It's Impossible...

...to Overstate the Cultural Damage Done by Bad Takes on South Park

I'm not what you would call a devoted fan of South Park. I did watch it semi-regularly in the late 90's -- and I still tune in every once in a while when a particular episode manages to trend. But despite my limited familiarity with the oeuvre of Parker and Stone, I can still recognize a terrible interpretation when I see one.

Dana Schwartz's now-viral Tweet was a terrible interpretation.

Other folks on YouTube have stated this already, but I will reiterate: South Park doesn't lionize apathy. What it does is target extremism, smugness, and fake caring. And like the court jesters of old who would ridicule their kings, South Park focuses - often with laser-like accuracy - on whatever forces in the culture are in ascendance at the present moment.

Consider, for example, Bigger, Longer, & Uncut, Parker and Stone's feature-length attack on censorship. The message of that movie certainly wasn't that we shouldn't bother to take a stand on anything. On the contrary, the entire story turns on the kids becoming politically active to fight against Kyle's mom and her attempt to blame Canada for her son's potty mouth.

Consider too the recent episode on transgender athletes in women's sports. Once again, the final verdict wasn't that it was pointless to have an opinion on the matter. What Parker and Stone argued for was the recognition of nuances in the debate -- an eminently reasonable and humble stance to take.

Also ringing through my head right now is a lyric from the closing song of the rain forest episode from, I believe, season three: "You only fight these causes cuz caring sells." Really, how genius is that? As early as the turn of the century, Parker and Stone had already anticipated our current regime of corporate virtue signalling! Granted, I'm sure there are environmental activists who are genuinely informed about the rain forest and sincerely wish to preserve it. But for each one of those honest brokers, there are probably at least ten who are simply following the crowd -- plus a few rich guys who do see token rain forest activism as an opportunity to burnish their public image. And yes: if you're not embracing a cause for the right reasons, then you are a valid figure for mockery.

(Question: Has South Park made fun of the corporate rainbow flag brigade yet? Oh please say yes!)

Notice that out of the three examples cited above, one was going after social conservatives and two were going after lefties. In the end, I think that's what really grinds Schwartz's gears: the fact that South Park doesn't exempt her pals from its cultural criticism. Like a typical SJW, she expects special treatment, not equality. You can see this in the way she's complaining now about the public response to her trash opinion. Honey, dearie, sweetie-pie: the internet is the wild west. Everyone gets trolled. This has nothing to do with you being a wahman; men get that bullshit too. And you know how adults handle it? They ignore their mentions or liberally employ the block option instead of crying victim.

God, I hate the whiny sort of woman who thinks she should be allowed to spread her excrement with impunity. Those chicks are seriously giving my entire gender a bad name.