13 ms·

Robin Williams, an acid trip, and moral panic: “Blame Canada” at the Oscars

200 points by AndrewBissell 6y ago

tsomctl 6y ago
If you think you know everything about South Park, I still recommend you read it. It's a really good article that analyzes old South Park from a modern perspective.
- scott_s 6y ago
  There's a lot of pieces that go much further in analyzing South Park [1], but the best analysis I've read is actually a three-year-old Reddit comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/circlebroke2/comments/5li8i9/south_park_sucks/dbvyu0o/ https://www.reddit.com/r/circlebroke2/comments/5li8i9/south_... The opening paragraph: > South Park has always been fundamentally reactionary; those pushing for change are wrong no matter what change they push for. Nothing is a bigger crime to Matt and Trey than Giving a Shit. Their ideology is apathetic-libertarian; whether you're on the left or the right, if you're asking me to change my behavior, you suck. [1] A Washington Post piece links to a bunch of them, "I criticized ‘South Park’ for spawning a generation of trolls. And so the trolls came for me.", https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/21/i-criticized-south-park-spawning-generation-trolls-so-trolls-came-me/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/21/i-critici...
  - jariel 6y ago
    I think this analysis is completely off. They are not reactionary, they are antagonists towards those with power and who take themselves too seriously: Parents (esp. in the minds of children), Politicians, Celebrities. That's not 'apathetic' and not 'nihilist' (from the article). That they've done 20 years of such things and the only 'really wrong' thing they will have done is 'Man Bear Pig' is not bad - especially in the 00's when there was still a lot of popular debate about Climate Change. FYI Al Gore's wife, Tipper Gore, is why you see 'Parental Advisory Stickers' on music, which I don't care about but 'antagonists' will perceive that as a problem. The Washington Post article is wrong to suggest that 'South Park' created any kind of trolling attitude. The Author is part of the group of those who 'take themselves too seriously' and can't grasp that. That the author was 'trolled' is an artifact of anything popular these days. Sports Journalists are trolled by Ronaldo fans because they say 'Messi is good'. FYI: I should add they describe themselves as 'punk' in the article and that label fits well: it's not political, it's visceral, and if anything a shade anarchist, though their politics lean 'libertarian' as they have noted some time ago.
    - Shoreleave 6y ago
      I also think the analysis is completely off. South Park has always spent much more time making fun of the status quo than of those pushing for change. South Park is reactionary when rich white people have decided to take up a cause that they previously ignored. It makes fun of the self-serving, hypocritical actions of those in charge, not of the change itself.
    - brailsafe 6y ago
      The word for the impression I get of the people who are trying to "analyze" SP, is sanctimonious. or douche. They're both fantastic.
  - Tiltowait-- 6y ago
    These are people who thought South Park was on "their" side, only to get ridiculed by South Park. Thus they feel bitter and have to lash out. They don't realize that they are the authoritarian jerks that South Park despises. "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
  - abledon 6y ago
    haha that ending sentence "South Park is, if you'll excuse the expression...a "safe space.""
    - watwut 6y ago
      In a sense it really is. If you are certain type of person. I used to be that person and yeah it felt really good.
  - duskwuff 6y ago
    That comment wasn't even the original. It's a repost of a comment from 2012, and the discussion the original one sparked is worth reading. https://www.reddit.com/r/circlebroke/comments/3tsd5o/south_park_is_written_by_reddit/ https://www.reddit.com/r/circlebroke/comments/3tsd5o/south_p...
- runawaybottle 6y ago
  I’d argue don’t read any analysis on it. It’s not ancient text, the source material is pretty available and relevant. Watch it, come to your own conclusions.
grawprog 6y ago
https://youtu.be/ip5OWcoE6GE https://youtu.be/ip5OWcoE6GE Here's the performace mentioned in the article. I'd never seen it before. It's pretty fantastic though. Robin Williams does a great show.
- Scoundreller 6y ago
  Did :(
- HeXetic 6y ago
  My friends & I watched the South Park movie on an almost monthly basis at the time and frankly I remember feeling like they'd completely butchered the song. The whole point is that blaming Canada is arbitrary and deflects from solving the real issues, hence why the song in the film barely says anything about Canada at all: the only two actual references are to hockey and Anne Murray because of course that's all the bumpkins of South Park are going to know about the place. Then the Oscar performance comes along and Robin Williams pads the song with a lot more references to actual people from Canada and I think it ruins the point. The people of South Park don't want details or to know anything about the problem, they want an easy target to blame and a rousing call to go kick ass. The joke's even continued when Sheila gives her morale-boosting speech to the troops, and can't even think of what the Canadian army would be attacking with: "Men, when you're out there in the battlefield, and you're looking into the beady eyes of a Canadian as he charges you with his hockey stick or whatever he has..."
  - wodenokoto 6y ago
    What did he add to the song that wasn’t in the movie? I didn’t catch anything “new”, except that they left out the “it’s not even a real country anyway” But I agree that the joke of almost every South Park joke is not what they say, but who says it.
    - brailsafe 6y ago
      It's a little hard to catch, but that line was kept in.
tux1968 6y ago
Censoring foul language seems almost quaint now. We're busy taking it to the next level.
- stronglikedan 6y ago
  > We're busy taking it to the next level. Thankfully, 'tis but a phase, and we're almost through it.
  - praveenperera 6y ago
    I wish I still shared your optimism
  - fullshark 6y ago
    What evidence is there that this is a phase? Seems very clear that the majority of people are illiberal, and one subset of the country is salivating over the chance to wield cultural power for a generation at least.
- jaspax 6y ago
  Censoring foul language is arguably the main thing that we're on about now---with a redefinition of what counts as "foul".
  - jariel 6y ago
    They used to censor language and 'ideas'. You could not attack Christianity, or present civil figures (ie the President, the Flag) in a bad light. Hollywood up to 1970's was very much about projecting morality in the classical sense. (Edit: Cohen Brother's 'Hail Caesar' depicts this hilariously with 1950's Hollywood execs in a funny meeting with various Priests and Rabbis trying to get approval for a big '10 Commandments'-like epic. Hilarity ensues as the various sects begin to argue about God ...) 1970 - 2010 it was mostly just language i.e. this or that word. We are now back to censoring 'ideas' but it's the other side of the fence. NYT called for banning 'Paw Patrol' (kids cartoon) for its 'normalisation' of the social roles of police, 'COPS' was dropped because of its ostensible 'glorification of police'. Which I can possibly understand in an intellectual sense, but pragmatically it's completely ridiculous. 30 Rock, one of the smartest and best comedies every madd - and it's not even 10 years old - is already getting episodes banned.
asjw 6y ago
The documentary about South Park studios production process "6 days to air" is pretty great I watch it regularly to not forget how to give everything you can in a short time span and still enjoy what you're doing I learned to work 6 months/year and make a full year salary I've been working at a more reasonable pace for the past few years, mostly because I'm not consulting anymore, but sprints have become more of a challenge that I still enjoy once or twice a year.
- randompwd 6y ago
  > I learned to work 6 months/year and make a full year salary Just post the affiliate link to your vitamins already...
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - asjw 6y ago
    In Italy we work approximately 220 days a year, 5 days a week, we have 52 weekends (as everybody else) 24 days of payed holidays and another 10 days of national holidays. six months, 6 days a week it's about 160 days. Working an hour and half more everyday day is like working 7/7, so about 185 working days. It's totally doable. But admittedly not for a long time and not if you're forced to do it
ksdale 6y ago
"Basically, for every stance they’ve gotten right—like this past season when they refused to back down to China—there’s another one that’s aged like a bowl of Cheesy Poofs left out in the rain." It's never felt to me like South Park was trying to be right about anything. I think of them more as a court jester, they play a role where they mock everything, all the time. The mocking is the point. Getting it right is irrelevant (my take, anyway). When you mock everything, though, you will naturally convince a lot of people that everything is equally worth mocking (which may necessitate, say, readdressing climate change).
- Trasmatta 6y ago
  Yeah, I think this is right on. And I feel like there's some value in that -- pointing out the hypocrisies and flaws in even the best causes can be useful. Nothing should be above criticism. There are some negative side effects of leaning too hard into that though, I think, like you mentioned in your last paragraph.
  - Tiltowait-- 6y ago
    Slaying sacred cows is all fun and games and everyone loves South Park for it. Right up until the point at which your own sacred cows are slaughtered. Then suddenly it's not funny any more. Blaspheming the sacred has long been grounds for jesters to be fired or beheaded, even though that is the jester's role in society. It's still funny, you just don't like being ridiculed. Which is proof positive that your sacred cows must be ridiculed as much as possible.
    - Dylan16807 6y ago
      That seems really reductive. Not all campaigns of slaying sacred cows are the same, and there are a lot of ways it can be biased, some of them bad. > just don't like being ridiculed. Which is proof positive that your sacred cows must be ridiculed "You're being defensive, therefore you're wrong." That's nothing more than an insulting fallacy, where the person saying it gets to feel morally superior and always right. There's no possible response, either they admit defeat or they 'prove you right'.
HeXetic 6y ago
> Marilyn Manson famously told Michael Moore in 2002’s Bowling for Columbine that, rather than saying anything to Harris and Klebold, if given the chance, he would instead opt to listen to them, because “that’s what no one did.” Wrong. The quote wasn't about talking to the perpetrators. Moore was asking Manson what he would tell the victim's parents, the community, the other kids at the school, and he said he would listen instead. It then cuts to Moore interviewing two surviving kids from the school.
- jakkyboi 6y ago
  I went back to the clip and while you are right, that was the question - im almost certain Manson heard "the kids at Columbine" and took it to mean Harris and Klebold and answered that question, not the one that was asked.
  - HeXetic 6y ago
    Maybe, but I don't think so. Before this interview, Moore shows a number of clips from news networks and other talking heads blaming the crime on all sorts of things -- video games, music, etc. Then later Moore interviews the very level-headed parent of a victim who says nobody from any news organization tried to talk to him or listen to what he had to say. The idea I believe Moore is trying to convey is that news people told the community & survivors why this happened, placing blame according to their own biases (or those of their corporation), instead of asking and investigating and listening. This ties into the title of the film and the result of the next interview with the two survivors: the perpetrators were also heavily into bowling, so how come nobody was blaming that? Manson may still have misinterpreted the question but his answer does make sense in the context of what Moore shows -- that nobody went and actually listened to the people in the community.
    - Tiltowait-- 6y ago
      Nobody was interested in what mass murderers have to say. It just inspires more mass murderers. Did anyone read the manifesto of the New Zealand mosque killer? It was censored for a reason.
oxymoran 6y ago
“Their nihilism and contrarianism have proved to be occasionally quite frustrating over the years, often serving as a twisted, reversed version of what we now might refer to as the “very fine people on both sides” philosophy. (One quote they will never escape came from Matt Stone in 2005: “I hate conservatives, but I really fucking hate liberals.”)” So everyone has to pick one of these 2 idiotic and emotionally driven sides now? There is no room for a 3rd point of view? That’s where we are at? Look, I know Trump is a racist, lying, dipshit but we need to recognize that both parties have nothing but their own interests at heart. I mean come on. Just look at policy from the Obama era and compare it to policy from the Bush era. Hard to see much of a difference. They are two wings from the same bird and the only way we can make America work for all people and close the income inequality gap is to overcome partisan politics.
- snarf21 6y ago
  It isn't there isn't room, there isn't time. People don't want to spend time thinking critically. Everything is us vs them but it makes it easy. If you are liberal, you are automatically against the conservatives; not thought required. You don't even have to read the articles, just the headline. The headline must be true. This is how we've turned into a plutocracy. They fund the distraction and get rich while we hate our neighbor who is 99.999% the same as us but somehow we've convinced ourselves they are the devil.
- verall 6y ago
  I hate this kind of argument - of course the parties care mainly about their own power - they are literally political parties. Obama's policy was quite different from Bush's in many ways (domestically especially) and similar in other ways (say wrt the Middle East). The Democratic party also did not have control of both house and Senate for more than 2 years. During those 2 years the ACA was passed. What are you getting at? Do you believe that because both parties care first about power means they are equally bad? Or even close?
  - perl4ever 6y ago
    If you think one party is a lost cause, and the other is our only hope, then you have to focus on the flaws of the latter, don't you? The logic is cruel.
vxNsr 6y ago
This article is riddled with false or misleading statements, it's got lots of interesting information but take basically anything it says about south park (negative or positive) with a giant grain of salt. Doubly so for any other topic. The whole article is filtered through the lens of a far-left extremist who just got off a 48 hour marxist bender.
- dang 6y ago
  Maybe so, but please don't post ideological flamebait or call names in HN comments. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
th0ma5 6y ago
"... the show that portrayed earnestness as the only sin and taught that mockery is the ultimate inoculation against all criticism." https://metro.co.uk/2020/02/14/south-park-tweet-leaves-fans-fuming-goes-viral-12240062/amp/ https://metro.co.uk/2020/02/14/south-park-tweet-leaves-fans-...
aaron695 6y ago
> On Wednesday, all 23 seasons of South Park come to HBO Max. HBO is censoring 5 episodes https://www.ign.com/articles/south-park-hbo-max-muhammad-censored-banned-streaming https://www.ign.com/articles/south-park-hbo-max-muhammad-cen...
glangdale 6y ago
I always thought that song got the nomination as a proxy for the much catchier Uncle Fucker, which would have been a bit... problematic to nominate.
spicyramen 6y ago
One of my favorite things of this show is the freedom to mock most of the topics in a way Cartman represent that extreme, others represent the common sense, but is very important for both left and right which have gone extreme to reason and discuss, this show is a good example of how any topic can be discussed just not ignored
magwa101 6y ago
South Park, never got it. Never funny to me.

200 points by AndrewBissell 6y ago

If you think you know everything about South Park, I still recommend you read it. It's a really good article that analyzes old South Park from a modern perspective.

scott_s 6y ago
There's a lot of pieces that go much further in analyzing South Park [1], but the best analysis I've read is actually a three-year-old Reddit comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/circlebroke2/comments/5li8i9/south_park_sucks/dbvyu0o/ https://www.reddit.com/r/circlebroke2/comments/5li8i9/south_... The opening paragraph: > South Park has always been fundamentally reactionary; those pushing for change are wrong no matter what change they push for. Nothing is a bigger crime to Matt and Trey than Giving a Shit. Their ideology is apathetic-libertarian; whether you're on the left or the right, if you're asking me to change my behavior, you suck. [1] A Washington Post piece links to a bunch of them, "I criticized ‘South Park’ for spawning a generation of trolls. And so the trolls came for me.", https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/21/i-criticized-south-park-spawning-generation-trolls-so-trolls-came-me/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/21/i-critici...
- jariel 6y ago
  I think this analysis is completely off. They are not reactionary, they are antagonists towards those with power and who take themselves too seriously: Parents (esp. in the minds of children), Politicians, Celebrities. That's not 'apathetic' and not 'nihilist' (from the article). That they've done 20 years of such things and the only 'really wrong' thing they will have done is 'Man Bear Pig' is not bad - especially in the 00's when there was still a lot of popular debate about Climate Change. FYI Al Gore's wife, Tipper Gore, is why you see 'Parental Advisory Stickers' on music, which I don't care about but 'antagonists' will perceive that as a problem. The Washington Post article is wrong to suggest that 'South Park' created any kind of trolling attitude. The Author is part of the group of those who 'take themselves too seriously' and can't grasp that. That the author was 'trolled' is an artifact of anything popular these days. Sports Journalists are trolled by Ronaldo fans because they say 'Messi is good'. FYI: I should add they describe themselves as 'punk' in the article and that label fits well: it's not political, it's visceral, and if anything a shade anarchist, though their politics lean 'libertarian' as they have noted some time ago.
  - Shoreleave 6y ago
    I also think the analysis is completely off. South Park has always spent much more time making fun of the status quo than of those pushing for change. South Park is reactionary when rich white people have decided to take up a cause that they previously ignored. It makes fun of the self-serving, hypocritical actions of those in charge, not of the change itself.
  - brailsafe 6y ago
    The word for the impression I get of the people who are trying to "analyze" SP, is sanctimonious. or douche. They're both fantastic.
- Tiltowait-- 6y ago
  These are people who thought South Park was on "their" side, only to get ridiculed by South Park. Thus they feel bitter and have to lash out. They don't realize that they are the authoritarian jerks that South Park despises. "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
- abledon 6y ago
  haha that ending sentence "South Park is, if you'll excuse the expression...a "safe space.""
  - watwut 6y ago
    In a sense it really is. If you are certain type of person. I used to be that person and yeah it felt really good.
- duskwuff 6y ago
  That comment wasn't even the original. It's a repost of a comment from 2012, and the discussion the original one sparked is worth reading. https://www.reddit.com/r/circlebroke/comments/3tsd5o/south_park_is_written_by_reddit/ https://www.reddit.com/r/circlebroke/comments/3tsd5o/south_p...
runawaybottle 6y ago
I’d argue don’t read any analysis on it. It’s not ancient text, the source material is pretty available and relevant. Watch it, come to your own conclusions.

grawprog 6y ago

https://youtu.be/ip5OWcoE6GE https://youtu.be/ip5OWcoE6GE Here's the performace mentioned in the article. I'd never seen it before. It's pretty fantastic though. Robin Williams does a great show.

Scoundreller 6y ago
Did :(
HeXetic 6y ago
My friends & I watched the South Park movie on an almost monthly basis at the time and frankly I remember feeling like they'd completely butchered the song. The whole point is that blaming Canada is arbitrary and deflects from solving the real issues, hence why the song in the film barely says anything about Canada at all: the only two actual references are to hockey and Anne Murray because of course that's all the bumpkins of South Park are going to know about the place. Then the Oscar performance comes along and Robin Williams pads the song with a lot more references to actual people from Canada and I think it ruins the point. The people of South Park don't want details or to know anything about the problem, they want an easy target to blame and a rousing call to go kick ass. The joke's even continued when Sheila gives her morale-boosting speech to the troops, and can't even think of what the Canadian army would be attacking with: "Men, when you're out there in the battlefield, and you're looking into the beady eyes of a Canadian as he charges you with his hockey stick or whatever he has..."
- wodenokoto 6y ago
  What did he add to the song that wasn’t in the movie? I didn’t catch anything “new”, except that they left out the “it’s not even a real country anyway” But I agree that the joke of almost every South Park joke is not what they say, but who says it.
  - brailsafe 6y ago
    It's a little hard to catch, but that line was kept in.

tux1968 6y ago

Censoring foul language seems almost quaint now. We're busy taking it to the next level.

stronglikedan 6y ago
> We're busy taking it to the next level. Thankfully, 'tis but a phase, and we're almost through it.
- praveenperera 6y ago
  I wish I still shared your optimism
- fullshark 6y ago
  What evidence is there that this is a phase? Seems very clear that the majority of people are illiberal, and one subset of the country is salivating over the chance to wield cultural power for a generation at least.
jaspax 6y ago
Censoring foul language is arguably the main thing that we're on about now---with a redefinition of what counts as "foul".
- jariel 6y ago
  They used to censor language and 'ideas'. You could not attack Christianity, or present civil figures (ie the President, the Flag) in a bad light. Hollywood up to 1970's was very much about projecting morality in the classical sense. (Edit: Cohen Brother's 'Hail Caesar' depicts this hilariously with 1950's Hollywood execs in a funny meeting with various Priests and Rabbis trying to get approval for a big '10 Commandments'-like epic. Hilarity ensues as the various sects begin to argue about God ...) 1970 - 2010 it was mostly just language i.e. this or that word. We are now back to censoring 'ideas' but it's the other side of the fence. NYT called for banning 'Paw Patrol' (kids cartoon) for its 'normalisation' of the social roles of police, 'COPS' was dropped because of its ostensible 'glorification of police'. Which I can possibly understand in an intellectual sense, but pragmatically it's completely ridiculous. 30 Rock, one of the smartest and best comedies every madd - and it's not even 10 years old - is already getting episodes banned.

asjw 6y ago

The documentary about South Park studios production process "6 days to air" is pretty great I watch it regularly to not forget how to give everything you can in a short time span and still enjoy what you're doing I learned to work 6 months/year and make a full year salary I've been working at a more reasonable pace for the past few years, mostly because I'm not consulting anymore, but sprints have become more of a challenge that I still enjoy once or twice a year.

randompwd 6y ago
> I learned to work 6 months/year and make a full year salary Just post the affiliate link to your vitamins already...
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- asjw 6y ago
  In Italy we work approximately 220 days a year, 5 days a week, we have 52 weekends (as everybody else) 24 days of payed holidays and another 10 days of national holidays. six months, 6 days a week it's about 160 days. Working an hour and half more everyday day is like working 7/7, so about 185 working days. It's totally doable. But admittedly not for a long time and not if you're forced to do it

ksdale 6y ago

"Basically, for every stance they’ve gotten right—like this past season when they refused to back down to China—there’s another one that’s aged like a bowl of Cheesy Poofs left out in the rain." It's never felt to me like South Park was trying to be right about anything. I think of them more as a court jester, they play a role where they mock everything, all the time. The mocking is the point. Getting it right is irrelevant (my take, anyway). When you mock everything, though, you will naturally convince a lot of people that everything is equally worth mocking (which may necessitate, say, readdressing climate change).

Trasmatta 6y ago
Yeah, I think this is right on. And I feel like there's some value in that -- pointing out the hypocrisies and flaws in even the best causes can be useful. Nothing should be above criticism. There are some negative side effects of leaning too hard into that though, I think, like you mentioned in your last paragraph.
- Tiltowait-- 6y ago
  Slaying sacred cows is all fun and games and everyone loves South Park for it. Right up until the point at which your own sacred cows are slaughtered. Then suddenly it's not funny any more. Blaspheming the sacred has long been grounds for jesters to be fired or beheaded, even though that is the jester's role in society. It's still funny, you just don't like being ridiculed. Which is proof positive that your sacred cows must be ridiculed as much as possible.
  - Dylan16807 6y ago
    That seems really reductive. Not all campaigns of slaying sacred cows are the same, and there are a lot of ways it can be biased, some of them bad. > just don't like being ridiculed. Which is proof positive that your sacred cows must be ridiculed "You're being defensive, therefore you're wrong." That's nothing more than an insulting fallacy, where the person saying it gets to feel morally superior and always right. There's no possible response, either they admit defeat or they 'prove you right'.

HeXetic 6y ago

> Marilyn Manson famously told Michael Moore in 2002’s Bowling for Columbine that, rather than saying anything to Harris and Klebold, if given the chance, he would instead opt to listen to them, because “that’s what no one did.” Wrong. The quote wasn't about talking to the perpetrators. Moore was asking Manson what he would tell the victim's parents, the community, the other kids at the school, and he said he would listen instead. It then cuts to Moore interviewing two surviving kids from the school.

jakkyboi 6y ago
I went back to the clip and while you are right, that was the question - im almost certain Manson heard "the kids at Columbine" and took it to mean Harris and Klebold and answered that question, not the one that was asked.
- HeXetic 6y ago
  Maybe, but I don't think so. Before this interview, Moore shows a number of clips from news networks and other talking heads blaming the crime on all sorts of things -- video games, music, etc. Then later Moore interviews the very level-headed parent of a victim who says nobody from any news organization tried to talk to him or listen to what he had to say. The idea I believe Moore is trying to convey is that news people told the community & survivors why this happened, placing blame according to their own biases (or those of their corporation), instead of asking and investigating and listening. This ties into the title of the film and the result of the next interview with the two survivors: the perpetrators were also heavily into bowling, so how come nobody was blaming that? Manson may still have misinterpreted the question but his answer does make sense in the context of what Moore shows -- that nobody went and actually listened to the people in the community.
  - Tiltowait-- 6y ago
    Nobody was interested in what mass murderers have to say. It just inspires more mass murderers. Did anyone read the manifesto of the New Zealand mosque killer? It was censored for a reason.

oxymoran 6y ago

“Their nihilism and contrarianism have proved to be occasionally quite frustrating over the years, often serving as a twisted, reversed version of what we now might refer to as the “very fine people on both sides” philosophy. (One quote they will never escape came from Matt Stone in 2005: “I hate conservatives, but I really fucking hate liberals.”)” So everyone has to pick one of these 2 idiotic and emotionally driven sides now? There is no room for a 3rd point of view? That’s where we are at? Look, I know Trump is a racist, lying, dipshit but we need to recognize that both parties have nothing but their own interests at heart. I mean come on. Just look at policy from the Obama era and compare it to policy from the Bush era. Hard to see much of a difference. They are two wings from the same bird and the only way we can make America work for all people and close the income inequality gap is to overcome partisan politics.

snarf21 6y ago
It isn't there isn't room, there isn't time. People don't want to spend time thinking critically. Everything is us vs them but it makes it easy. If you are liberal, you are automatically against the conservatives; not thought required. You don't even have to read the articles, just the headline. The headline must be true. This is how we've turned into a plutocracy. They fund the distraction and get rich while we hate our neighbor who is 99.999% the same as us but somehow we've convinced ourselves they are the devil.
verall 6y ago
I hate this kind of argument - of course the parties care mainly about their own power - they are literally political parties. Obama's policy was quite different from Bush's in many ways (domestically especially) and similar in other ways (say wrt the Middle East). The Democratic party also did not have control of both house and Senate for more than 2 years. During those 2 years the ACA was passed. What are you getting at? Do you believe that because both parties care first about power means they are equally bad? Or even close?
- perl4ever 6y ago
  If you think one party is a lost cause, and the other is our only hope, then you have to focus on the flaws of the latter, don't you? The logic is cruel.

vxNsr 6y ago

This article is riddled with false or misleading statements, it's got lots of interesting information but take basically anything it says about south park (negative or positive) with a giant grain of salt. Doubly so for any other topic. The whole article is filtered through the lens of a far-left extremist who just got off a 48 hour marxist bender.

dang 6y ago
Maybe so, but please don't post ideological flamebait or call names in HN comments. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

th0ma5 6y ago

"... the show that portrayed earnestness as the only sin and taught that mockery is the ultimate inoculation against all criticism." https://metro.co.uk/2020/02/14/south-park-tweet-leaves-fans-fuming-goes-viral-12240062/amp/ https://metro.co.uk/2020/02/14/south-park-tweet-leaves-fans-...

aaron695 6y ago

> On Wednesday, all 23 seasons of South Park come to HBO Max. HBO is censoring 5 episodes https://www.ign.com/articles/south-park-hbo-max-muhammad-censored-banned-streaming https://www.ign.com/articles/south-park-hbo-max-muhammad-cen...

glangdale 6y ago

I always thought that song got the nomination as a proxy for the much catchier Uncle Fucker, which would have been a bit... problematic to nominate.

spicyramen 6y ago

One of my favorite things of this show is the freedom to mock most of the topics in a way Cartman represent that extreme, others represent the common sense, but is very important for both left and right which have gone extreme to reason and discuss, this show is a good example of how any topic can be discussed just not ignored

magwa101 6y ago

South Park, never got it. Never funny to me.