5 ms·

South Park has been advocating an ideology, including many morals, from day one of the shows. It may be a mixed message, it may be contradictory, but a lot of S

South Park has been advocating an ideology, including many morals, from day one of the shows. It may be a mixed message, it may be contradictory, but a lot of SP comedy hinges on pointing out the absurdities in our societies. Comedy has always been a place you'd look if you want to see someone speak truth to power, for millennia too, and South Park has always done that.

joelx 7y ago
South Park is 100% right. We need to back them in their fight against a murderous totalitarian dictatorship holding millions of people in concentration camps. We might like the cheap goods coming from China, but remember they come from people who are forced to work at 7 days a week 14 hours a day for nearly no pay. Boycott the NBA and Blizzard and anyone else who won't start standing up for democracy.
- IllogicalLogic 7y ago
  Being the weaker party in a negotiation is a new role for US, we'll get used to it...
  - jerf 7y ago
    Well, one of the developments of the last six months has been to put a lot of pinpricks in the idea that China is an inevitably rising world superpower that will inevitably supplant the US in the near future. I wouldn't say that's off the table entirely, but it's looking a lot more evitable.
    - IllogicalLogic 7y ago
      What we believe as American consumers and what is economically true are two different sometimes contradictory stories.
pen2l 7y ago
I happen to think it's a net negative. It had considerable part in setting back efforts to deal with climate change. They did a mea culpa, but still, I can't tell you how annoyed I was in college with the amount of people who would challenge the idea of climate change just because they watched a South Park episode.
digitalneal 7y ago
Yup. What would Brian Boitano do?
- chrisco255 7y ago
  I bet he'd kick an ass or two.
rtpg 7y ago
The message of South Park is to point at people with any conviction and say “ha! Look at these idiots with an ideology. The only correct way is to be edgy and make fun of everything” It’s basically about nihilism.
- Data_Junkie 7y ago
  You completely misunderstand what they do. The art form is political satire, which is just another way of saying "Look at these idiots, we need to stop this".
- SirensOfTitan 7y ago
  "It seems to be a hangover of the Medieval Catholic era that causes most people, even the educated, to think that everybody must "believe" something or other, that if one is not a theist one must be a dogmatic atheist, and if one does not think capitalism is perfect, one must believe fervently in socialism, and if one does not have blind faith in "X", one must alternatively have blind faith in not X or reverse of X. My own opinion is that belief is the death of intelligence. As soon as one believes a doctrine of any sort, or assume certitude, one stops thinking about that aspect of existence. The more certitude one assumes, the less there is left to think about, and a person sure of everything would never have any need to think about anything and might be considered typically dead under current medical standards where absence of brain activity is taken to mean that life has ended." Robert Anton Wilson
  - AtomicOrbital 7y ago
    yes however it goes without saying taking a stand to not believe is also a belief position
    - SirensOfTitan 7y ago
      The stand as outlined above is the middle way: I.e. neither belief nor non-belief. Beliefs are useful models but are only models after all.
    - 7y ago
dfxm12 7y ago
Comedy has always been a place you'd look if you want to see someone speak truth to power, for millennia too, and South Park has always done that. No, not always. They sometimes do that. Calling vegetarians pussies [0] is not speaking truth to power. It's punching down. South Park's approach is more the "try to piss off everyone" approach, which while funny, is a bad way to find your moral compass. 0 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTog_NtCEio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTog_NtCEio
- miles 7y ago
  No need to take anything South Park does personally; they do a great job of making fun of just about everyone ("Team America" perhaps being a prime example). The "vegetarians are weak" meme will slowly die as more amateur and professional athletes (including MMA champions, Olympians, and even the guy who coined "You hit like a vegetarian") jump on the plant-based wagon: https://gamechangersmovie.com/#trailer https://gamechangersmovie.com/#trailer
  - dfxm12 7y ago
    I don't know why you think I'm taking anything personally. I'm certainly not a vegetarian. That was the first example of South Park punching down I thought of. Like I said, South Park does make fun of everyone. That's explicitly not always speaking truth to power, like the parent poster is claiming. And I agree with the grandparent post that we shouldn't look to South Park as a moral compass.
    - sodosopa 7y ago
      Their main philosophy is “If you can’t laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?”
- lawnchair_larry 7y ago
  “Punching down” itself is a concept they would, and should, make fun of. That term is just a way of framing speech that you disagree with in order to censor it for being anti-virtuous.

joelx 7y ago

South Park is 100% right. We need to back them in their fight against a murderous totalitarian dictatorship holding millions of people in concentration camps. We might like the cheap goods coming from China, but remember they come from people who are forced to work at 7 days a week 14 hours a day for nearly no pay. Boycott the NBA and Blizzard and anyone else who won't start standing up for democracy.

IllogicalLogic 7y ago
Being the weaker party in a negotiation is a new role for US, we'll get used to it...
- jerf 7y ago
  Well, one of the developments of the last six months has been to put a lot of pinpricks in the idea that China is an inevitably rising world superpower that will inevitably supplant the US in the near future. I wouldn't say that's off the table entirely, but it's looking a lot more evitable.
  - IllogicalLogic 7y ago
    What we believe as American consumers and what is economically true are two different sometimes contradictory stories.

pen2l 7y ago

I happen to think it's a net negative. It had considerable part in setting back efforts to deal with climate change. They did a mea culpa, but still, I can't tell you how annoyed I was in college with the amount of people who would challenge the idea of climate change just because they watched a South Park episode.

digitalneal 7y ago

Yup. What would Brian Boitano do?

chrisco255 7y ago
I bet he'd kick an ass or two.

rtpg 7y ago

The message of South Park is to point at people with any conviction and say “ha! Look at these idiots with an ideology. The only correct way is to be edgy and make fun of everything” It’s basically about nihilism.

Data_Junkie 7y ago
You completely misunderstand what they do. The art form is political satire, which is just another way of saying "Look at these idiots, we need to stop this".
SirensOfTitan 7y ago
"It seems to be a hangover of the Medieval Catholic era that causes most people, even the educated, to think that everybody must "believe" something or other, that if one is not a theist one must be a dogmatic atheist, and if one does not think capitalism is perfect, one must believe fervently in socialism, and if one does not have blind faith in "X", one must alternatively have blind faith in not X or reverse of X. My own opinion is that belief is the death of intelligence. As soon as one believes a doctrine of any sort, or assume certitude, one stops thinking about that aspect of existence. The more certitude one assumes, the less there is left to think about, and a person sure of everything would never have any need to think about anything and might be considered typically dead under current medical standards where absence of brain activity is taken to mean that life has ended." Robert Anton Wilson
- AtomicOrbital 7y ago
  yes however it goes without saying taking a stand to not believe is also a belief position
  - SirensOfTitan 7y ago
    The stand as outlined above is the middle way: I.e. neither belief nor non-belief. Beliefs are useful models but are only models after all.
  - 7y ago

dfxm12 7y ago

Comedy has always been a place you'd look if you want to see someone speak truth to power, for millennia too, and South Park has always done that. No, not always. They sometimes do that. Calling vegetarians pussies [0] is not speaking truth to power. It's punching down. South Park's approach is more the "try to piss off everyone" approach, which while funny, is a bad way to find your moral compass. 0 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTog_NtCEio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTog_NtCEio

miles 7y ago
No need to take anything South Park does personally; they do a great job of making fun of just about everyone ("Team America" perhaps being a prime example). The "vegetarians are weak" meme will slowly die as more amateur and professional athletes (including MMA champions, Olympians, and even the guy who coined "You hit like a vegetarian") jump on the plant-based wagon: https://gamechangersmovie.com/#trailer https://gamechangersmovie.com/#trailer
- dfxm12 7y ago
  I don't know why you think I'm taking anything personally. I'm certainly not a vegetarian. That was the first example of South Park punching down I thought of. Like I said, South Park does make fun of everyone. That's explicitly not always speaking truth to power, like the parent poster is claiming. And I agree with the grandparent post that we shouldn't look to South Park as a moral compass.
  - sodosopa 7y ago
    Their main philosophy is “If you can’t laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?”
lawnchair_larry 7y ago
“Punching down” itself is a concept they would, and should, make fun of. That term is just a way of framing speech that you disagree with in order to censor it for being anti-virtuous.