For me it’s Dragon Ball Z, that was a pretty fucked up show tbh.
Like holy shit, all the characters are terrible people except maybe Gohan and Trunks.
The first Ace Ventura movie is unwatchably transphobic now.
Disney’s Aladdin is pretty racist in that ”if you steal, we’ll cut off your hand” depiction of Middle Eastern society, and it never questions whether having a monarch who lives in a massive palace and forces his daughter to get married is actually bad.
Plus, when Aladdin becomes Prince Ali, the song says he has slaves
This is a weird one but the nihilism of Robot Chicken used to really get to me. Just vignettes of characters dying horrible ironic deaths. Its funny I guess in a group setting but alone and stoned in my room, not so much. I think the elephant in the room is South Park. Especially around 2013/14 when they helped bring the term “PC” back into the political zeitgeist, which was the buzz word the right loved before “woke”.
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.
Everyone realized South Park’s messaging was horrible even back then
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Someone posted a Red Sails article here yesterday that goes over the way entertainment conditions us to the status quo.
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.
Though I consumed many pieces of fiction mentioned here, and admit they made they problematic assumptions, I want to disagree with the general vibe that it is the job of fiction to be perfect and unproblematic in every way.
I can absolutely see how bad messaging could make you not enjoy it, and bad messaging is always worthy of criticism, but it doesn’t inherently make any fiction objectively ‘bad’.
The issue for me is that a lot of the media is targeted at kids, who do not view things critically or “in context”. This “it has to be viewed in context” is one of the greatest cop-outs in my opinion, because it makes consuming entertainment media an academic exercise, which it won’t be 99% of the time. People will defend Herge’s comics for example as “a product of its time and it has to be viewed in this context” which is true on its surface, but then those comics are still found in the childrens comic book section at the library, because those are the only ones who are interested in them.
And it really is everywhere this messaging, and it’s impossible to protect your child from it because it will be confronted with it by means of parents who don’t inspect the media their kids consumes as critically. Or maybe they’re even onboard with the cute messaging of paw patrol or whatever.
If a piece of media addresses problematic themes (via fiction or other) it must be in an age-appropriate manner than sets it in context itself and shouldn’t require secondary literature to understand the background.
Also I hate watching childhood shows and having the memory of them marred by realising the fascist messaging in them.
If a piece of media addresses problematic themes (via fiction or other) it must be in an age-appropriate manner than sets it in context itself and shouldn’t require secondary literature to understand the background.
I agree, but because that is even suggesting something other than a treat free-for-all the above poster seems against it under the guise of it being a demand “to be perfect and unproblematic in any way.”
Too many people hold the position that if they as individuals are fine with someone as it is then it is perfectly fine for everyone else regardless of their age or other circumstances. It’s atomized consumerist “I got mine” mentality that is very selfish and counterproductive.
“to be perfect and unproblematic in any way.”
This is what I demand of the food I feed my kid, and I don’t see why I should demand less from the media they get to consume either.
Your choices are anything goes when it comes to what’s in kids’ breakfast (including random chances of lead, arsenic, and botulism) or mandatory nutritional paste with no flavor added. Concern of any kind means you go to the latter choice automatically. CHOOSE.
I cant tell if you’re joking because those legitimately are the only two options for baby food in the innovative free market. I’m so glad my wife is such a creative and talented cook because our situation would be dire otherwise.
also the baby paste is also likely to randonly have lead in it.
