vlaserbeam

[vlaserbeam]

I’m going to be as charitable as I can here, because I genuinely do want you to understand this.

“Don’t like, don’t watch” doesn’t exactly work when it comes to media with political commentary. These shows affect how people think.

The rhetoric in South Park impacts people, a LOT of fans are kids and teenagers, who are incredibly impressionable (though older age groups are just as affected). For example, the antisemitic jokes in South Park helped normalize those attitudes, helped make antisemitic jokes “in”, if you will. It helped make antisemitism funny. One of the creators being jewish doesn’t suddenly changed the fact that those episodes made antisemitism funny for a LOT of people! Very YOUNG people!

This applies to a lot of the bigotries expressed in the show.

Think, how many people with no experience or opinions on trans people might go into an episode that parrots transphobia and come out of the other end thinking that it’s funny to mock trans people? That their portrayal of trans women as disingenuous, dangerous men who just want to brutalize women for fun or to get their way might become that person’s ONLY impression of trans people? How they might see a trans person irl and think “Oh, like that ugly tranny character on South Park”? How the show plants bigoted ideas in their head through humor that they might not know how to deconstruct?

People play it off as “just a joke”, but humor can be one of the most powerful mediums for rhetoric to proliferate through.

“Why are we only talking about it NOW?” I don’t think you’re understanding the crowd that’s speaking up here. Anyone worth their salt, anyone actually speaking up against the show right now… do you think they’ve been avid fans? The show has been going since 1997, everyone who is actually progressive in any meaningful way already knows that it’s bigoted, they aren’t the ones who are fans of it. This conversation had been had, everyone already KNEW it was bad. You aren’t going to see people who wouldn’t talk about it otherwise do so unless they had a reason to, because we had no reason to. We all knew it was bad, why wouldn’t we? You said it yourself, the show is founded on that kind of stuff.

People are specifically talking about it because of the recent episode that made fun of Donald Trump. It made a bunch of people go “Haha, look, South Park OWNED Trump! Let’s go!” acting like the show should be applauded for such a “daring takedown” or some shit. That the show is on their side! This is the show being brought into progressive spaces as a sort of “good thing”, something worth celebrating because it took a shot at a political enemy of ours. This is us reminding people that no, they should not be given credit for this.

Oh, sure, South Park makes fun of “both sides”, but punching down will inevitably do more harm than punching up. Vulnerable people have more to lose by being made a laughingstock in an incredibly popular cartoon.

You say to focus on things we CAN’T avoid, but we CAN’T always avoid people that South Park affects. Avoid the attitudes it helps normalize. Avoid the bigoted humor it helps proliferate. Racialized and trans people can face bigotry for existing in public spaces, asking us to avoid everyone those shows might affect is asking us to avoid public life.

Bigotry in popular media helps normalize those same bigotries in the real world. Please recognize that. That’s all I ask.

You do not, under any circumstances, gotta hand it to Trey Parker and Matt Stone

[x]

[vlaserbeam]

You do not, under any circumstances, gotta hand it to Trey Parker and Matt Stone

[x]

[vlaserbeam]

Not really a Batman fan & I’m not spectacular at dissecting deeper political messaging within fiction yet, but I have to say, it’s wild to me that someone can read Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and not think “Wow this is kinda fascist”

Like “the city is overrun by a criminal class who are literally inhuman monsters that speak broken english that seek to prey on our women” is literally the surface level plot, that’s not even diving even a little bit deeper into stuff like how the mental health based approach to crime of the establishment being framed as worthless and ineffective compared to overwhelming violence. It’s crazy to me that ppl will argue otherwise regarding its messaging

[vlaserbeam]

"crime" for conservatives is basically just existing in public as a person of color

[vlaserbeam]

I think it’s possible to pluralize god and not sound like a total tool it’s just that you have to talk like a Skyrim NPC or perhaps a wizard.

[vlaserbeam]

there's been plenty of pushback against youtube's plan to age-check users by using an AI to analyze everyone's watching habits, but amidst that, i spotted this playlist circulating among some teens:

(picture is a reconstruction to protect the kids identity)

interesting! they're trying to trick the AI by watching videos that have a primarily adult viewer demographic? well im a curious fella so naturally i have to take a look-see, and

[vlaserbeam]

maybe the single funniest twitter comment I've ever seen

[vlaserbeam]

It's crazy how many people use Death of the Author to mean "separating the art from the artist" when it's actually not supposed to have anything to do with who the author is as a person and is supposed to be about the idea that the author's interpretation of their own work should not be seen as the definitive, correct opinion on that work. Like you're not supposed to invoke Death of the Author when JK Rowling devotes her entire life and fortune to transphobia, you're supposed to invoke it when Trent Reznor says Closer by Nine Inch Nails isn't a sex song.

[vlaserbeam]

Can anyone tell me if the Unabomber was problematic

[vlaserbeam]

One of the first victims of Epstein to speak out was a Latina transgender girl, Ava Cordero. She was sixteen when she was lured to Epstein’s apartment under the guise of helping her career in modeling. Ava Cordero was mocked, belittled, and denied by the media, her transness somehow overshadowing her status as a victim of assault. The media (Dareh Gregorian and Lucy Carne of the New York Post) specifically somehow spun it as Epstein being a victim of the case and treated her claims as an attempt to defame Epstein. Mind you, the journalists, Epstein’s lawyer (Gerald Lefcourt), and Epstein himself, were able to get away with this specifically because she was a transgender woman.

[vlaserbeam]

[vlaserbeam]

[vlaserbeam]

I really do like Some More News but I’ll be so real they could serve to make the ad reads more bearable. Your jokes are a lot less endearing when they’re trying to sell me something, I know you’re trying to maintain the tone of the video but please just read what you’re contractually obligated to and move on I promise nobody will mind

[vlaserbeam]

i wish all trans girls a very kissed on the face by someone they love

[vlaserbeam]

"becomes" 🤨🙄

[vlaserbeam]

White people do reblog without going "I'm white but—" "As a white person—". If you have a story about another Black or brown person's experience, then share it without drawing attention to your whiteness, or share what made you laugh in the tags and move on.

[vlaserbeam]

my new policy is harasser stalker blogs don't get to just do the things they're doing and expect not to get pushback