cartoons you could not make today
a thought experiment
one can agree or disagree with vaccination as a choice, but this is not about that.
this is about free speech.
watch this cartoon segment from the simspons and when you are done marveling at the fact that yes, they really did predict absolutely everything, ask yourself a simple question:
could you possibly air this segment today?
(make sure you get to the end with the liability waiver)
what would happen if you did? what would media do? would twitter ban it? would the winged monkeys of cancel culture attack in swarms? would they be forced to apologize and take it down and perform some PSA of contrition?
because the answers to those questions will tell you a great deal about what’s happening to freedom of speech in this country.
it’s easy not to notice losing rights inch by inch, year by year.
but this was a cartoon that elicited basically zero notice 15 years ago when it aired.
and yet today it would likely kick off a firestorm and get you cancelled.
how does that make you feel about the trajectory of your freedom?
and what does it say about the current vaccines?
because even 2 years ago, you could still question them and not have the federal government, medical boards, and entire media complex attack you relentlessly.
marin county yoga moms with their weird cleanses and compulsive dietary restrictions were the anti-vaxx crowd.
and they were all allowed to speak. (and mostly to opt out if they chose)
might this be because back then, these “experts” knew they had the facts on their side for vaccinating kids and that now, with covid, they know they don’t?
because i literally cannot think of the last time the folks with the facts on their side needed to silence opposition to make their point.
and if you listen carefully, that speaks volumes.
BONUS SIMPSONS EPISODE (to prove they really did predict everything)
cat flu:
I find the flip-flop of the yoga moms in Marin County and elsewhere to be one of the more confusing aspects of this time. The so-called anti-vaxx movement was from the left. I'm sure there were people on the right who were opposed to some or all of the childhood vaccine schedule, but they were not the public voice. Now the kale-eating, vegan yoga moms are signing up their five-year-olds for an experimental gene therapies to protect them from a virus that doesn't threaten them. The world has gone mad.
I have not read the Game of Thrones books, but this line of dialogue from them has always stuck with me.
"When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say."