I suppose it’s kind of a cop-out to pick the “dumbest thing I’ve read all day” from the first news article I’ve read this morning, but I just really can’t imagine reading anything more silly today than the quotes in this:
In a 2002 National Review Online op-ed titled “Homer, Conservative Hero,” Deroy Murdock wrote, “Conservatives and libertarians should appreciate ‘The Simpsons’ for regularly showcasing much that they hold dear.”
Namely, the nuclear family, church on Sundays, stay-at-home mothering, community, the individual and maybe even big hair with pearls.
“They’ve had their problems, but they always come back together as a family.
No matter how many dumb things Homer does, Marge always sticks with him,” explained Joe Carter, director of Web communications at the Family Research Council, a conservative Washington-based policy group that “champions marriage and family as the foundation of civilization, the seedbed of virtue and the wellspring of society.”
FreeRepublic.com, an online community for conservatives, held a discussion in 2003 about whether “The Simpsons” were red or blue. There were more than 200 posts about all the conservative crumbs tossed out in any given episode, like when Maggie attends the “Ayn Rand School for Tots.” They also wondered whether Springfield’s corrupt, womanizing mayor, “Diamond Joe” Quimby, was Ted or John F. Kennedy — either way, he’s a Democrat.
I saw this too, and thought the whole idea was kind of stupid, as well. Sure, you can go through The Simpsons and find conservative values, but you can go through it and find liberal ones, too: Lisa’s feminism, lesbian parents, etc, etc. Wow…that would mean that the show is popular because it, I dunno, resonates with a wide swath of the American public? This is a faux trend that really bugs me: “Look! What you thought was liberal is actually subversively conservative! Yay family values!” As for “the nuclear family, church on sunday, stay at home mothering, and big hair with pearls,” that discribes a good number of liberals I know…minus the big hair and pearls.
[...] are poor people out there and our publishing industry was hijacked by soap companies So I know I said earlier that I was sure the Republicans-love-Simpsons-because-it-espouses-family-values bit would be the [...]