Poptculture

This is a sad, sad time to be a Canadian.

I really thought we were above crap like this.

Last week a new fad struck the nation, one where seemingly intelligent individuals took it upon themselves to fall in line with the stupidity of the group and celebrate national “Kick a Ginger Day”.

(please see this URL for a Calgary news clip)

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?rn=222561&cl=10789507&ch=222562

I have two problems with this development.  First, obviously, is the blatant stupidity of those who participated, and the pain or embarrassment that they caused their red headed peers.  Second is the fact that in their defense, these idiots are trying to pin their crimes on an episode of the cartoon South Park, which aired last year.

The idea was popularized via a Face Book page of the same name, started by a youth in Vancouver.  Those involved in altercations over the ‘holiday’ are currently being investigated and some may even result in criminal charges being laid for committing a ‘hate crime’.

Now common people, are we really this stupid?

At one point, the writters of South Park made an episode in which Erik Cartman tried to trick the townspeople into reviving the Nazi movement to remove all the Jewish people from South Park.  So does this mean we are now allowed to blame Neo-Nazism on the behavior of a few cartoon characters?  I mean really!  This material is from a show that prides itself on social satire and showing the ridiculous side of human behavior.  Stupid, just stupid…

Now this prompts me to ask you all a question one of my teachers posed the other day:  ‘In situations like this, should we blame the influence of a movie or television show or should individuals be responsable for how they respond?’  To me the answer seems pretty obvious, but im open to discussion so please feel free to comment.