I was reading an article today about a girl who committed suicide because she was a victim of "Kick-a-ginger day" at her school last week. It's an unfortunate incident, but one line caught my eye: "The unofficial event, which probably spawned from US cartoon South Park, was blamed for a number of attacks on red-haired people across the UK." Now, it's a terribly unfortunate incident, but every article seems to blame the South Park episode "Gingers Kids" when they talk about this ridiculous event. I've watched the episode in question, and it's funny and if anything, the episode is about the stupidity of the idea of people hating on gingers because of the colour of their hair. Now, maybe I missed it, but was there even an event in the episode called "kick-a-ginger day"? If I missed it, fair enough, but I'm fairly sure I never heard or seen it. From what I can gather, this event was started on Facebook by some idiot 14-year-old, but the media always overlook him, instead looking to blame South Park while protecting a real monster who spawned something that is nothing short of a hate crime. What are your thoughts? Is South Park to blame, or are the media just blaming an easy target and knowing people will eat it up?
The media loves sensationalism. Blaming a popular show for some girl's suicide riles people up against the show, and more importantly, sells papers. If the report had told the truth, that some dumb teenager was at fault, the paper would have been accused of attacking a child for making a mistake.
You know who we should really blame? Blame Canadaaaa! Blame Cana... no? :v Anyway, it's always like this. Something bad happens, and someone ends up pointing fingers at something that's coincidentally similar. Like how Rockstar is blamed for every carjacking ever.
Agreed. Here in the US, there was recently a case in New York where a couple of teenage girls bullied a classmate so hard that she committed suicide. Initially, the police charged them with aggravated stalking, but the charges were ultimately dropped and the bullies' families are contemplating a defamation lawsuit against the victim's family. It's disgusting. We always talk about what huge problem bullying is, but when we actually have a chance to make an example of someone, we don't and they get off scot free. All that does is encourage bullies to be even worse because they know there won't be any consequences.
I hate this bull crap. Yes let's put all blame a cartoon. Maybe it helped spawn the stupid idea in this kid's mind but that doesn't mean ****. When are people gonna realize there will ALWAYS be that one person to take something too seriously or whatever. Blaming a comedy cartoon and crying for censor is pointless! The school's staff should all be fired. Somebody had to have saw something if multiple students were taking part in this. I can tell you right now what happened. Student A goes to a staff member "Okay I'll let the principal know" (doesn't happen). Student B goes straight to Principal "Hey it's just students having fun who gives a flying f***!" I've dealt with incompetence from school staff plenty of times. They don't care, and they're the ones to blame. Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk
I'm familiar with the episode they're talking about. If it's the one I'm thinking of, it's the episode where Cartman merciless rags on ginger kids and gets the school on his side while doing it. There's a constant tongue-in-cheek motif of "gingers have no souls" where even the adults and parents of ginger kids are unsure if they have souls. Then, to teach Cartman a lesson, Stan, Kyle, and Kenny sneak into his room while he's sleeping and put makeup on him to make him look ginger. Cartman started being treated the way he treated gingers before, but of course, instead of learning a lesson, he caused a ginger uprising whose goal was to ethnically cleanse non-gingers. The reasonable voice in the episode, as usual, came from Kyle. At the end, when he's about to toss Kyle into a vat of lava, Kyle tells him about the makeup, Cartmans panics and starts to say that everyone should be together and not kill each other, even starting a song. So yeah. No ginger kicking, and the the whole episode was basically mocking the idea of anti-ginger mentality.
*sighs* If there is anything I've learned about the "bullying = suicide" controversy, it's that people never bother to do research. I mean really, 4chan gets blamed for a suicide every other week and 90% of the time, people act like the 'victim' was just an innocent angel. It starts out with some Facebook-using moronic teenager, going onto 4chan and insulting almost everyone who uses the site with some of the most generic insults in the book, then when (for some reason) the 4chan users insult back. The idiot couldn't take what they dish out, commit suicide, and then the media makes them look like a victim. The only difference here is that the bullying was ACTUALLY BULLYING. South Park isn't to blame. And before I go, I'm just gonna post this image that pretty much sums up all bullying related suicide news stories
^ so much this. The media doesn't care about research or getting it right anymore; they care about viewership and page views. When they do make a mistake (which is often), if they even acknowledge a correction, it will be on like page 16 in tiny font. They have become a joke. There is no integrity. That doesn't sell. Making up crap and creating outrage is what sells.
I can give a man a bullet it's up to him what he does with it. I can invoke a riot at a stadium; it's up to those involved to let it happen. I give someone a choice yet that still leaves them with the freedom to choose neither. To think that all the blame should go to a cartoon that is 'intended for mature audiences' (that's looking at you parents) is something absurd in and of itself. There's comedians who make racial slurs, sexist jokes, and many other insulting remarks against a specific person or persons. After watching their show do you find yourself becoming racist? Do you find yourself becoming sexist? Do you take these things to heart? No. Even if the idiot boy was only fourteen it was his decision to take into account whatever influences he may have had and turn them into a blatant disrespectful and consequently tragic event, to which I personally believe he should be held responsible. Media loves to take things like 'South Park' and flip them around to make a big controversy. The bigger the controversy the more viewers they get and the higher their ratings. I honestly don't see how a lot of these newscasters sleep at night knowing that they incite fear, panic, and chaos; even though they may not be the ones making the stories they choose to report them. If you believe everything you see on TV (news, series, movies, etc.) that's your choice to make. You can give a man a bullet but it's up to him to do with it as he sees fit.
