#you_are_not_immune_to_propaganda.jpeg

[sybbi]

A good rule of thumb is that if you do a even the most basic Google search on a news source and NOTHING comes up aside from their own website and some.social media posts - no information about owners, affiliations, how long they've been in existence, no independent information about their organization whatsoever that isn't copy-pasted from their own site or references to it by other places of record - you should probably be cautious about using it as a source

[phantomsolotour]

recently saw someone on here say something like "there's no inherent integrity in writing an email yourself, why do people use this as an example of AI being bad" and it didn't sit right with me and i've finally articulated why!

firstly, while employment in late-stage capitalism is pretty dehumanizing overall, that doesn't mean we have to lean into it. you can still, to a reasonable degree, approach every human interaction with authenticity, without technology as a barrier. you can respect people enough to use your own words when you write to them, as you would want them to do for you.

secondly, people use the email example because it's the example most often seen in advertisements, and the fact that you find it a relatively inoffensive application of AI is exactly what those advertisers want. that's their foot in the door: a setting we already perceive as lacking integrity, so what's the harm in adding AI? if you watch the commercials where your iphone reminds you the name of the guy you had a meeting with last year, or summarizes a work email so you don't have to read it yourself, and you say "well, i don't like AI, but..." then, you know... you_are_not_immune_to_propaganda.jpeg

[bluemilkcartonarchive]

I think it has to do a lot with guilt. You want this thing you like to be perfect and to agree with it on every level. And then, when it doesn’t, you ask yourself what you should do with this fucking mess. Ignore it? Never watch it again? Get angry and start a hashtag? Cry yourself to sleep in a haze of confusion?

All very interesting options because you feel guilty. Because you don’t wanna hurt anyone, yet this show you like is saying some horrible stuff.

Another thing you can do is try to convince yourself that the thing wasn’t actually bad, because if you do a bit of four-dimensional chess and some mental gymnastics, it may kinda sorta look like that the thing was even good. But no, the thing is actually bad and you know it. That’s just your guilt talking. It’s not “just a joke” or secretly “making fun of bigots”.

I think internet culture judges your taste in media like it’s a passport to heaven or hell. If you like the right stuff, you are a pure being of light and if you don’t, you deserve to rot in hell. And a lot of people consume media with that mindset and when they’re suddenly confronted with the reality that a show they like is problematic, they block because according to their own mindset they are now suddenly bad people. Here is where the justifying comes in.

“No, see? They’re on our side!”

So South Park, huh.

I read somewhere (can’t remember where):

Trey Parker and Matt Stone are not your political allies, no matter whose side you’re on

and that kind of changed my whole perspective on the thing. Because I was trying to do mental gymnastics around of the stuff that I disagreed with on a core level of my being. I was even thinking about percentages: “So ok, 75, no, maybe 60% of the episodes are on my side which makes it then a blablabla” you get it. Denial.

When I read that I realized that I had to take responsibility over my own views. No one is responsible for my actions, much less a cartoon with some really bad takes. The creators are not on my side, and trying to stir the conversation that way amounts to nothing. Because this is not a war. I as a viewer have to take responsibility about the way I consume and process media. I can’t blame Canada.

I think people like to treat media as life guides sometimes, and it’s okay to get inspired by books and movies and series. But I’ve seen people treating tv-shows as if they were a manifestos or political bibles.

And I think this goes without say, but basing your entire moral compass and political views around a satirical cartoon (or any piece of media) is fucking bonkers. Dude, you can’t make a cartoon do the thinking for you! And people still try to do it!

(tbh i’d be fascinating to watch someone try to live by the rules of the South Park universe without going crazy, just as a hypothetical experiment or something)

That said, it’s also true that you_are_not_immune_to_propaganda.jpeg and that media has a role in shaping our collective ideas as a society. Like, people were reporting hundreds of shark attacks after Jaws came out because they started to see sharks where there were none. I don’t think Spielberg intended for this, but it happened nonetheless.

So when I see articles along the lines of did South Park create the new alt-right (it hasn’t) I see they’re trying to imply the same cause-effect logic. And there is an argument to be made about Cartman’s ideas being taken seriously by younger (and sometimes not so young) people who have no idea of what context is. I’m gonna quote Raphael Bob-Waksberg (creator of BoJack Horseman) from this article because he actually knows what he’s talking about and I’m an incoherent, mumbling idiot.

I don’t know if you have the control over that that you think you do about how that goes out into the world and how people internalize that humor. You know, I grew up in the era of “South Park.” And I think “South Park” is a brilliant show, and I think there’s so much that they do well. And I - there - they’ve made me think about a lot of things in new ways. But I - they also have a lot of jokes about Jews. And I remember being in middle school and high school and people, like, making jokes about me that they got from “South Park.” And obviously, if you asked Matt and Trey, they would say, well, Cartman is not a role model. Like, you’re not supposed to think he’s, like, cool or funny or charming. But I think middle school or high school me who is the butt of those jokes would say, well, what’s the difference? You know, what does that mean to me? And I think I am also guilty of making jokes like that in the mouth of BoJack or some of our other characters and not always thinking about what are the longer ramifications of this on our culture.

There are a bunch of people that really look at a selection of media as if it got their backs, like a kid would look at their parents asking for permission to say a curse word. It’s picking what you want in order to suit your needs. To justify stuff you think or do or enjoy. And sometimes to excuse asshole behaviour.

I don’t think South Park goes around creating alt-righters. It has more than enough episodes that directly confront that mindset and, oh boy, do they make conservatives mad. But here we are, they also make me mad.

The “well, they make fun of everyone” argument is, eh, not my favourite. Because that argument assumes that everyone, every group of people lives in equality and in a world that’s just and fair and that, therefore, making fun of everyone is harmless, because groups have equal empowerment in society.

And that’s not the case. And most of the jokes have to do with those power imbalances and they work great because they’re a commentary on the shitty world we live in. But when they fuck up and start spewing transphobic stuff among other things, you can’t just make the argument of “they make fun of everyone” without implying certain stuff.

These last five or something seasons show that M&T are aware of the ugly stuff. They did the whole “sorry we were climate change deniers” thing and Heidi becoming anti-Semitic in Doubling Down certainly was not played for the laughs. We had Kyle being really critical of Terrance and Phillip in a very meta way. He ended up nuking Canada, but the self awareness is there. Is it an apology? Is that their intention? I dunno, but their self-reflection on their own show is very insightful (at least to me).

And then they do Board Girls and I wanna pull my eyes out.

(But I gotta admit I liked Stan’s nerd passion for board games in that that cursed episode)

Now, what do I want to say with this long incoherent rambling?

Media exists. Media can be problematic. You can like something that’s problematic. No one’s going to hell for it. But if something bugs you, it’s better to educate yourself and learn to criticize those things instead of trying to excuse it. It’s also okay to fuck up and rectify.

I’ve learned something today a ton of stuff from South Park. Sometimes because I agreed with their takes on certain topics and decided to learn more about them. But I think I learned the most about the stuff that I totally disagreed with because I decided that I wanted to know why it didn’t feel right to me. And I learned a lot. And I still have to learn a lot. And I’ll probably spend a lot of time thinking about the implications of liking South Park and if this whole thing I just typed is not some sixteen-dimensional chess that I made up to feel less guilty. Or if we just need to learn to criticize the stuff we like without having to stop liking it.

And that’s my excuse for liking this thing. This and that Kenny’s hella precious.

also: THIS IS MY OPINION AND BY NO MEANS DO I INTEND TO MAKE ANYONE FOLLOW IT OR SOMETHING. I JUST DRAW STUPID FANART.

also also: every time I say “you” in the text I do not mean “you the reader”, it’s more a universal “you”. Or the “you” is just me and I’m a bit of a Gollum sometimes. I talk a lot alone.

Cherry picking what you like about the show doesn’t make the problematic stuff go away. And many know this and acknowledge it, but some people just don’t want to admit the source material has it’s problems and that you can actually discuss those problems without, idk, going to hell.

This doesn’t mean everyone should be forced to talk about the problematic aspects of South Park. Hell no, I still wanna see cute Kenny with angel wings fanart. But maybe we should try to talk a bit more about stuff.