all 7 comments

[–]Centaurea 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

That horse left the barn a while ago.

[–]RandomCollection[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

https://archive.ph/V9AoH

Yeah the Simpsons is a cartoon, but it's a very compelling argument

[–]ageingrockstar 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

but it's a very compelling argument

I don't agree. It might be an ok rhetorical argument but it's not compelling at all when looked at rationally. Because it's a fictional story that doesn't even try to faithfully represent a "lower-middle class lifestyle".

Also, if you scan the list of blog entries this post appeared in, it's a rapidly produced churn of what look like 'AI' generated articles created by some prompt. In other words, total junk.

[–]RandomCollection[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

There's the issues of rising home prices and other class warfare that have impacted over the decades that the Simpsons accurately represent.

Only the upper middle class can live like that now.

[–]ageingrockstar 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Firstly, sorry, my initial reply was perhaps a bit too aggressively put.

I certainly agree that the middle class has been squeezed in the years since The Simpsons debuted in 1989. And again, I think pointing to the lifestyle depicted in The Simpsons as no longer being attainable by ordinary people might serve well as a rhetorical argument or illustration. My point is that TV has never been a good depictor of middle class reality, and supposedly middle class people on TV nearly always enjoy far easier and more affluent lives than actual people in the real world. That's the nature of TV and cinema - it's elevated fantasy.

[–]RandomCollection[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

That's fair. You could argue that TV has always glorified the past.

The issue I guess is that there is a clear trend of falling living standards in the US. TV, although it glorifies the past, clearly illustrates the decline.

[–]InumaGaming Socialist 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

We've had similar posts on Reddit though

So just because the blog post is AI, that doesn't mean the reasoning for understanding the Simpsons isn't sound.