YMMV / South Park S 19 E 5 Safe Space

• Alternate Aesop Interpretation:
  • Considering how Butters was hospitalised from the stress of having to filter Cartman and #ShamelessAmerica's social media profiles, there's a lesson on how stress is more dangerous than it appears. If you don't take breaks or manage your workload effectively, then you can literally drive yourself into an early grave.
  • The sometimes Unintentionally Sympathetic nature of the "safe space" condoners can also be interpreted as a simple hard truth that life can be cruel, and sometimes you can't just hide from it, otherwise it wins.
  • Another lesson from Butters' attempted suicide is to respect Internet moderators. Reality calling everyone out for what happened to Butters is meant to be that they should suck it up and deal with mean comments, but it really appears more that witnessing so much vitriol at once for long periods of time can be detrimental to your health (which is a real concern for that job), and we shouldn't dehumanize the people who deal with Internet abuse to prevent others from dealing with it themselves.
• Base-Breaking Character: Reality. Those opposed to political correctness love him for pointing out that people should take criticism and stop censoring comments. Others believe his message falls flat since the way people act online can be very different compared to how they act in real life and that many have committed suicide due to online harassment they could block. Also he tormented Butters as much as the others and unlike them who see it was wrong he blames everything on the Safe Space. Reality is not apologetic but that doesn't mean it's not a bitch.
• Broken Base: While season 19 has been met with mostly positive responses, the messages of both this episode and the last episode have caused a divide between fans whether it's either hypocritical and just as bad as other people's criticism or the messages and satire are actually pretty good and pointing at different things and shouldn't be compared.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Reality gets this treatment big time from a lot of people who oppose political correctness and censorship. His "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the charity banquet for #ShamelessAmerica is a contributing factor in this, too.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Kyle said that if Cartman can't handle negativity then he should just stay off the internet. He shows a double standard in "Skank Hunt" when he and the other boys force Cartman off the internet by destroying his computer in order to defend the girls.
  • The premise of industries hiding behind their seemingly positive causes as a way to shrewdly bully customers is harsher under the revelation of more and more corruption within charity groups in real life, including an incident of one client being pressured by agencies into donating money to the point of committing suicide.
• Moe: The little girl at the end of each "Shameless America" ad.
• The Scrappy: The Whole Foods cashier, basically being The Bully and not really being funny as his scenes went on. Didn't help he's also a Karma Houdini.
• The Woobie:
  • Butters all the way. He's pressured into filtering social media posts of various people under the threat of being given detention (and subsequently grounded), snaps from the stress, and eventually attempts suicide.
  • The third world kids, worse yet we never know if they are ever given a break or told to stop.
  • Demi Lovato for some, especially if you’re also a fan or enjoy their music.

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