My enemy's enemy is NOT my friend/"Mocking liberals" is not a

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Frank Rich's review of Brian C. Anderson's South Park Republicans is mostly a waste of space, but here's a passage I found particularly odious.

Just as Mr. Anderson's book reached stores in early April, Mr. Parker and Mr. Stone, true to their butt-out libertarianism, aimed their fire at self-righteous, big-government conservatives who have become every bit as high-handed and meddlesome as any Prius-pushing movie star. Such is this role reversal that the same TV show celebrated by Mr. Anderson and his cohort as the leading edge of a potential conservative victory in the culture wars now looks like a harbinger of an anti-conservative backlash instead.

True to condescending elitist form, Rich tries to sneak one past his readers, who he thinks won't be aware that South Park has always been irreverent towards everything. There's no "backlash" here.

To think that Trey Parker and Matt Stone are "our kind of guys" is folly; to consider South Park a conservative ally/weapon in the culture wars is self-delusion; to claim that the show upholds conservative priciples is to mock conservative principles (and I'd bet Parker and Stone would probably claim take offense, too); to justify watching and enjoying South Park on the basis that it is espouses conservative values is either an abandonment of any foothold in reality or an attempt to justify a dirty secret pleasure. If you like South Park, then just admit it's because it's funny.

The whole "South Park Conservatives" ruckus boils down to this: certain people who vote Republican like South Park because it mocks certain types of liberals (even though the show equally mocks certain types of conservatives). That doesn't make those people conservative, Anderson's book notwithstanding.

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This page contains a single entry by Papa-Lu published on May 5, 2005 5:17 PM.

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