What do you think about PC culture?

[nel3]

TBH, PC principal is hilarious on Southpark. IRL some aspects are sensible then you have others that border upon the snowflake zone. i dont give a beep about some stupidities the PC culture believes in.

 

[Sadib]

TBH, PC principal is hilarious on Southpark. IRL some aspects are sensible then you have others that border upon the snowflake zone. i dont give a beep about some stupidities the PC culture believes in.

I worst part about PC culture is people who say beep.

 

[bobjr]

PC Principal is a weird character because he’s really inconsistent. Sometimes he’s “no one should receive negative criticism” which isn’t a really PC thing and often comes from people angry about PC, and other times he’s portrayed as over the top because he thinks people should be called by the gender they want, which is like yeah duh intentionally misgendering is bad. Remember at the end of the day South Park is written by 2 50 year old white men, so a lot of times they’re bad at taking in different viewpoints.

 

[FullFathomsFive]

Oh, it's fantastically contradictory and thus the perfect satirisation. It's a great encapsulation of left-wing authoritarianism dressed up as compassion.

 

[bobjr]

Yeah but you can’t mix satire with actual correct things with the same tone, otherwise it just gets confusing and makes you wonder what the point is. Especially when South Park’s worst habit is treating its ideas as the naturally neutral opinion, but also the enlightened one at the same time. Also they’ve gotten better but for the longest time South Park really thought it was bad to care about things.

It’s really something that if you asked you’d get a non serious answer, and it’s an easier thing to have a placeholder than invent a new strawman character every other week.

So basically I wonder if he’s meant as some sort of weird virtue signaling thing, where people don’t actually care about things, they do it because it just makes them look good, which is cynical at best and depressing at worst.

 

[FullFathomsFive]

It can vary depending on the extent to which he's the focal character. When he or the issues associated with him are central to the episode, he's singing a full musical number about safe spaces, collecting sex consent forms or violently attacking people for perceived 'microaggressions'. When he's merely background noise, it can just be a slight OTT-ness. Almost all characters are outrageous or reasonable depending on the story, including even Cartman.

 

[bobjr]

Safe spaces aren’t really a thing though, it’s one of those exaggerated concepts, and the episode itself used Cartman, a racist authoritarian, Randy, someone known to be hypocritical and dealing with an over the top strawman, and for some reason Steven Segal, noted rapist who hangs out with dictators as the people who wanted them.

If PC culture being satired is the point, you do kind of have to make sure you aren’t treating the over the top versions as what actually happens. It’s like how trigger warnings (though content warning is fine) had a purpose, but somehow it’s only this weird over the top thing now where people like to use to to complain when they’re being racist.

At the end of the day it’s using a misleading example to tie into real life issues. It’s like if Mr. Slave was used for a normal LGBT situation.

 

[FullFathomsFive]

If PC culture being satired is the point, you do kind of have to make sure you aren’t treating the over the top versions as what actually happens.

That's sounds like a word-perfect definition of satire, or at the very least parody. You reference Cartman and Randy, who are both clearly exaggerated for comedic effect, and yet the same doesn't apply to the mentality you're sympathetic to?

Safe spaces aren’t really a thing though

They are clearly A Thing though:

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/...ideas.html?register=email&auth=register-email

https://www.theatlantic.com/politic...ivists-are-weaponizing-the-safe-space/415080/

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/lon...shals-paid-12-an-hour-to-police-a3669151.html

Is this a snowflake crusade that threatens free Western society as we know it? Of course not, but it absolutely exists and it's absolutely hilarious.

 

[bobjr]

One of those is for rape victims, which is kind of a serious thing to go through and as a society are really bad at acknowledging it’s a problem, to the point we have judges dismissing cases because of what the victim was wearing.

One mentions persistent racism but only talks about one thing for some reason. I recall swastikas on walls and something involving the Ferguson protests too.

Even without that we have a Government trying to systematically take peoples rights away, let that doesn’t get mentioned as long as you can make jokes at LGBT people.

There are some people, usually white, who cannot reflect on genuine race issues because they lack context and understanding, so when it comes to jokes they will miss the mark. People can learn and grow, but there has to be some self reflection beyond “well this isn’t wrong because no way can I be racist”

Though lol at free Western society nonsense, we subjugated the world to fit one culture for all the spices, only to discover we hate them all

 

[FullFathomsFive]

It takes a uniquely white self-loathing to look south to Bolsanaro and Maduro, east to Putin, Jinping and Duerte, argue for a reduction in free speech, and say the West isn't overwhelmingly free.

Throw in 'whitey hates hot food' for good measure lol

There are some people, usually white, who cannot reflect on genuine race issues because they lack context and understanding

I distinctly remember you trying to downplay racism in the UK Labour Party? What was it, 'anything that isn't support for Israel is antisemitism'?

 

[bobjr]

To be fair America is partially responsible for the first two.

Why do all spices have to be hot? Look at any American cook book from the 50’s and be terrified someone wants to go back to that.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

The most ridiculous form of someone being PC was a woman I knew that literally threw a screaming fit at me because I used the phrase “white lie.” She said that I made up such a thing and it was extremely racist to say. She seriously went 40 years without ever hearing that phrase apparently. She didn’t believe me that it was just a phrase and that it had existed for years. She then asked me angrily why there wasn’t a “black lie.” The irony being this was coming from the same lady that used the N word quite often but not as a racial slur but rather an interchangeable word for slave or servant.

 

[WishIhadaManafi5]

Wow that's insane, given that the phrase just means a little lie. There's nothing remotely racist about it. Sounds like she was looking for any reason to complain.

 

[Gamzee Makara]

It takes a uniquely white self-loathing to look south to Bolsanaro and Maduro, east to Putin, Jinping and Duerte, argue for a reduction in free speech, and say the West isn't overwhelmingly free.

Throw in 'whitey hates hot food' for good measure lol



I distinctly remember you trying to downplay racism in the UK Labour Party? What was it, 'anything that isn't support for Israel is antisemitism'?

"White guilt"? REALLY?! What are you going to spout next?
And whataboutism at its finest...Putin, Bolsanaro and Maduro are part of the West, BTW. It seems you equate white governments who use Latin characters to "The West"...
Freedom of speech does NOT equate to freedom from consequences of said speech. The government can't throw you in jail for using the N-Word, but that doesn't mean you're invincible or un-punishable by others. And you scream "I wanna be an a**hole with impunity because MUH FREEDOM OF SPEECH". Just admit it.

Yeah, I haven't heard that in 10 YEARS. Way to dredge up a dated example to fling "reverse racism" as an excuse for why you feel like people should be allowed to be a**holes with impunity from the community at large. It's almost like not everyone has to like you if you want to say hurtful things or something, REGARDLESS OF IDENTITY. But mostly white people want to say hurtful things in the US, which is the locus of your argument.

Is Zionism universal? NO. So stop equating the Israeli government to Judaism.

 

[Auraninja]

I feel like South Park is one of those shows that's in a weird cultural limbo.

One of the main premises of the show is "don't get offended" while some avid fans get offended if you ever criticize the show.

I like some South Park episodes, but the show isn't this morally superb show deserving of the golden throne.

 

[Sadib]

PC Principal is a weird character because he’s really inconsistent. Sometimes he’s “no one should receive negative criticism” which isn’t a really PC thing and often comes from people angry about PC, and other times he’s portrayed as over the top because he thinks people should be called by the gender they want, which is like yeah duh intentionally misgendering is bad. Remember at the end of the day South Park is written by 2 50 year old white men, so a lot of times they’re bad at taking in different viewpoints.

That's hilarious. One is a straw man argument. The other one is an actual issue. It would be like if the PC Principal (a character who I never heard of before this thread) said, "Attack helicopter is a legitimate gender." Then immediately saying, "Women should have the right to vote." I'm sure the same idiots would find it funny.

Oh, it's fantastically contradictory and thus the perfect satirisation. It's a great encapsulation of left-wing authoritarianism dressed up as compassion.

I doubt it was intentionally contradictory. You're giving too much credit to someone who would invent a PC Principal character.

 

[nel3]

I worst part about PC culture is people who say beep.

Well I was gonna post the four letter word but I don't think the mods would like that, would (censored) or expletive sound better in your view? Would using an older term such as hoot sound better in a post? IMO the worst of PC culture are those that need safe spaces

 

[Gamzee Makara]

As long as you recognize that a piece of media IS problematic, you can watch and enjoy it...just don't let it influence you, exalt it as perfect, disclose that you purchased, rented, watched it on a service or p*****d it and act as free advertising for it by being a public fan of said problematic media, you're fine to enjoy almost anything. Everyone has a guilty pleasure, after all.

 

[bobjr]

South Park is a really hit and miss show, and a lot of that comes from the one week process. Whenever Matt and Trey come at an idea that they don't really know and try and throw something together, that tends to be their worst episodes. Their Inception episode is an example, where they didn't even watch the movie and instead listened to a third hand description. They're better at stuff when they have time and motivation and are willing to put in effort, but South Park is this weird example where it was a super shocking episode in the 90's, but now is one of tons of cartoons meant for adults, which kind of pushes against the PC argument. There are more of these shows, not less, and people can talk about them and why they can be good or bad, the thing here is they created a character that's inconsistent at best, and representative of a group that doesn't really exist at worst.

But I'd like to reiterate there's not really a push for safe spaces, whatever the term means, outside of a push by Conservative groups who actually say bigoted or falsified things and get upset when people push back. Is it really wanting a safe space to want someone who posts bigoted garbage on a site that explicitly says it doesn't want that in it's ToS? We have actual data that White, Christian people believe they are the most persecuted group in America, and anyone outside that group will just laugh about how blatantly false that is.

If a group has more power than another group they hate to admit it, because then it means in some way you had some natural advantages, so it gets put into their head that no things aren't that way it's all me, and when faced with the reality of the situation get into their own bubble instead of dealing with how things actually are.

 

[nel3]

I treat that show as a rough estimate with a fair amount of exaggeration. There are certain shows I despise conceptually and I could learn the gist of them from various comedy shows. I don't really bother too much with PC unless certain situations merit it.

I do agree South Park it very hit and miss, there are certain eps that i cant stand to watch and there are others that are instant gems.