also dislike the forceful nature of conservatives applying their beliefs on other people. Read the South Park wikipedia page, it explains it pretty well.
Insinuating that South Park conservatives evolved into the alt-right is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Trey and Matt didn’t invent disliking political correctness.
I concur with this take. Like many facets of culture, some people/groups will project what they want onto a given cultural entity (South Park, in this case), but that doesn’t mean one should assume they speak for it.
For example, the “men’s rights activists” group appropriated the idea of “the red pill” from The Matrix. They certainly differ wildly in worldview from the Wachowski siblings.
Disliking political correctness isn't even limited to the right on the political scale. Bill Maher has spoken out against it for example.
I consider myself liberal on most issues - strong social safety, universal healthcare , pro vax, strong separation between church and state, and hate the demonization of other.
But this is political correctness gone crazy.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/08/25/politics/democrats-gender...
I as a Black guy was also put off by the forced indoctrination that BigTech did post 2020 (when I worked there) with all of the “ally ship”, “DEI” crap I had to endure. I just wanted to do my job, get my money, get my RSUs and bounce after 4 years.
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A comedy show is just a comedy show. We're all responsible for who we become. If some purposefully terrible animated pixels inspire me to be a disgusting person, that's on me. If I play a shooting game and end up hurting someone, that's on me too (or my parents, if I'm young!). And if I spend too much time on HN, thinking AI is garbage, and then lose my job because I fell behind, that's also on me! (As well as starting to write my own comedy here on HN, knowing exactly what I'm getting into!)
If something in the water makes a million people into disgusting mass shooters, we should look into it
> If something in the water makes a million people into disgusting mass shooters, we should look into it
You're using a completely made-up extreme example to make your point, but we're surrounded by real-world examples of free speech being heavily impacted. We don't need to invent scenarios.
They had an episode mocking Al Gore about climate change and then did an episode years later where they basically admitted they were wrong.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ManBearPig
More to the point, you haven’t heard about their current season’s Trump episode?
The alt right aren’t exactly deep thinkers. It’s just like the police glorifying the Punisher.
https://www.newsweek.com/punisher-police-blue-lives-matter-s...
Or MAGA conservatives playing “Born in the USA” without listening to the lyrics.
South Park mocks everyone.
https://www.salon.com/2017/09/15/why-south-park-is-better-ar...
The “alt-right” have always been part of America or have you never heard of Jim Crow and segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever”?
> They had an episode mocking Al Gore about climate change and then did an episode years later where they basically admitted they were wrong.
Eh, I wouldn't say that. Nor would I say they were really taking a stand on climate change in the first place. They just thought it would be funny to have Al Gore tilting at windmills (and indeed it was), and then thought it would be funny to have him proven right (and indeed it was). One of the things I appreciate about Trey and Matt is that they do what they think is funny first and foremost, rather than try to make the show a mouthpiece for their beliefs as many creators do.
They were definitely as it’s climate change skeptics and changed their minds. They admitted as much.