The Reaction to The Boys Season 4 and The Death of Media Literacy

Today we talk about the backlash against season 4 of The Boys, and what this says about the culture war seeping into every aspect of our society.
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00:00 Pre-Roll
03:14 Start
08:52 Comments
23:08 The new Norm
43:29 The Boys
1:34:55 Outro
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#reaction #theboys #ethics #philosophy #entertainment #culture #trump

[@WisecrackEDU]

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[@futuristicgirl14]

Season 4 is the writers finally realizing that a lot of people don’t recognize satire and are tripling down on not being subtle. Just banging conservatives over the head with “we’re laughing at you, not with you” as hard and loud as they can.

[@rettenthetetlen8759]

"Season 4 is the writers finally realizing that a lot of people don’t recognize satire and are tripling down on not being subtle. Just banging conservatives over the head with 'we’re laughing at you, not with you' as hard and loud as they can." True, and the bias in Season 4 was at its peak. The whole "demonizing the Republicans because it's election year" theme was really obvious this season, and it cost the story, ruining the show. Even conservatives could enjoy most of the first three seasons before the show turned into a total political weapon. I disagree that the show was always only critical of the right wing. It poked fun at both sides, but Democrats couldn't sense the satire as they're not too sharp. Season 4 is different from the rest of the seasons, and if they say it's not, that just shows their bias and fanaticism.

[@futuristicgirl14]

@@rettenthetetlen8759 you could’ve just said “I know you are but what am I” and saved yourself some typing there.

[@rettenthetetlen8759]

@@futuristicgirl14 In reality, I write as much as I want. Do you agree with that?

[@raemmio2761]

@@rettenthetetlen8759 you know democrats aren’t left right? When you talk about “criticism of both sides” it’s just criticizing liberalism. Specifically capitalist liberalism. Which are what both parties in the U.S. are.

[@rettenthetetlen8759]

@@raemmio2761 they tend to posing as left. Personally I don't classify them as left either. More like fake left. Left should never be bully and toxic like these people.

[@random007nadir]

Wow. That "wacky" cartoon. It felt like it was parodying conservatives by showing how absurdly divorced from reality their view of social change is.

[@HingleMcCringle35]

44:00 The boys

[@robbieshand6139]

Bless you mate 👏

[@HorseJoint]

Seriously. Thank you

[@fodetoure1576]

It’s hilarious how long it took fascists to realize that homelander is and has always been a literal personification of fascism 🤡

[@AnvilPictures]

Not to mention people think he’s a good guy even though we see him do a bunch of horrible things.

[@fodetoure1576]

@@AnvilPicturesright!? And they’re pretending that season 4 just became “woke” and made homelander a villain like we didn’t see him let that plane crash in season 1 ✈️

[@fodetoure1576]

Satire is really difficult for conservatives to understand. It still baffles me how many people watched the Colbert report and thought it was a genuine republicans answer to the daily show 🤯

[@aviendha1154]

They still try and claim that homelander isn’t trump but a superhero. They’re in this comment section saying that the two are nothing alike.

[@LoneWulf278]

@@AnvilPictures All of their real-life heroes did bad things, too. Doing good or bad things is not a standard they have for their idols. The evidence is everywhere.

[@colonelweird]

I'm old enough to have seen All in the Family in its first run, and I loved it as a kid. The New Norm is a halfwit's idea of what that show was doing. But Archie Bunker in himself was a fascinating character, so much so that many viewers missed the joke and saw him as representing their own views. This effect was so powerful that over the course of All in the Family's many seasons, Archie was transformed into more of a lovable curmudgeon, less of a detestable bigot. But the show was always a bit ambiguous in its politics. It could mock racial bigotry, but could never mention American imperialism, for instance - I guess it just represented mainstream liberalism, and was congratulated for its bravery in doing so. By the way, you should look up J. P. Sears if you want to see conservative comedy that's even less comedic than The New Norm. No matter how bad you think right-wing comedy is, this guy is even less funny than anything you could imagine. It's all really just so sad and pathetic. I would love to see conservative comedy that makes me uncomfortable as a leftist, but this ain't it.

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

Ron White has made a career of tailoring his routine to a conservative audience. Though, I guess some people would be offended to hear him called a conservative comedian when one of his more famous bits is literally about how "everyone is at least a little gay".

[@mattheweagles5123]

All in the family is based on a British sitcom called Til Death Do Us Part that worked the same way. And JP Sears started off laughing at new age people whilst doing yoga and selling wellness products so his shift to very bad culture war comedy could all be part of some weird meta joke only he gets. Or he's a massive grifter.

[@mzmendy]

I think I misread that. I just turned on this stream and came to the comments. There was a show called the New Normal a few years back that I'm POSITIVE the right wing would HATE, and I had to type this before I went back to reread your comment.

[@AJX-2]

You just realized that The New Norm was making fun of you the whole time. Media literacy, much?

[@LonkinPork]

nothing boils my blood quite as much as Right-wingers trying to co-opt South Park, when their entire view of South Park is "yeah, that Cartman tells it like it is!"

[@jaycrisp536]

It Carrie’s viewpoints traditionally seen from both sides because they generally just have good takes

[@robertfreitag687]

Trey and Matt are libertarians who thought Ueber was a good idea. Which from the point of view of economic exploitation is like the white people before the Civil War who said, "Let's just see how this slavery thing plays out." They're not heroes. Yeah, they did a lot of gay-positive stuff, but so did Ernst Roehm.

[@LonkinPork]

@@robertfreitag687 oh certainly, they've been wrong plenty of times. but they're still smart dudes, despite the ways they're misguided. they're not braindead chuds, which seems to be the default mode of the modern Right

[@asdasasdas3476]

@@robertfreitag687 Whats Ueber in this context?

[@robertfreitag687]

@@asdasasdas3476 Uber ? Umlaut? The ride share company. Trey and Matt hailed it as a great innovation in transportation, but really it's a great innovation in evading employment law. I'll agree that Matt and Trey can be funny. But they're stupid. And they kind of own up to that, to some extent. People like their lack of pretentiousness, and if you don't get them talking about Seth Macfarlane, it's generally true. They didn't know they were cheering on worker exploitation, but they hardly bothered to look. The same way they didn't realize that global warming is an actual thing until nearly 20 years after the fact.

[@vanadyan1674]

I for one am stunned that they love it when tribal behaviors they disagree with are satirized, but get angry when tribal behaviors that they relate to are satirized.

[@robertfreitag687]

Why? What's so amazing about that? The Left are no less tribal than the Right. It's possibly the single least interesting type of political phenom.

[@bobyoung3857]

What's wrong is they want to make their tribal behavior the norm and suppress others.

[@robertfreitag687]

@@bobyoung3857 Okay. But how does that not describe the LGBTQ movement? Its motives may be benevolent, but they're definitely a violent reaction against milennia of widespread social norms. It's definitely a type of power grab.

[@vanadyan1674]

I respect the inhuman discipline it must have taken Michael to not run outside and watch the Transformers getting it on in his backyard.

[@WisecrackEDU]

It would've been a sublime thing to see.

[@X_TheHuntsman_X]

Top Gun Maverick (and the original) is a 100% right wing propaganda film. It is just also a ton of fun, and I love it despite my black little commie heart. lol

[@wickedgrinaz]

Was literally just talking about this ❤

[@Sidharthavicious]

Hero with Jet Li is also a really fun propaganda movie.

[@Uptomyknees]

I thought it was more military propaganda than "right wing" propaganda.

[@Sidharthavicious]

@@Uptomyknees Yeah, I don't think the Navy cared much about the politics of their recruits. These days right and left are insults rather than descriptions. If you don't like it it's ___Wing.

[@interloc1290]

Brooklyn 99 is shameless “cop-aganda” but it’s my go to on a flight.

[@a_e_hilton]

Xtinction Rebellion in Australia blocked a train line which brought coal into the Port of Brisbane, costing a government contract over $125 million (AUD). Like, they're doing things. And then when no one reports on it, they spray-paint something so someone reports on it. The spray painting isn't the Xtinction Rebellion mission, it's the PR side of an organisation which, like, regularly does stuff

[@mrsloan7361]

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[@allyson87]

At least since season 2 of the Boys, we’ve seen stories like this about dumb conservative fans not realizing the show was mocking them, and discussions of media literacy. I don’t know if I can believe it anymore. ATP, it feels like a mix of native journalism and outrage marketing.🤷🏼‍♀️

[@AJX-2]

I know plenty of right-wing people who have known that The Boys was mocking them from day 1, but enjoyed it anyway. Conservatives are used to being mocked in movies and TV, so they have a pretty easy time just ignoring those parts and focusing on the aspects of the show they enjoy.

[@brennenderopa]

I sometimes also wonder about media literacy. I recently saw that "Sound of Freedom" is nr 1 on the Amazon Prime Germany streaming charts and has very good reviews. That movie is literal QAnon drek. Who are the people loving this? And on the Marx / Satan thing, that whole debate was so unreal. My grandparents already left the church and my parents were not raised religiously and I was not raised religiously and seeing grown men, thinkers with PhDs discuss this as if hell, satan, demons, satanism etc. are real things is unreal. Feels medival at best.

[@hellNo116]

the x thing played like me and my friends gathered around one evening and had an improve session where a sex offender father with rage issues had a pansexual highschool daughter and somehow the gay agenda was actually in the government... what the heck did i even watch???

[@Ravenna_Black]

Lets make a cartoon and pack it full of every social grievance we have and say its funny. Its not clever or provocative... its just surface level bitching about people they don't like. They don't have the sophistication of South Park. And Im often in disagreement with the Libertarian viewpoints of South Park.

[@interloc1290]

Another fact worth noting here is that the conflation of what are usually 2 or more groups serves as a recruitment tool for the dishonest one. I first noticed this maybe a 10-15 years ago in gaming subcultures. there would be regular run of the mill RAC is T who were simply mad that black or brown people were being represented in their game. And a separate group who had some other valid grievance with the characterization or gameplay or story telling or whatever. Depending on which property it was these groups would vary in size but the RAC is T would almost invariably be smaller. They would use the other group as cover and to pad the stats of people who have that view point. Like if a poorly written gey or black character showed up it’d be a thread or post with like 5-10 ppl criticizing the poor writing or characterization. Then 1 dude would show up like “Yeah aren’t WE all sick of this DEI affirmative action agenda crap?”. (The term “woke” hadn’t been co-opted back then) Then if someone points out THAT dude is being big OT Ed…he would just play the “Oh we can’t even criticize bad writing?, yall always playing the race card” if NO ONE points it out he would just continue to push this viewpoint unchallenged and be like “look at ALL the people who agree with me here”. If the opposition fell into the trap losing the nuance and grouping them ALL together it would ACTUALLY offend the group with the legitimate grievances and naturally for them to be accused of RAC is em when they weren’t guilty they just didn’t like the gameplay or writing or whatever. This often leave them with the impression that ppl who stand up to the RAC is T are actually sensitive and unreasonable ones and subtly nudge otherwise reasonable ppl them further down the radicalization slippery slope.

[@interloc1290]

TRIVIA: There was one show in particular where this phenomenon stood out: A mediocre show > based on a GOOD game > based on GOOD books > based on WEIRD folk lore from a very specific part of the world. BONUS POINTS IF U GUESS THE PROPERTY. It spawned different groups with different expectations based on where they were introduced to the property and every spectrum of grievances that congealed into a massively disgruntled fan base. But no one agreed what the problem was.

[@hideshiseyes2804]

Michael have you heard of the essay “Paranoid and Reparative Reading: You’re So Paranoid You Probably Think This Essay Is About You” by Eve Sedgwick? It’s a really interesting discussion of how we have learned to default to political (and what she calls “paranoid” in that we’re always looking for the problematic aspects) readings of texts. I think you might find it interesting if you continued that line of thought in one of these streams. Thanks for another cool stream, hope you guys are doing well!

[@niuguber]

25:50 Isn't the house similar to "All In The Family" or am I hallucinating?

[@chrisgrey9726]

Hey just wanted to point out that laugh tracks used to be made by one guy with a machine and every show and/or episode would have a unique mix of laughs. Studios didn't want to keep paying him so they took some that he made and uses those on everything making the ubiquitous tracks we hear now. They are bootleg copies of something that was supposed to be bespoke.

[@Marqui91]

3:16 start

[@Risingtide2]

Interesting on that final opinion on tv vs movies cause while i dont disagree with "dont make tv you whole personality" and tv takes far more time. I think that TV is doing far better than film atm and now that it often has equal budgets the longer format of tv shows do actually permit better story telling than films.

[@cellcerocreates]

Much love. Love your work. lml,🖤,lml

[@niuguber]

54:00 There are only two truly good guys in The Boys. Starlight and Hughie. The heroes are all corrupted by power and the Boys are Punisher-level killers, even resorting to horrible acts to get what they need to kill Homelander and the others. At least based on the comic.

[@mattgilbert7347]

Yeah, Butcher, MM, and Frenchie aren't exactly fighting for a Socialist Revolution in America. They're just out for revenge, and to kinda-sorta end Supes. Butcher in particular is a reflection of Homelander.

[@slashismyhommie8182]

I walked into work on a Monday, clocked in, and was unable to log into my email at my desk one time. Checked in with my boss, she said she would look into it and printed some reports for online orders I oversaw. So I did full reconciliation of the items and ordered all of that. Then was called into the conference room and was promptly fired. After me basically processing around 200k worth of sales on a Monday morning.

[@theicedragon100]

what a shame

[@robertfreitag687]

I hope you took a shit in the WC without flushing on the way out.

[@taipolar333]

did you sneak a Thin Izzy reference in there?

[@WisecrackEDU]

maybe . . .

[@mattgilbert7347]

So far, season 4 has been a little disappointing. I rewatched season 3 a couple of days ago and it is so good. The world felt genuinely expansive (the flashbacks to the 80s and Solider Boy's WW2 propaganda films helped to do that) and the pacing of that season was much better. It's also felt a little tamer. Like it's being produced *by* Vought - which it kind of is! The whole "woke" critique is just stupid. It is ideologically consistent, so I don't know what show they're watching. I didn't know Eric Kripke was related to Saul! I spotted the character Sister Sage reading one of Kripke the Elder's books, "Naming and Necessity", but I just assumed that the name was just a coincidence. The "both sides" thing is also a little incoherent, because of the switch of the character Neumann from being a Bush-analogue in the comics, to AOC in the show. Had they made her more of a Hilary, *that* would have worked. But it's fine, not a major flaw. The most Trump-like aspect of Homelander is his narcissism, his obsession with celebrity and fame, his need to be loved. Trump is not really a Fascist. Homelander *is* a Supe Supremacist.

[@AllLogicIsDeadPastMidnight]

Missed this. Too busy lollygagging at work and not on my phone 😔

[@WisecrackEDU]

we hate when work gets in the way of important things like hanging out on a stream

[@markhackett2302]

Around 1hr 5, in the 70s, there was a lot more filtering than today, but that filtering, as well as removing a few better takes on media also filtered out a lot of worse takes and a whole slew of manipulation takes. So in the 50s to the 80s and probably into the 90s, you had to do specific things, take actual effort and discern to find out things, and if you were looking for what other people said about it, that filtering of what you CAN find was done before you COULD find it, but it also meant effort had to be expended to do that filtering and even that critiquing things. You picked out some things, but think about Omen: it filtered Satanism to fit the trope of "They worship a literal Satan", reality irrelevant. Same for anarchism, because Hollywood, filtered by those literally "masters", hated actual anarchy, because anarchy, meaning "no master", removes them from any job and instead they'd have to flip burgers with the rest of us. THAT is a filter. But as filtering reduced, also what was filtered was sharing someone else's side as well as your own, nuance dropped off because nuance and complexity was less profitable and took longer to do. And Peterson et al were also no longer filtered out and because there was a lack of effort to do it, and their reach worldwide, the niche existed. So they were allowed, because they were no longer filtered out.

[@MorbidRexx]

wild that someone threatening to pull his shares out of tesla if he doesnt get his 50 BILLION dollar BONUS for the year is asking for donations for a weird reactionary cartoon

[@MaskedHeart]

Scooby-Doo had a laugh track.

[@Pooh0Bear8]

Sister Sage is the most dangerous of them all 😈 I am excited to see how the season ends

[@Virjunior01]

Ultimately yes, but at the end of the day, her playing ball is stacking the cards against her. The only thing stopping her from catching laser to the Dome is that she's still useful. It depends on whether or not she puts enough contingency plans in place for when the plans are complete. No one is safe, not even Homelander... and that was before Sage even hit the scene. There are too many moving parts.h

[@mattgilbert7347]

​@@Virjunior01Her understanding of History is also a bit suspect. It wasn't "democracy" that caused decline in ancient Athens and Rome.

[@TheEvolver311]

​@@mattgilbert7347that is the "common" History Channel way of saying, don't expect real hard history in a entertainment show.

[@BrandyCrane82782]

So legit watching this after the livecast.... At the phone call portion to the government, the military guy looks like one of the fursona's of TikTok creator SocksFur... I wonder if they have the "likeness" clause on their thingie...

[@sayonarakid]

Shows like The boys or even movies like Joker that put so much enfazis into the main characters will create this aura of wonder in them. Even the director or whatever comming and saying openlly that its the villain will not make this aura go. Also in the boys there is a lot of super violent and gory scenes. This kind of stuff make young people go crazy. When we are kids whe think villent movies is amazing. So even if the creators come to say that the protags are evil they will still look cool. at least for a lot of people. Even many violent scenes are created in a kind of funny way. I belive this love for the evil guys are proposital made like this.

[@th3r0d]

The New Norm layout reminds me of All In The Family

[@robertfreitag687]

Culture wars are what we do instead of politics. Three people is a debate. Two people is a death match.

[@aloknr2430]

This discussion on media and the inability to see a world beyond the culture wars, reminds me of Mark Fisher and Byung Chul Han's work for various reasons. Hey wisecrack are there any works of fiction that helps us imagine an actual world beyond capitalism that has drama which does not stem from the corrupt contradictions of capitalism. I can think of Star Trek but any recommendations would be great.

[@Sidharthavicious]

Unfortunately a lot of jerks on both the left and right are drafting Star Trek into the culture wars.

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

The Boys are knocking it out of the park! 🔥🔥🔥

[@alruiz512]

😂😂 Worst season ever

[@ragu4545]

It's amazing how people will stand behind bad writing as long as it takes a jab against their tribe's enemy.

[@PinaKoalaGaming]

⁠​⁠@@ragu4545It’s amazing how the writing is right at par with the other seasons and the politics don’t matter you can like whatever shows you want but you still find a way to yap and yap about it because you’re feelings got hurt and you feel personally attacked and/or betrayed by a tv show, but yeah… the other side are snowflakes 😂 You can’t even explain with facts why you think the writing is worse. I’ve watched like 10+ videos of people complaining about the new season and all they end up saying is “Frenchie B Plot is Gay and it’s too political now!” That isn’t a criticism of the shows writing, just criticism of the shows plot choices not the actual dialogue.

[@warrenharshaw7677]

​@PinaKoalaGaming the problem with the Frenchie plot is that it is too sudden, comes out of nowhere, and it interrupts the development of the relationship between him and Kimiko that has been building for 3 seasons, then that is explained away by undoing all of the buildup between Frenchie and Kimiko by her saying she likes him like a brother. Then it is the ridiculousness of Frenchie sleeping with the guy whose family he killed. These are things you need to build up to and not just rush it.

[@DeviousPie2]

I keep wondering if The New Norm Show is actually a meta joke where the joke is that there are 12,000 separate layers of irony and it's supposed to be impossible to tell what layer of irony the creator is using. If so, well done, I'm confused.

[@AJX-2]

Erm, actually, The New Norm was making fun of leftists the entire time. Media literacy, much?

[@LonkinPork]

I hate that the Culture War *does* exist, and that the Culture Binge *doesnt* exist (anymore)

[@rockstar450]

If you're on this channel you probably think all white men and Asians are dogs so..

[@WisecrackEDU]

SAME

[@rockstar450]

@WisecrackEDU deleting comments that politely question your far left views? Very "philosophical" and not fascist at all

[@WisecrackEDU]

@@rockstar450 we do not delete any comments. KZbin automatically filters certain words. But also . . . I think "deleting comments" would be a pretty loose example of fascism.

[@LonkinPork]

@@rockstar450 They don't do that. You used a word that set off an auto-mod Filter. Sounds like you weren't being "polite" at all.

[@crimsoncrow0]

People are very strange rooting for homelander after he made that girl jump during is once a year save a life photo op.

[@The5armdamput33]

39:48 uncanny valley Elon Musk that is off-model with the rest of the characters appearing out of nowhere while the depressed, auto-tuned country rock singer in the outro blurts out a deluge of buzzwords and slogans.....

[@Kazuma11290]

As a native american I think the name Red Skins is fine. If "black" is fine then why not "red"? And to use it as a mascot is fine too so long as we're allowing vikings and leprechauns. This is equality.

[@myroslavplakhotnyk8780]

30:10 I remember seeing an almost identical "joke" but about gay people. It was a part of a propaganda campaign in russia. I think it was back when putin was changing their constitution and it was an ad to make people wote for that change

[@threeofeight197]

I think in the earlier seasons it wasn’t as clear that Homelander was pure evil. All the superheroes seemed flawed at that point, even the “woke” ones. So it would have been easier to think the show was critical of “both sides”.

[@MaskedHeart]

Shit do be like that

[@natelandherr5202]

That cartoon is the worst attempt of ripping off All in the Family that I've ever seen

[@wkmirai969]

idk what ppl on about, but i love S4 the boys, nothing change since season 1, it always been aiming that how Corpo will fk/kill anything that stand in their way to their profit either it be power or money

[@th3r0d]

Bro the beer was too fizzy cuz kid dropped it when it was tossed fo him

[@sirloin869]

transforgy - more than skeets the eye... Q: optimus, what are your pronouns? A: megatron, "beep/boop"...

[@sirloin869]

veiwers/fans are customers,unless its 127%free(minus'*'s) then take up them tools utube boi...

[@0744401]

I have been thinking, what if The Boys had been written by conservatives? Homelander -the villain- would be called "Comrade International", and, instead of attending evangelical baptisms, he'd be at union rallies in the rust belt, speaking of permanent revolution against the bourgeoisie, Stormfront would have been called "Professor Frankfurt" and her power would involve trapping people in a mental prison (they would call it a "construct" in the show and it would be making people change gender while inside), they would be jewish, and, instead of talking about migration control and making America first, they would be talking about globalism and giving people free healthcare. Because then, the main message of the main villain, instead of being "Ordinary american patriotism is basically kissing uglies with Nazism"/"When Fascism comes to America, it will come bearing a bible and a flag", it would become "Actually, gender theory is a conspiracy by jewish communists"/"Communism is a Jewish conspiracy to undermine science and reality and make us believe in social constructs". And then I thought : "Okay, but, seriously, there is a version of this that sounds FUCKING RAD. Please make this, conservatives". And, having been thinking about this, I figure I understand the appeal of watching "The Boys" as a conservative - because there's an element of ideological power fantasy to it.

[@troubadour0663]

Conservatives can't write satires. Whenver they try it comes out like the millions of Daily Wire flops.

[@0744401]

@@troubadour0663 Surely, there is at least one talented conservative who could do this project? Like Vince Vaughn? Adam Sandlers?

[@troubadour0663]

@@0744401 Nope. Western Conservativism is a vapid reactionary position. They have picked up ideas and practices their parents and grandparents have rejected and made it their lives's goal to see barbarism and medievalist ideas are upheld in name of tradition.

[@Wakkowolf]

... the Commies and the Jets aren't even in the same conference. Giants fan would be the punchline jfc

[@AJX-2]

C-c-c-commies and the jets

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

I find it interesting, as someone who loves storytelling as an artform, to hear that people prefer movies to serial television, because to my mind it's almost impossible to actually write a compelling story in the extremely restricted format of a movie. 90 to 150 minutes is just the incorrect length for almost every story. It's far to long for a simple story to feel satisfying, and it's too short to tell a story with any real complexity or meaning behind it. In example, any character driven narrative needs to both introduce characters and make the audience care about those characters, and that doesn't leave much room for a plot to take place afterward. Most good stories spend the first hour or two doing very little beyond just introducing the important characters and the dynamics between them that are integral to the audience's understanding of the story being told. It's from this perspective that I say most movies are a waste of my time, because it's never going to be a story worth experiencing. Either failing to hook the audience or failing to pay off the audience's investment will create those feelings, and a movie just has the odds stacked against it. Not even exclusively from the timing, movies also tend to be one of the most expensive ways to tell a story for the creator, and one of the most expensive ways to experience a story for the audience. There are very few aspects of movies as a medium for storytelling that aren't just worse for everyone involved compared to other mediums.

[@Sidharthavicious]

Longer formats have the opposite problem of having too much wasted time. Someone pointed out to me how long and tedious the breakfast scenes in Breaking Bad are. It's a hard balancing act.

[@tumppuman]

Media literacy died years ago!

[@Sidharthavicious]

The meaning certainly has. Now it just means "I don't like your interpretation of media."

[@Virjunior01]

​@@Sidharthavicious nah. Conservatives never understood Rage Against the Machine, most famously. The problem is the oppressors and their supports want so desperately to be seen as underdogs, which media has presented them with for decades. Meanwhile, ACTUAL underdogs crushed under their boots? They'll gladly ignore.

[@th3r0d]

He said "Bronoun" 😂

[@AJX-2]

My bronouns are bro, brah, and broself

[@TrippieMint]

@@AJX-2don’t forget broseph

[@Dan-uf2vh]

Trump is nothing like Homelander with the exception of being massively narcissistic. Homelander is smart, significantly above average. Whereas Trump is comically dumb, which in combination with his ego makes for a very good cl0wn.

[@aviendha1154]

Homelander is not smart…. And he’s literally modeled after trump

[@AirLancer]

Homelander's a short-sighted moron. It's what directly led to them letting the plane crash in season 1, because he was too lazy to actually deal with the terrorists and destroyed the controls with his eye lasers. Or even in this season where he kills the Vought employee who'd talked to Annie before she could even tell them what info she'd let out. Generally, when he went off and did his own thing without Vought's approval it had only led to further complications. The only thing he's really decent at is lying and spinning mistakes towards his own ends.

[@InMaTeofDeath]

@@aviendha1154 At best you could say they added in trump characteristics for the show but Homelander the character is based off Superman and Captain America and was created in the comics 10 years before anyone would have cared enough about trump to model a character after him.

[@Sidharthavicious]

Both have a disturbing kind of social intelligence.

[@chechocrates1]

they do have definitily intelligence even though they say dumb things they know and select the "correct" dumb things to say and get support from their minions

[@eglantinepapeau1582]

maybe the lack of media literacy doesn't come from them but you ? everyone knew from season 1 episode 1 who Homelander( and Stormfront) was parodying . But it was well done, well directed, the dialogue was sharp . All that stated to decline and that's what people are talking about . you can't gaslight people and call them media illiterate when you can't even yourself perceive what they get or don't get. Also people have different tastes . there are those who think the political satire is on point but they find the writing is not as good . do they also lack media literacy or they're far left enough that you don't need to blame THEM for not liking the show at this point ? You come off as just salty that they don't like the show anymore , so the question is : why do you care what they think ? 🤷‍♀ you MUST get used to different points of views , then you can talk about media literacy .

[@whynot13]

I think you are giving too much credit to the movie/tv critics of the past. It was not the movie critics that helped us digest the underlying themes of the movies. It was the people around the office water cooler, the people we met at lunch, and the friends and family we kept close. It was also the fact that there were only a few movies/tv shows at a time to talk about. We were having these conversations as a collective through many valued perspectives. We valued these perspectives because we valued those who were in our lives even if we did not agree with them. Now there is too much media, too many perspectives, and the perspectives are mostly delivered in a stagnant way (tick toc, tweet, etc. ) and not in a conversational dynamic way. Now that media has changed, we need to change the way we discuss media. I never heard of this show, The Boys, and might never get a chance to see it as life keeps me busy. I think you hit on something important though. How do we criticize? How do they criticize? What does that say about us, our society, and the relationship we have to others? What do they gain by criticizing this way? I think making these conversations more explicit, is where the actual conversation of media lies. We also need to find a way to bring back the dynamic and people value aspect. They criticize the boys because they feel like it is attacking their world view. This is why they are fine when it happens to the left because it is not attacking their beliefs and values. It helps maintain their world view.

[@johnmcnamara8741]

I disagree with The show-runners politics. The first 3 episodes this season were a little lackluster, episode 4 got it back on track. It’s my favorite show and I’m going to enjoy it.😊

[@ghosthusler]

It's woke shit

[@ragu4545]

Agreed. The first three episodes are like watching a different show. Boring side stories and scenes made just for the shock value. Nobody cares who they make fun of as long as the writing is good and it wasn't good.

[@johnmcnamara8741]

@@ragu4545 Having Frenchie suddenly not want Kumiko made no sense at all. If he’s going to bang someone else, guy or girl at least build it up.

[@han090]

​​@@johnmcnamara8741 He didn't suddenly not want Kimiko. Kimiko didn't want him. She thought he was being self destructive (eh taking drugs on their mission) because he was upset she didn't want him.

[@9000ck]

this whole new norm thing is the most genuinely cringe thing I've seen in a while. I'm drinking coffee right now to make me more woke.

[@xXRickTrolledXx]

The shows satire is so terrible, I can’t even.

[@Slechy_Lesh]

@xXRickTrolledXx Thank you. The Christian festival stuff particularly stuck out. We're supposed to think of Butcher as this razor wit telling unspoken truths and it's just what absolutely everyone says about religion

[@AJX-2]

Erm, you know The New Norm is actually making fun of you, right?

[@juanperret7044]

the jets joke was funny ok, the rest man was so bad it's crazy

[@juanperret7044]

I don't think that any genuine honest, mentally sane individual thinks homelander was a cool guy, those are just trolls imo. I think that some fans have turned on it for two reasons, A the story was more critical of coorporate culture and the people within them than later seasons which focus on the mind warping of the company and hero culture which now affects the political campaign and B Frenchie kissed a guy which a lot of people apparently thought he was straight lol (I saw a BUNCH of complaining about Frenchie because of that and a good portion of the reviews talk about the relationship as a negative)

[@AJX-2]

Nobody thinks Homelander is actually a good dude, they just think that he is by far the most entertaining and interesting part of the show.

[@Virjunior01]

Which is ridiculous, as they showed Frenchie in a polyamorous relationship with a man and a woman, both of whom are still on the show

[@Virjunior01]

​@@AJX-2 nah dude. They didn't listen to any of the lyrics from Rage Against the Machine except "fuck you, I won't do what you tell me" for 20 straight years.

[@han090]

They thought homelander was cool, not a cool guy. Difference between thinking someone is a good person, and wishing you had their power and fantasising about being able to do whatever you wanted and take out your enemies like any other power fantasy. But I think a lot of people who knew homelander was the bad guy didn't really understand how he was representing the rising fascist streak in American politics rather than just a generic bad guy. Bear in mind lots of Vought was parodying Disney after all, which the right wing hates. Now that they've made it much more explicit, they're upset

[@th3r0d]

Ngl, the hot take here fumbles the observations of the cartoon a lot.

[@han090]

Nah, the cartoon had one observation or joke for every ten "jokes" or observations which are just hating on queer people or leftists or strawman versions of those things. It's like how fascist candidates will appeal to genuine problems, but instead of pointing at the actual causes, they'll blame whatever outgroup is easiest. Cartoon is letting itself down.

[@robertfreitag687]

Seriously, Wisecrack. I don't like this thing your site does of deleting comments. You can maybe get away with that crap if all your content is music videos, but this is supposedly an education/politics site.

[@WisecrackEDU]

we do not delete any comments. KZbin has a bunch of built in filters. it's annoying.

[@robertfreitag687]

@@WisecrackEDU If so, then apparently some of the offending words include L**t. Ridiculous to the point of being highly doubtful. I mean, yes, stupid design is a thing, but this is extreme.

[@robertfreitag687]

@@WisecrackEDU Okay, now KZbin seems to have a problem with T H E Come on, Wisecrack. Not plausible.

[@SageWon-1aussie]

​@@robertfreitag687I guess you don't recognise that anyone can report your comments for review.

[@robertfreitag687]

@@SageWon-1aussie Why would you say that? You think somebody is reporting me for using such bland inoccuous words as T H E ? If so, I tend to think the reporter himself would be banned for nuisance flagging.

[@DavidVersace-mm7kd]

The Boyz was started as a 2006 comic book making fun of War on Terror Neocons (who newsflash are voting Biden). The earlier seasons mostly stuck to this script (first season was 2019 and probably written earlier). "Wokeness" has been worked in to the process following the Summer of Floyd. It has nothing to do with Homelander or the original concept behind "The Boyz". Nobody knew what "critical race theory" or whatever was in 2006 or even 2019. While the show has telegraphed itself for multiple seasons, it's gone from the "dogwhistle" territory to the "cringe" territory. Which explains its steadily declining audience reviews. This is mirrored in Star Trek and Star Wars.

[@Sidharthavicious]

When I want to nudge people towards comics I don't bring up The Boys. Not Garth Ennis best work.

[@bazzfromthebackground3696]

​@@SidharthaviciousGarth will also tell you that.

[@FourLetterLWord]

Low quality bait

[@Virjunior01]

It is, but only because we never needed it to be so blatant. Honestly, I groan at the social commentary because having a fully-formed brain doesn't need those lessons. What I'm really into are the characters.

[@Sidharthavicious]

@@bazzfromthebackground3696 Yet that bastard still made me well up with tears with a few panels of The Female and The Frenchman every twenty issues or so. Reading The Boys month to month was frustrating. The complaints on the Dynamite Message Board were entertaining, though.

[@Sidharthavicious]

I fall into the liking the villain trap because I feel like it's a personal insult when writers are obviously trying to steer me into liking or hating a character.

[@j-ptruman2508]

The culture war is fomented by both the online Left and Right and proves how stupid both political sides can be. Whoever thinks Homelander was a hero is obviously not watching the show or being deliberately obtuse, and thinking that anyone really didn't pick up on Homeland's real character is just a way to feel smarter than a straw man.

[@evilinterpol]

This is assuming that the people into homelander aren’t also a. Media illiterate or b. Legitimately see his personality as heroic. These people DO exist

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

Then, how would you explain the literal topic of the video without delving into conspiracy theorist nonsense? Surely it's more reasonable to think some people didn't get it than it is to think there was a concerted effort by politically motivated groups to wait 5 years to do anything about this thing they noticed that disliked?

[@X_TheHuntsman_X]

Every leftist I know is too focused on the labor movement to give a single bown $#it about the culture war. So I wouldn't "both sides" this too much. Maybe libs, but they aren't the left.

[@scottduncan92]

Only an idiot thinks the world isn't full of idiots.

[@birdiewolf3497]

There are people who are not picking up on Homelander’s character at all. It’s very strange. It doesn’t feel real and I certainly don’t use it to make myself feel good. I want folks to be trolling so bad. I really really really do.

[@bmwdallas82]

Team #TrumpLander

[@robertfreitag687]

This is the Leftist version of Jordan Peterson: "Watch me tear down this straw man." You're not engaging with the best Right Wing arguments--and there are a few good ones. You're deliberately picking the worst ones. Very disappointing. Used to be I could count on Wisecrack to do something other than clickbait.

[@Sh4dyChar4ct3r]

Care to share some of these powerful arguments with the class?

[@bazzfromthebackground3696]

Talking about a show... Is a strawman? Is a scarecrow a book to you?😂

[@robertfreitag687]

@@Sh4dyChar4ct3r I knew this comment would be the only one that would get a response. LOL.

[@Virjunior01]

Go ahead and share.

[@han090]

​@@robertfreitag687so you can't then.