South Park Republicans

[Nimrod's Son]

http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.a...55E421,00.html

Young and swinging to the Right
By Andrew Sullivan
23dec03
WHEN, one wonders, did conservatism in America become hip? In the US the new millennium seems to have entrenched a growing trend among the younger generations that, if not culturally conservative, is anti-liberal.



Go to a college campus and you will find the young Republicans gaining in strength. You'll find plenty of sullen and not-so-sullen disdain for 1960s-style professors. You will notice that the internet, as well as providing the groundswell for the Howard Dean campaign, is just as popular among more Right-leaning undergraduates.

But you'll notice something else as well. These new non-lefties aren't exactly wearing bow ties and sipping sherry. They have adopted the full clothing and accessories of their liberal peers; they watch pay TV channel Comedy Central; some smoke pot; they have few problems with premarital sex; some are even gay.

I came up with a name for this fledgling generation of countercultural righties: South Park Republicans. The name comes from the Comedy Central cartoon show (shown in Australia on SBS television) in which four foul-mouthed eight-year-olds wreak havoc on their friends, families, school and town. Not everyone who watches South Park, of course, is a conservative. Far from it. But the sensibility that the program exudes - bawdy, shameless, relentlessly anti-politically correct - has real resonance today.

The Simpsons presaged this development. Knowing, witty, sardonic, it is a cartoon obviously written by and for young adults. But South Park took this formula and made it cruder, sharper and more rebellious. No PC shibboleths are left unmolested. From handicapped child Timmy to black youngster Token, every stereotype enjoys itself. The idiocy of hate-crime laws, the fawning condescension of well-meaning liberal adults, the dumbness of Hollywood celebrity, the surrealism of sexual harassment legislation: the targets are brutally assaulted for an enthusiastic audience of those 18 to 39.

If people wonder why anti-war celebrities such as Janeane Garofalo or Michael Moore failed to win over the younger generation, you have only to watch South Park to see why. The next generation sees through the cant and piety, and cannot help giggling.

In one episode, when liberal talk-show host Rosie O'Donnell shows up to lecture the children about democracy, their teacher declares: "People like you preach tolerance and open-mindedness all the time, but when it comes to middle America you think we're all evil and stupid country yokels who need your political enlightenment. Just because you're on TV doesn't mean you know crap about the government." The teacher is a thinly veiled closeted homosexual.

In a recent essay in the neo-conservative magazine City Journal author Brian Anderson celebrated the show as evidence that conservatives were winning the culture wars. He may be on to something.

Here is a passage he cited that the Body Shop founder Anita Roddick might appreciate. It occurs when one of the children, Kyle, comes down with a rare kidney disorder. His liberal parents decide to try a Native American homeopathic cure. It doesn't work.

Kyle's mum: "Everything is going to be fine, Stan; we're bringing in Kyle tomorrow to see the Native Americans personally."

Stan: "Isn't it possible that these Indians don't know what they're talking about?

Stan's mum: "You watch your mouth, Stanley. The Native Americans were raped of their land and resources by white people like us."

Stan: "And that has something to do with their medicines because ... ?"

Stan's mum: "Enough, Stanley!"

There you have the voice of a younger generation driven to distraction by clueless liberal parents. Think of Ab Fab's Saffy but with a wild streak.

Am I making too much of this? Maybe. The younger generation is more liberal in some respects: they tend to be more pro-gay and more comfortable in a multiracial society. But, in a natural reaction against their parents, their distaste for do-gooder cant is well developed. September 11 made a critical difference as well. It turned a sensibility into something a little more urgent.

Comedian Dennis Miller, a graduate of the US television comedy show Saturday Night Live and a loud-mouthed, libertarian rebel, exemplifies the change in sensibility. Nobody can think of him as a typical conservative. His four-letter words alone keep him a few thousand miles away from the religious Right.

But in an interview with Time magazine he summed up his politics: "I'm Left on a lot of things. If two gay guys want to get married, I couldn't care less. If a nutcase from overseas wants to blow up their wedding, that's when I'm Right. (September 11) was a big thing for me. I was saying to liberal America, 'Well, what are you offering?' And they said, 'Well, we're not going to protect you, and we want some more money.' That didn't interest me."

Miller is not alone. Alongside the religious Right, there is also an irreligious Right in the US. They are an often urban, culturally liberal, fiscally conservative slice of the population who are as appalled by Left-liberal humbug as they are turned off by evangelical theocrats. Politics is not as important to these people as their everyday lives, their desire to be left alone. But when those lives are threatened -- by over-taxation, government regulation or the mass murders perpetrated by Islamist terrorists -- they get engaged.

Theirs is a negative politics in the classic conservative sense. Their politics is in the service of their lives, not the other way round. To quote Miller again: "I will say this, I feel more politically engaged than I've ever felt in my life because I do think we live in dangerous times. Anybody who looks at the world and says this is the time to be a wuss - I can't buy that anymore."

Neither can a burgeoning group among the young. They tend not to be noticed. But they are perhaps the key to understanding the huge generation that will one day remake the US as surely as their boomer parents once did.

The Sunday Times

[Julian, Porn CONNOISSEUR]

TL,DR I SAW ROSIE ODNNELS NAME IN THERE AND THEN HAD TO GO TAKE A MASSIVE SHIT.

[jczeroman]

A few of my friends have already identified themselves as south park republicans.

[nofx420fugazi]

Originally posted by jczeroman
A few of my friends have already identified themselves as south park republicans.

They sound like winners.

[jczeroman]

Originally posted by nofx420fugazi


They sound like winners.

They are. They stopped trolling messageboards years ago!

[Fletcher]

Originally posted by jczeroman


They are. They stopped trolling messageboards years ago!

zing?

[I_was_aborted]

The longer I live the more I realize how different I am from most people.

[BeautifulLoser]

Nice article. I'd put myself into that category.

[jczeroman]

Originally posted by BeautifulLoser
Nice article. I'd put myself into that category.

I think that most people would. I hope that it gains noteriety. If democrats knew what the democratic party really represented (same for the republican party) they would run so fast.

[I_was_aborted]

lib·er·al ( P ) Pronunciation Key (lbr-l, lbrl)
adj.

1.Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.

2.Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.


I think this word should have quit being used along side the word democrat a long time ago.

[Pudge]

Originally posted by I_was_aborted
lib·er·al ( P ) Pronunciation Key (lbr-l, lbrl)
adj.

I think this word should have quit being used along side the word democrat a long time ago.

that's true. it never seemed to really fit any current party we have, especially the democrats.

But using South Park as evidence of the new young right rising or whatever the fuck is weak. Anyone who has watched the show can see it also deals with issues that are considered left leaning, as much or I think even more so than right criticisms and beliefs. It's across the board critical of everything, making it neither right or left. Because they approach some Republican views we should consider that as proof? That doesn't fly.

That said, there are a hell of a lot of young Republicans nowadays for sure. I blame video games and misplaced values.

[Travis Meekz]

I'm a South Park Independent

[pastor]

I've never viewed any South Park episodes as being inherently anti-liberal. The show has criticized stupidity that happened to fall beneath the liberal umbrella, sure. But, as Pudge mentioned, it's done so for the other side, as well. What we have in this article is a selective use of evidence.

I wonder how Parker and Stone feel about the misappropriation of their show's title. The article is interesting because it imprecisely colludes people who are culturally liberal and fiscally conservative with people who are self-proclaimed South Park Republicans. The main difference between the two being, of course, that the latter is Republican and the former not necessarily so. If anything, the trend described in the article implies that young people are becoming impatient with liberal stupidity and have gravitated more closely to fiscal conservativism. I fit pretty well into that classification (with some qualifications on the 'fiscal conservative' part), but if anyone called me a Republican -- of the South Park variety or otherwise -- I would belligerently take a shit on their shiny hapless heads. The idea that culturally liberal + fiscally conservative = South Park Republican is a gargantuan misnomer.

In fact, I would say that most people in my age group have fit that description for quite awhile. It's not until now the "South Park Republican" has been applied. Articles like these are selectively written to compound a feeling of being in the minority for self-proclaimed liberals, while galvanizing a budding young conservative movement by the sheer gravity of large numbers -- or rather, the appearance of large numbers. This bandwagon approach to muzzling 'minority' viewpoints by making minority viewpoint-holders sheepish about their own ideology is known as the Spiral of Silence. It's shit, and so's this article.

[pastor]

And, yes, I did take a media studies class this past fall. *curtsies, accidentally shows gaping muff*

[Edited because I had to add the word "gaping."]

[sawdust restaurants]

Originally posted by pastor
diatribe

I was going to make most of these points, but odds are that I would have done so in an incoherent, semicolon-laden, not nearly as well-informed manner. So thanks.

[sleeper]

the article summed it up in the first line; its not that its pro-conservative, its anti-liberal. with anything that has been as saturated in the popular psyche as liberalism has in recent times, especially with the protests and all, you should expect a backlash. its kinda empty and pointless using this as any form of evidence. its as empty as the anti-conservative trend with youth a year ago. the youth are always stupid, if theyre conservative or liberal. ive seen many articles on this supposed new wave and the way i interpret the message is in the 'people are finally coming to their senses' kinda way, as if this trend is any different from any other. there really is nothing substantial about what these people believe. they dont ideologically agree with or even understand it, its just a fashion.
pastor is right about how eagerly these titles are being thrown around. i believe in free health care. therefore im a liberal, therefore im left, therefore im a hippie, pro-gun control, pro-life, smoke weed and hate money, right? im exaggerating and its never really that obtuse, but this shit has to stop. things, especially politics and ideology is never and should never be percieved as being this black and white

[Ugly]

South Park just takes aim at everything, but I have seen a few conservative publications rally around it because they think a "hip" show wouldn't bash liberals. But they bash liberals because extreme liberalism is stupid.

Anyway (after searching on southparkstudios and I couldn't find the link, dammit) Matt and Trey did a chat where someone asked them "Who do you hate more, conseratives or liberals" and thier response was along the lines of whoever they think is stupid, they rip on conservatives alot but one of them said "We fucking hate liberals."

The show is liberal-leaning but its not liberal leaning to the point of completely excluding common sense is probably the best way to describe it. "407 - Cherokie Hair Tampons" episode, "713 - Butt Out" or "301 - Rainforesst, Shaimforrest" are probably the best examples of this. All these people calling themselves South Park Republicans need to look at "Bigger, Longer and Uncut" the movie is extremely isn't conservative at all and very anti-war in its theme. South Park just lands hard on what they believe to be stupid: whatever that is.

I think the best example of where they explictly stated where they land on the political spectrum was in "701 - A Little Bit Country". It was a fairly crappy episode but that's because it was so wishy-washy. In the end, when talking about the Iraq war, they just gave up, shrugged, landed on the hard-hitting side of "have your cake and eat it too" and then ended with a big song and dance that said "For the war, against the war, WHO CARES?! 100 episodes!!!"

[Irrelevant]

yeah, i think it's pretty ridiculous. the show isn't liberal or conservative, it bashes both sides. and then the article quotes someone they identify as a libertarian as support for this idea. he's a libertarian, not a republican. jeez. south park republicans need to be south park libertarians instead. i'm fine with that.

[jczeroman]

Originally posted by I_was_aborted

I think this word should have quit being used along side the word democrat a long time ago.

YES!!!!!!!!!!

[sawdust restaurants]

Originally posted by jczeroman
YES!!!!!!!!!!

Whoa there, hoss.

[I_was_aborted]

I always loved that word...hoss. Mmmmhhmmmmm hoss....yummy.

[Nimrod's Son]

The show's theme always struck me more as Libertarian than Republican. The basic theme always seemed to be "just leave us the fuck alone and let us live our lives."