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EP. REVIEW: A Centaur's Life

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Moreover, denunciations of “PC culture” are very much a dog whistle for hatred

Well, sometimes. Sometimes they're a dog whistle for fear of a Cultural Revolution. The assumption that talking about the dangers is inappropriate or unhelpful until everything is totally fine suggests that we should be running headlong towards one vision of justice without even stopping to consider some of the other impacts of what we do to other concepts of justice. Sometimes denunciations of racism are a dog whistle for controlling others, and you find yourself wearing a black mask and joining a group beating of a man on the street with a bludgeon that says "No Hate" on it. If you plug your ears to the possibility that some of this stuff is going too far, how will you ever know if it does?

I thought it was pretty basic in terms of Holocaust stories. It engaged in some “look at how bad the camps were” suffering porn,

Just to tie this discuss back into the show itself, I feel like there is a real conceptual murkiness going on. A number of times now, there have been references to people being sent to "re-education camps" if found guilty of racism/making objectionable comments, etc. It's hard to interpret that in any way other than "this is what happens when you take anti-racism measures too far." Yet, at the same time, we get episodes like episode 9 that rather simplistically depict the consequences of basing opinions on differences in physical appearances. I really don't get where this show is at.

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I thought it was pretty basic in terms of Holocaust stories. It engaged in some “look at how bad the camps were” suffering porn,

Wow, I think that is pretty insensitive and inappropriate verbiage for the subject.

The problem is that the term Gabriella referred to is almost always used as a "put down" or another type of weapon to shut down a debate. People who use the term usually are not using it because they want to discuss something. They are using it to prevent a discussion about something. If you think about it, the term itself refers to a theoretical position in an argument. Thus, it is a terse put down of that particular position rather than engaging in an intellectual debate about that position.

Just to tie this discuss back into the show itself, I feel like there is a real conceptual murkiness going on. A number of times now, there have been references to people being sent to "re-education camps" if found guilty of racism/making objectionable comments, etc. It's hard to interpret that in any way other than "this is what happens when you take anti-racism measures too far." Yet, at the same time, we get episodes like episode 9 that rather simplistically depict the consequences of basing opinions on differences in physical appearances. I really don't get where this show is at.

And is a supposedly comedic SOL about a centaur girl's high school trials and tribulations the best - or even an appropriate - vehicle for that kind of question? I am a person who often defends the way anime mixes seriousness and goofiness, but it doesn't always mesh. Sometimes the one quality does detract from the other and for me at least this show is in that territory. Not to mention that I don't find its methods for examining these questions particularly sophisticated nor do I get a sense the show has a sure handle on its material.

joeydoa wrote:

Quote: I thought it was pretty basic in terms of Holocaust stories. It engaged in some “look at how bad the camps were” suffering porn, Wow, I think that is pretty insensitive and inappropriate verbiage for the subject.

The very same thing could be said about a supposedly comedic SOL show about a centaur high school girl's trials and tribulations suddenly decides it's going to depict a Holocaust-like vignette just to come to the conclusion that, "feeling hatred toward a person or group based on physical appearance is bad, mmmkay?"

It's clearly not being used as a way to avoid conversation here, though. If you've literally never heard any conservative use it as a discussion point as opposed to a "shut up" card, you have a very limited scope of experience with the political spectrum.

More broadly, the argument seems to be "we shouldn't tolerate criticism of PC culture because it is used in a bad way. Well, it's not being used that way here, but we still shouldn't tolerate it just in case someone gets the wrong idea." Which is a closed loop. If there can never be a legitimate criticism of PC culture, because it might empower less legitimate forms, then PC culture is a blank check for control, because it is immune from criticism.

@ joeydoa - I think you are missing Gabriella's point. Her comments were not intended to disparage the seriousness of the Holocaust as a topic nor that there were viewers who would take pleasure in watching the suffering depicted in the Holocaust section. She was commenting on how the show handled the material.

@zztop - well, one thing I'll say is that the show satisfies that feeling of, "yep, I'm never gonna see something like this any where else." I think that's a fairly superficial feeling to evoke, but it is something.

My point was that the concern about the useage of "pc" is a legitimate concern, particularly in an Internet setting. We all know why ANN has censored a particular three letter word starting with "S." And yea, I have had countless debates with conservatives and people of various political sttipes. The "pc" term is virtually always used as a put down of a particular argument on tolerance or equality. Someone will put forth such a position and the other will say "You're just being PC!!! Na na na na na na!" (Taunting sound optional.) Or, in the abstract, people will comment about the ideal of another group and say "they are pc!! Haha, how stupid are they!" Or, as you have done here, vague undefined references to "pc culture" are made.