I mean, if you’re haven’t really listened to arguably the biggest artist in the world, are you really surprised you don’t know about the other big ones?

That moment when we realize we’re at the ppint where pop culture is passing us by rather than being targeted at us…

(Honestly, if it weren’t for some of the younglings on my soccer team I’d have only learned about Bad Bunny in the Economist, which is a pretty embarrassingly uncool way to learn about pop culture.)

According to number of streams it’d be Taylor Swift or Bad Bunny, but Bunny has a much smaller catalogue and fewer active years. (And I think conservatives would be as annoyed if Taylor played as she was pretty outspoken about trump.)

But yeah, his music has been everywhere. Anecdotally, I think it’s been played at 3/3 weddings I was at this summer, which I thought was neat considering none of the couples speaks Spanish.

Absolutely. Making fun of their hypocrisy almost feels like shooting fish in a gun-sized barrel at this point.

It’s never Lupus!

I think you might mean quite a bit earlier than the bronze age? I’m not an expert by any means but my understanding is that the Egyptian bureaucracy and a tax system meant that slaves could build the pyramids in the bronze age.

Yeah, I was thinking maybe the Luddites/weavers might be the first job loss victims but you’re probably right.

Holy hell, nicely done. I vaguely remembered having seen something like this on a tv show but more than a decade ago.

As usual, the best jokes are in the comments. (Though goddamn I chuckled at the meme.)

Oh absolutely. I mean, some of their episodes from 20 years ago already feel like timeless classics. Just looked over the season 9 lineup, which somehow was 20 years ago. You’ve got Randy fighting Bat Dad in the Losing Edge, the Death of Eric Cartman, and Die Hippie Die. And, while the episode may not have been as great, the end of Willzyx absolutely slays me.

I totally get being too offended to enjoy it but I don’t think it’s particularly accurate to claim it only has a narrow audience, it is literally one of the most valuable franchises on television in part because it targets a large swathe in the middle. (Despite what the internet would have us believe, I think there is a large group of folks in the middle who can laugh at the craziness on both the Left and Right.)

I’m reminded of my mom’s stance on rap and hip hop, which is essentially, it might be really good and a valid form of art but there’s just too much vulgarity and misogyny for her to ever enjoy it, which is fair.

But, comedy is subjective. When I look back at the last few years, the specials over the last half decade, I come to quite the opposite conclusion, there are great episodes with an occasional dud but a hit ratio higher than most shows currently on air and a “oooh, that’s an interesting take” miles beyond anything else.

I organize a few co-ed soccer teams. My Tuesday team all said whether they would or wouldn’t play without me having to nag anyone, which is always nice.

At work, a project I’ve been leading for what feels like an eternity just crossed the second last hump and most of my efforts towards it are done (for now until something explodes.)

Apparently the fediverse enjoyed a silly meme I made, which is always nice as I like to try to contribute to this place.

Unpopular opinion here I imagine but I’ll stand by South Park.

Have they said a lot with which I vehemently disagree? Absolutely! But I think there’s little to no value in only watching or reading things with which you agree.

And their perspective, while different than mine, seems to have helped them nail things in a much better and often more interesting/sophisticated way than anyone else. Or before others really get it.

And goddamn, they’ve had me howling with laughter more than a few times each season. Thinking on their highlights over a damn near 30 year run and despite marginal dips in quality, I’m in.

Edit: An example of one trend/issue etc they nailed way before anyone else (as far as I know) was PC Principal. Using frat bros to represent social justice culture was absolutely brilliant and I didn’t even realize how accurate it seemed to others until I talked with a Conservative friend about it (to anyone outside of the progressive bubble, the early 2010s felt like a bunch of elites/rich kids using the plight of others to finally be the bullies, albeit online.) And I think that pretty accurately predicted the blue collar/non college grad backlash to all of it, which is the tide that trump rolled in on.

You could listen to the teacher in the beginning. Or notice the constant jingoistic propaganda. Or watch any voice of reason be shouted down.

To each their own but especially these days, it’s important to notice that the road to authoritarianism isn’t a wild swerve from thr status quo but a slow, gradual drift.

Personally, I quite enjoy a movie that respects its audience enough to not have to have the bad guys murder babies for a reasonable viewer to catch on to the what’s going on.

It was fine as a adumb tits n ass action movie when I was 12, realized “hey, this is an actual movie” in my 20s. And that’s fine, if it is somehow too subtle for people, well, so is authoritarianism.

You might try piefed? It’s a fediverse platform so still links/syncs etc with lemmy and everywhere else but the UI is nice and I think it does a lot of the stuff you mention (except for the ama style stuff.) I followed PugJesus here (and am using Piefed right now) and exported all my feeds etc so the switch was relatively painless.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions etc. I probably won’t be able to help but uhhh, I’ll commiserate?

Sure, just like literally everything comparing reality to the counter-factual this involves estimates. Not a particularly profound or useful observation.

I think you’re going to get yelled at and I apologize in advance.

It’s a fair question, there’s a lot of reckless claims made these days.

That being said, depending on how bad things get, yeah. Some incredibly populous places will be directly and heavily affected (1.21 billion currently in sub Saharan Africa alone.) Add in the conflicts over diminishing resources (think crop failures, droughts etc) as well as knock on effects (eg, increased range/spread of malaria.)

Heck, climate change has barely gotten started and I’d bet we’re into millions dead already (compared to a non warning world) consider how many thousands have been lost to extreme events like floods, fires and heat waves.

I imagine solvent banking institutions, retirement funds and the like are something that most people seriously need but barely think about. If the most valuable listed American company finds its value plummetting from 4 trillion to a few billion, there will be all sorts of fun and interesting revelations about the entire American financial system.

That being said, you are absolutely welcome to post your own memes which meet your specifications!

Not a real response, but this is a very nice comment and I think it’s the type of thing that makes the fediverse a better place.

I got one a few months ago that is my abslolute favourite, not sure if it counts. Important context, I’m 40 but still play soccer with folks as young as 20. So, one game I’m defending against a young fast kid and beat him to the ball (barely!) a few times in a row on long ball chases. After the third or fourth time he looks over after the race and says “You’re really fast for an… uhhh uh uh, you’re really fast!”

He meant so well and it was adorable watching him realize mid sentence that I probably didn’t want to be called an old man.