Jophiel wrote:
gbaji wrote:
I do find it interesting how the willingness to accept her comedy has changed based on the perceived "direction" of the politics behind it. When her comedy mostly focused on offensive attacks on social institutions which conservatives might care about, she was fine. She was hurting those evil conservatives and making fun of them, so let's give her a pass.
When was this?
Most of her career has included comedy and public statements (and actions) which one could more easily place as "left leaning" (although to be fair, mostly was just "offensive"). But there was the time she screeched and grabbed her crotch while singing the national anthem. And the time she posted Zimmerman's parents home address cause "no one should be able to hide". And... well... a list of somewhat hateful and obnoxious stuff.
I'm sure the fact that she ran as a green party candidate, supported liberal causes and politicians, and otherwise toed the stock entertainment media liberal line didn't hurt at all in protecting her from fallout over these things. Sure. There was fallout, but it boiled over quickly and in several cases she just used the hype to go on to sell whatever new venture she was doing.
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Anyway, her show wasn't canceled because of the show's content. It was canceled because she was a racist kook on Twitter.
Uh. From what I've read, there were several cast members planning on quitting. Hard to tell the exact reason, but it sure seemed like a lot of this was them not wanting to be on a show with a main lead who made a point of playing a pro-Trump conservative character. I suspect a ton of people who signed on to the project assumed it would be the same old Roseanne from back in the day, and it would all be a great big liberal fun fest or something. And then found out it wasn't. And then did everything they could to get out of it.
The tweet was a great excuse for the network to cancel the show. Yeah, I'm putting on my
a bit here, but my impression is that the network got a lot of backlash for the conservative nature of the language on the show, but it was doing well in ratings, so they couldn't just cancel it without it being too obvious. And then this comes along. How convenient.
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Which isn't something liberals are immune to doing, for example Kathy Griffin's photo of her holding up Trump's bloodied head.
Yeah. There's a pretty large difference between literally depicting yourself as though you had just beheaded a political figure, and making a comment that if you squinted just right could be made out to be racially offensive. If the latter was really the criteria for having a show cancelled there would be a ton of shows cancelled. There's a lot of racially directed comedy out there. But as long as the comedy is targeted at the right race (ie: white people), and/or the person doing the comedy is a person of color, and/or the person doing the comedy is perceived as being "on the left" (and is, preferably, making a joke about a person on the right), it's all good.
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It could just be that being a public dumbfuck has consequences no matter what your political stripe is and being "a comedian" isn't an effective shield.
Again, despite the two not actually being equal in weight, let's see if, in three months, Roseanne retracts her apology about her tweet about VJ, and then goes on tour promoting the "joke" she made. You know, like what Kathy Griffin did starting in August of 2017. I don't seem to recall anyone being outraged that she was making money off the offensive (and threatening) "joke" she made. Nor did she seem to have any difficulty finding financial backing for said endeavor. Nor did she find it difficult to sell tickets.
I suppose it's possible that Roseanne's going to try the same thing here. And maybe in 3 months, she'll be touring the hick counties promoting herself as the "woman who took on Valerie Jerrett and got fired for it". Who knows? I suppose that in the entertainment industry, anything is possible.
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That said, I'm proud of you for finding an even stupider defense/explanation for the "Planet of the Apes" remark than even I came up with in jest.
I don't think it's stupid at all. If she had used any other example of a popularly known film/book highlighting a distopian/authoritarian future in her tweet, would you have failed to get that it was about the screwed up social structure and that she was talking about VJ's political ideology (and comparing the two)? There is nothing
at all in Planet of the Apes that you could correlate directly to human racial biases or stereotypes. You can only go there if you actually ignore the entire point of the work, and the social structure it portrays, and the inherent problems within that social structure (which, btw *are* intended as a warning against similar human social structures), and instead break right through that fourth wall and interpret it solely in the context of "OMG! The title mentions Apes, so it must be about calling her a monkey or something!"
Talk about missing the forest for the darn trees there. Again, I'm not precluding the possibility that she actually did just intend to call VJ an ape, so as to make the racially offensive remark, knowing it would create outrage. It's totally possible for that to be the case (and monumentally stupid as well). It's well within the pattern of her past offensive comments for this to be the case.
But in the absence of her actually coming out and saying "I intended to call her an ape because I think that black people aren't really fully humans and are more likely less advanced primates", I'm going to go with the assumption that a woman who got the freaking backing of the black caucus when she ran maybe really was just making a comment about VJ's social ideology and comparing it to the ideology in the film. Because... you know, it actually fits.
Heck. VJ's ideology actually fits Animal Farm even better. But then that would likely get a similar backlash, so I guess that's a no-go too.
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You're a living example of Poe's Law in action, my friend
Er? I think this is the second time you've made that assertion. You're just as wrong about what Poe's law actually is, and how it's applied, this time as you were then.
Poe's law is about mistaking satire of a position for a serious statement in support of said position, or failing to make clear that a statement about a position is supposed to be satire, leading to said mistake. Either way. Neither of which applies here.
I suppose we could invent our own internet law pertaining to whether someone chooses to interpret someone else's post in the most offensive or least offensive manner. But that would be a different thing. And honestly, neither side is any more "right" about their choice. Um... But obviously, I tend to fall on the side of giving people the benefit of the doubt that they didn't intend to make a racist comment, and are probably not actually racist, even if something they say
could be interpreted that way. Call it the Howard Cosell defense if you want.
I get that in today's politically correct world, most people do tend to go out of their way to find the most offensive interpretation of what someone said and then assume that's
exactly how it was meant. Sometimes (quite often), to the complete bewilderment of the person who made the statement. And yeah, I also get that there is a need to be vigilant in watching out for overtly racial language, since the alternative (being blind to it) can also have negative social consequences. I just happen to think we've become way too sensitive on this issue, and not terribly consistent in its application. And we're seeing racial language in things that are intended otherwise.
And in this particular case, it's a convenient sidestep of the reference to the content of the film and the social "rules" therein, and any discussion of whether VJ's ideology does actually lean in that direction, which I suspect at least somewhat drives the issue. I immediately got the social structure connection. But then, I'm more familiar with a decade or so of conservative discussions about her and her ideology than most. I can see how someone who only knows her skin color and that she was a member of Obama's cabinet might only see that aspect of her. I don't know any conservatives who's opposition of VJ is "she's black". I know a heck of a lot of conservatives who will talk at length about her ideology, her methodologies, the things she supports, what she believes in, and yes, an analysis of what kind of social structure we might have if the kinds of ideology she espouses were to come to be. So yeah, I get the Planet of the Apes reference. Completely. And the only reason I'd make any association with race is because I'm aware that folks on the Left will not see the social structure connection and only see "ape=>monkey=>black=>offensive racial comment".
And, just like clockwork, that's exactly what happened.