South Park As A Gated Community

[CatmanStu]

As Stan would say "I've learned something today":

1) Bob still finds the show funny but from a seemingly, more begrudged perspective.

2) A lot of people see South Park differently than I do.
For the record I have always seen it as ideologically optimistic rather than liberally non committal. The gang are representative of human nature: Cartman represents the negative being greedy, spoilt, lazy, narrow minded and cruel; Kenny is the self destructive with nods to the animalistic; Stan is logical, diplomatic, intelligent and insightful, making him the higher reasoning; and Kyle is the positive as he is (usually) kind, generous, spiritual and empathic. The gang needs all four to be complete just as we do.

3) Political followers (just like their elected officials) spend more time using statistics and dogma to discredit their opponents than they spend discussing the issues in question.

4) Escapist mods should look at thread hijacking as I would guess that two thirds (minimum) of these comments are political debate rather than discussions on Bobs views or South Parks ideology/philosophy.

 

[kklawm]

4) Escapist mods should look at thread hijacking as I would guess that two thirds (minimum) of these comments are political debate rather than discussions on Bobs views or South Parks ideology/philosophy.

This always happens, I keep coming back to this post because I'm baffled at the random political rants. Seriously, I don't what sort of person would go on a rant about how one side of a government/whatever is evil. Perhaps it's because I live in Australia and the most emotion I tend to find above apathy is annoyed at the government and no "better" side, just less worse.

But anything with America and Politics immediately devolves into a school-grade hissy fit with histrionics, ridiculous 'fact' dropping, blaming and rants.

 

[Urameshi13]

I love that you think people who are not aligned with a particular ideology will just slap the taste right out of a baby's mouth. It shows your incredible ability to be just as myopic and obtuse as the right wingers you oh so love to criticize.

It just goes so well with your psuedo-liberal ideology. Do you ever tire of being the Michael Savage of the left?

 

[tangoprime]

The more I read stuff from Moviebob, the more apparent it becomes that he believes conservatism in any form is completely evil, whereas Liberalism is the savior of the earth.

Bob, you do understand that both ideologies have flaws, right? How come, whenever a show dares to take a shot at the Democratic party, you're always there to discredit it? And yet, when Family Guy, a show that compares the GOP with Nazism (as other posters have already pointed out), you'll defend it with your dying breath?

Newsflash: Both parties are just as full of political scumbags as the other. Nobody on this planet deserves a free pass from criticism, not you, not South Park, not Family Guy, and not Democrats/Liberals (or Conservatives).

I'm sure you're a very nice guy in person, but I just can't understand this righteous position you've taken.

Has Bob ever said that he believes conservatism in any form is completely evil, whereas Liberalism is the savior of the earth? I've never heard him say that, so either you're psychic or lying.

I've been following politics for over 30 years, I've seen both governing philosophies at work, and if you compare Liberal governance to Conservative governance, Liberal governance has better outcomes. Compare The People's Republic of Massachusetts to any Conservative state in the south for proof.

So wrong i do not even know where to begin you need to do some fact checking, seriously.

And texas would like to have a word also, one of the most right states out there, one of the few states to have a budget surplus, where cali, ohio, pa are left states and all their economies are in the crapper.

Let's compare Mass vs. Texas.

Median Household Income: Mass - $65,339 U.S. - $51,371 Texas - $50,740

Median Family Income: Mass - $82,977 U.S. - $62,527 Texas - $59,765

Per Capita Income: Mass - $34,907 U.S. - $27,319 Texas - $25,359

Poverty rate: Mass - 10.1% Texas 16.2%

Health Care: Mass 3.4% without coverage Texas 23.8% without coverage

Murder rate: Mass 2.2 per 100,000 Texas 4.4 per 100,000

Mass has better sports teams

Unemployment rate: Mass 7.2 Texas 6.4

GDP per capita: Mass ranks 6th Texas ranks 7th

Teen pregnancy rates: Mass 42/1,000 Texas 85/1,000

Mass has the lowest divorce rate in the country.

Mass has some of the best schools in the country. Harvard and MIT

The rest of Conservatives states have worse outcomes than Texas.

Like I said, "Liberal governance has better outcomes. Compare The People's Republic of Massachusetts to any Conservative state in the south for proof."

http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/
That 50k average is equivalent to making 72k in Boston when you adjust for cost of living. Plus, you have to take into consideration the 5.3% income tax, whereas Texas has none. You do get some bonus points on it being a flat tax rate, something a lot of libertarians would like to see happen federally.

You have MIT, we have Baylor and SMU, along with the Texas Medical Center (which as I mentioned before also happens to be the largest medical complex on Earth). We also have a larger and far more diverse population, meaning more disparity just on sheer numbers, accounting for the above statistics.

Look, we're both number 1 somewhere.
http://www.forbes.com/best-states-for-business/list/

I've lived all over the northeast in my life, with my most time spent in Baltimore. The only thing I miss is the occasional white christmas/new year, and the proliferation of ex-new yorker owned sub/pizza shops, but it's a fair trade for much lower cost of living, and less stressful life overall that I found up north. Keeping much more of my paycheck is nice too.

To part amicably however, I'll cede that Massachusetts is lovely in the fall. If you've never been to Texas, however, do yourself a favor and come down to Houston sometime in the winter. Head to Bellaire and have yourself some of the best vietnamese food this side of the Pacific, and some authentic mexican food.

 

[Fox12]

Wow... this may be the single worse thing Movie Bob has ever produce. And that's saying something. He's so stuck up in his political beliefs, it makes me ill. Mat and Trey are wrong, essentially, because they don't agree with Movie Bob. If a piece of fiction agrees with his political beliefs, he heaps mountains of praise on it, regardless of whether or not the actual film was good. Look at Elysium. The film was heavy handed, poorly written, poorly acted nonsense. But because it had a pro healthcare message it got a glowing review. Regardless of whether or not you agree with the politics, the film itself was bad.

I'm sorry bob, sometimes both sides really are horrible. In this case, The Democratic and Republican parties have been running the same candidate for years. Obama is Bush 2.0. Romney, Mccain, and Gengritch are all the same as Obama. That's the point South Park was always trying to make, because no matter who you vote for, you don't really have any actual choice at all. You have the illusion of choice. What difference does your vote make when the candidates are the same person? The episode in question highlights this with a protagonist who realizes the truth, and the saddest thing is everyone else is fanatical that their candidate is the right choice.

I'm sorry, but Trey and Matt aren't the ones with a political agenda or a skewed vision of reality...

 

[lord.jeff]

*skips the thread that is largely off topic now* I get the distinct feeling that Trey Parker and Matt Stone are the only ones anymore that don't take South Park seriously. And that's really sad, but not because of them. Their indiscriminate satire has nothing to do with taking up some sort of social or political ideal and waving it triumphantly, nor have I ever got the impression that they feel they must do it in equal measure to everybody. They're comedians mining for gold where ever they think they can find it.

It's pretty obvious that Matt or Trey don't take South Park they had a whole episode "Funnybot" poking fun at anyone who would take comedy seriously.

 

[Quadocky]

After all, it's only okay to make fun of people when they're conservatives.

Well given the sheer amount of awfulness 'Conservatives' tend to be associated with, its not so much that its 'okay' so much as its really really really REALLY easy since comedy wholly relies upon punching upward. Which is also why Conservative 'comedy' fails utterly because its not really comedy so much as bullying.

 

[Quadocky]

Also, I think people are reading waaaaay too much into this. All Movie Bob is saying is that South Park fails in certain regards because its perspective is limited. As a show its not really afraid to step outside its comfort zone, and can come off as meanspirted in its humor because there is not that much thought put into it given the limitations of the creators and the quick production schedule.

And you know what? It creeps me the fuck out when well paid political commentators references South Park in any shape or form as 'insightful political humor' or some such. Its not, never will, nor should it be considered as such. Yet.. it is, and when it is, its a problem.

 

[Quadocky]

Well given the sheer amount of awfulness 'Conservatives' tend to be associated with, its not so much that its 'okay' so much as its really really really REALLY easy since comedy wholly relies upon punching upward. Which is also why Conservative 'comedy' fails utterly because its not really comedy so much as bullying.

I wouldn't say conservative comedy "fails" so much as there just aren't nearly as many good comedians that are conservative. I mean when you flip through the list of big-time comedians and look at their political leanings, the business is almost entirely liberals.

Comedy Central has multiple "fake news" shows run by left-leaning comedians, for example, but there isn't really a show out there comparable to The Daily Show or The Colbert Report.

So it's not that it "fails", it's mostly that there's just not all that much of it. Which begs the question "why so serious?"

That's actually one of the reasons I appreciate South Park, who seems much more willing to take jabs at both sides.

As I mentioned before, 'Conservative' comedy does exist, its just not what a normal empathetic-healthy individual calls comedy. Steven Crowder for example, (good god, even typing that name makes my skin crawl) his style of comedy amounts to "Hah, homosexuals? Walking around almost naked in a gay pride parade?! I don't wanna see that! Am I right guys? *smug face*" A rational response in any case would amount to: "What the fuck is wrong with you? Are you like, four?" not laughter, never.

In some random conservative 'humor' I've seen on Craigslist they make fun of Nancy Pelosi (or hell, in some cases even invoking that name just drives conservatives up the wall) and the punchline is either that she is (not) a woman, or that she is ugly. Wow, totally hilarious right?

NOW if you want my opinion: what you are calling 'liberal' humor is in actually just plain freakin' humor in the context of culture! Conservatives don't know how to be funny because they are so wrapped up in their own bullshit that they lack humility and irony which makes it impossible for them to even be funny because they don't understand what its like to be someone other than themselves.

Hopefully somewhere in this pile of words in an answer you can have, I am fond of the last bundle before this one because it kinda just gets to the crux of the issue :V

 

[tangoprime]

Unless I see conclusive proof on way or the other I am just as willing to believe that it's republicans forcing the shut down of open parks and then making a big deal of it

The Republicans aren't in control of the Executive Branch of the government at the moment, which is the chief executive of all the departments involved in enforcing the shutdowns. The Executive Branch is also the chief law enforcer, thus all the security doing the enforcement here, the buck stops at the White House. Congress doesn't have any direct executive control of any of these departments or agencies. I'm sorry that you don't know how your government works.

 

[keserak]

The Daily Show just ran a clip of John Boehner admitting, in public, that the Republicans, not the Democrats, caused the shutdown.

They ran the clip because Fox News has been lying, nonstop, claiming that the Democrats caused the shutdown.

The thing to remember here is that rightwingers aren't wrong -- they're lying. That's the entire point. That's the problem. That's why there isn't really a "left-wing" movement since that would merely refer to a bunch of people with enough moral values that prevent them from constantly lying. It isn't a consistent political philosophy. It's just having standards. It's an incoherent group.

So argue as much as you like with someone claiming that the Republicans didn't cause the shutdown, or that we could have never known that Iraq didn't have WMDs, or that most scientists don't believe in climate change, and on and on, but understand this:

Most of the time, you're not arguing with someone who's wrong. You're usually arguing with someone who's arguing in bad faith.

Whether or not that's a productive thing to do is a different issue entirely.