Venting South Park, Cancel Culture, and the Ineffectiveness of Most People's Fuckery

[Dejected 55]

South Park "roasts" the President and people cheer. "Got 'im!" I'll be honest, last week's episode was okay I guess. It wasn't particularly original even for the South Park guys. I mean they literally did bits they did a decade or more ago with Sadham Hussein just replacing his face with Trump's. Same jokes. I wasn't offended, and I d not like Trump AT ALL! But it wasn't super funny either.

But for everyone who thinks it was... cool, we all appreciate different things. But, I never understand the next-day reactions when people who hate Trump run around celebrating him being "got" or "dunked on" or whatever... then Trump and his supporters might lash out and I don't understand why they are even mad either.

At the end of the day... and now a week later. What changed? Trump is still President and doing his thing. IF you hate him, like I do, did that South Park episode make the world better? Did Trey and Matt single-handedly block a Trump policy? And for the angry Trump and his supporters... you're still in power doing what you want... did South Park really hurt you?

And it reminds me... every time someone gets canceled for saying the N-word. Okay, I get it. It's a horrible word, especially when white people use it, and there's a lot of history in this country of oppression and slavery for blacks. But if a dude (or dudette) says the N-word, even comes out as a raging racist piece of crap... and you cancel them... they lose their job, lose their career or whatever. Cool.

But how has oppression or disrespect or harm to black people in this country been improved? If you're a black person and super angry about the use of the N-word... I 100% get where you are coming from... but does cancelation of a token white person racist make you feel good for more than a day?

We cheer all these small things and say "got 'im" and whatever and it's like kids in a playground and someone yells "he has the cooties" and everyone runs away... but it means literally nothing in the scheme of things.

Tomorrow black people are still getting shit on... and Trump is still making bad policy... and Democrats are still being ineffective... and on and on and on.

Can we get riled up over systematic oppression in this country? Can we get riled up over poverty and healthcare and starvation and homelessness? Can we actually solve a major problem and then cheer for that?

Laugh at South Park... cheer when a racist gets a come-uppance... but try and keep the perspective that actual systematic horrible shit keeps happening to the world at large and the people in power who want that to continue are actually fine with the token cancellations and "dunked on" situations if it lets them keep running things into the ground.

 

[trying ungracefully]

At the end of the day... and now a week later. What changed? Trump is still President and doing his thing. IF you hate him, like I do, did that South Park episode make the world better? Did Trey and Matt single-handedly block a Trump policy? And for the angry Trump and his supporters... you're still in power doing what you want... did South Park really hurt you?

That's why the "apology" was a we're sorry lol.

But if a dude (or dudette) says the N-word, even comes out as a raging racist piece of crap... and you cancel them... they lose their job, lose their career or whatever. Cool.

But how has oppression or disrespect or harm to black people in this country been improved?

You said it yourself how it's been improved. Racist people are being held accountable and could lose their livelihoods over it and future opportunities. Smaller improvements matter just as much as the big.

It's also hard to improve with how oppression of black people is in this country, there is so much that can be said on that. There need to be small steps taken. Change takes time and I'm not going to discount the small efforts.

 

[Dejected 55]

I mean, look... if a racist piece of crap calls a black person the N-word to his face... I'm 100% in support if that dude beats the crap out of that racist guy right then and there. No problem.

But a random person, even a famous one, saying the N-word somewhere and getting caught doing it and being cancelled... at the end of the day, it does absolutely nothing to improve the lives of any black person in the country. It just doesn't. All the evidence you need of that is how we are literally going backwards in this country in terms of race relations.

Far be it from me to try and speak for black people... but I know if my people had been systematically oppressed for generations, I'd be far less bothered by rando calling me the N-word than I would the decades and decades of still being held back since slavery ended and all the other crap that directly impacted my life on a regular basis.

And all the white people who will cheer at the dude being cancelled as if they cured prejudice or something... that would irritate the shit out of me.

I'm not saying there shouldn't be consequences and little stuff can't be a start... but... in my lifetime it just seems like the little things are all that ever happen. I was born in 1970. I just missed the civil rights movement and equal rights movement... and we have moved at snail's pace since then. And in recent years taken some steps backwards to boot. So, it kind of offends me to see the little stuff get cheered while the big stuff keeps rolling along.

I wish we lived in a world where hearing the N-word was the worst thing happening... that would be a far cry better.

And my point on picking on Trump... Cool... make a funny joke and rag on his hair and penis size and whatever... but dude is still enacting horrible stuff daily. Make the jokes, cool, but too many people do their victory lap on just landing the joke and there is no follow through on the larger stuff. That frustrates me.

 

[neurotoxic]

trump wants to be a dictator, he wants his preferred class of people to be untouchable with him. anything that pokes fun at him makes hims seems smaller. More weak. I hear you that the energy spent arguing and shit talking could be spent better, but eventually enough people expose these wackos for the fools they are and people start taking more uh "direct" action. Enough people were dissatisfied with the healthcare industry that some guy went and whacked a ceo in broad daylight. get the country at that level of disdain for trump and the same shit will happen.

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

The episode is less about shitting on Trump than it is about rage baiting him into suing the CEO of Paramount, the one who had been causing the South Park creators so much trouble these past few months. They the South Park guys have just gained a $1.5 billion contract for 50 more episodes and the terms apparently include that even if Paramount decides to cancel the show, like say if the President of the United States of America gets butthurt about each episode that comes out, then Paramount still has to honor the deal.

I don't expect a cartoon to change the world just because they happen to have a lens that isn't seen very often. At the end of the day South Park is just about laughing about dicks and farts. There can be substance to it but a lot of times those still stink and that's just the reality we live in.

 

[Dejected 55]

trump wants to be a dictator, he wants his preferred class of people to be untouchable with him. anything that pokes fun at him makes hims seems smaller. More weak. I hear you that the energy spent arguing and shit talking could be spent better, but eventually enough people expose these wackos for the fools they are and people start taking more uh "direct" action. Enough people were dissatisfied with the healthcare industry that some guy went and whacked a ceo in broad daylight. get the country at that level of disdain for trump and the same shit will happen.

Using the healthcare example... exactly how has healthcare or affordability of it improved in this country since that CEO was killed? It has actually gotten worse from what I've read. Also, everyone knows Trump is a clown. It isn't a secret being revealed. This is his second term in office too, so everyone knows what kinds of stuff he will do while there. People voted him in anyway. The "opposition" doesn't meaningfully oppose him either.

It's funny... whenever the Democrats are in power and they have a majority in the House, they claim Republicans keep obstructing them... and yet... Republicans seem to get their stuff done even when they don't have a majority in the House. Why is that? One side seems to be damn effective in getting bad policies enacted while the other seems ineffective at getting good policies through.

And Trump is literally laughing all the way to the bank even as he will complain about South Park or whomever making fun of him along the way. He's still in charge and getting his shit done... and all the "got 'im" cheering isn't making a bit of difference.

The episode is less about shitting on Trump than it is about rage baiting him into suing the CEO of Paramount, the one who had been causing the South Park creators so much trouble these past few months. They the South Park guys have just gained a $1.5 billion contract for 50 more episodes and the terms apparently include that even if Paramount decides to cancel the show, like say if the President of the United States of America gets butthurt about each episode that comes out, then Paramount still has to honor the deal.

I don't expect a cartoon to change the world just because they happen to have a lens that isn't seen very often. At the end of the day South Park is just about laughing about dicks and farts. There can be substance to it but a lot of times those still stink and that's just the reality we live in.

I'm not digging at the South Park guys for making fun of Trump. It's fine. I'm digging at everyone else cheering like a South Park send-up of Trump is saving the world... meanwhile all the bad stuff keeps rolling downhill. Trey and Matt (South Park guys) aren't claiming they are fixing the world... it's the larger society of fans who somehow think an episode of South Park "sticks it" to "the man" or whatever... and they forget all the suffering still happening.

Enjoy a cartoon, cool, I do too... but don't make it like everything has been fixed because someone "dunked on" someone else in a cartoon. That's how nothing ever gets better. All the stuff we could have, should have, fixed decades maybe even generations ago... and we don't. We never do.