catbountry:

Man, it is goddamn sad that people feel like they can’t write complex, deeply flawed characters because some idiots will think their negative attributes are some kind of validation of their own negative behaviors.

It is not the job of the creator to babysit the stupidest members of their audience. so much subtly gets lost when creators feel the need to spell out “don’t be like this guy, he’s a jerk,” just because assholes will be like “this guy is like me, and he’s not cartoonishly evil! It must mean that it’s okay to be a jerk!”

I mean, if we’re using Eric Cartman as an example, a kid that forced another child to eat his own parents, being cartoonishly evil apparently isn’t enough either. So, why bother villains if they’re not Snidley Whiplash? Can’t write Arche Bunkers, even if Archie Bunkers did and still exist. Reflecting on the complexities of the individual is too much for dum-dums. Can’t write Walter Whites, people might miss the whole establishing bit about him being too goddamn stubborn to accept the money that would have paid for his cancer treatment in the first place because of his bruised ego and bitterness. Can’t write Rick Sanchezes because people will start acting a fool in McDonald’s screaming for szechuan sauce.

You can’t idiot-proof media. Nor should you try; we need those frank, unblinking portrayals of the dark side of humanity. To pretend they don’t exist is to deny human nature in all its ugliness. The cries for creators to idiot-proof their media is reminiscent of the media scares about the child who set his house on fire because of Beavis and Butt-Head, or the child that drowned trying to visit Spongebob in the ocean. Instead of thinking of the children, we’re thinking of the dummies.

There’s a quote often misattributed to Mark Twain: “Censorship is like telling a man he can’t have steak because a baby can’t chew it.” Except we’re getting cries to dumb down media not from panicky church moms, but from people in their 20′s that should really know better.

Fuck me, I guess.