When I look around the internet, I see all sorts of commentators turned into political figures. Maybe it’s a sign of the times we live in, but generally, when I look at a YouTube channel that’s labeled “Computing Forever”, I expect news on the latest tech, not a lecture on the evils of Big Tech. We definitely can’t ignore the changes to the digital public square but… I still don’t want to end up like them. I just don’t.

That’s part of the reason I’ve found it so hard to talk about things on this blog. It feels like I’m a broken record, heck, I felt the record being broken a while into the process. But the Current Year of 2019 has given me no shortage of things to talk about, and yes, I can relate it to the content I’ve already covered.

Remember when I talked about Mortal Kombat 11, and how violence was seen as more acceptable than sexuality, more specifically, female sexuality? Well, Netherrealm and DC have finally caved in and are rumored to be releasing costumes based on the MKII outfits for the female ninjas, which happen to show just a little bit of skin. They’re still tasteful outfits, but it does show the company as two-faced. “We’re willing to pander to this crowd… but you gotta sell that nostalgia!”

Speaking of two-face, you ever notice how CNN writes article after article about how terrifying Joker is, and how its supposedly gonna tear society apart? Well, the owners of CNN happen to be Time Warner, and one of the companies under that hood is… DC Comics, the same people who created and own the Joker character. The right wing clearly does not know what the left is doing, and it raises the question of why DC would put all their eggs into Joker only for the media wing of the parent company to throw the basket out.

It may sound like these companies are pitting everyone against each other. That’s only because they are. …kinda.

Blizzard Entertainment caved to the Chinese government by censoring LGBT characters in Overwatch. Rise of Skywalker merchandise removes the least popular character Rose Tico despite having ABC, owned by the same company, writing constant hit pieces about her actress being bullied off social media. Even as early as the 2000’s, The Simpsons and Family Guy were mocking the conservative party, whilst Fox News pandered to them and told them exactly what they wanted to hear.

The Big Five only have one goal with their pitting of two sides against each other: Culture War Profiteering. Turn the audience against one another, generate controversy, make each product more valuable. Joker is nothing special, but use Rotten Tomatoes’ negative reputation, and you can make it soar that much higher. The ultra-conservative censors of the Chinese Government won’t take LGBT heroes, but the west can see them as the latest fad, so go all in! Whatever the goal is, the only thing these big corporations respect is the almighty dollar.

They know all too well that the same Sunday School teachers calling Dungeons and Dragons satanic propaganda have been replaced by people who call Spongebob Squarepants a gateway to the alt-right. In fact, many of their targets are the same: Harry Potter has been targeted for witchcraft by the right and wrongthink by the left. They are but two sides of the same coin, and the media knows this. They know that by getting woke they can pander to the “in” crowd, even as they turn around and do the opposite later. It’s phony activism, a wolf in pig’s clothing that asks that you let them in before burning your house to the ground with bad product and moneymaking scams.

But how did this woke generation come in, and what makes them so commonly exploited these days?

I’d wager it’s what they grew up on, the media of the past.

How often did Dee Dee end up suffering a failure that was her own fault as opposed to Dexter’s overzealousness? Why is Lisa Simpson the only girl in the Simpson Family to end up in Mensa? Why choose The Powerpuff Girls to reboot as opposed to anything else? The shows of the 90’s overcompensated their diversity push by portraying minorities more capable than instead of as capable as their peers. It was necessary at the tie because these groups got raw deals in the past. But an audience that is raised on Girls Rule Boys Drool begins to internalize that, and grows up to be the kind of feminist Tumblr and Twitter produced. Ironic, given these shows also tried to fight false feminism; Kids Next Door features a dystopian future where boys end up being second-class citizens. The Powerpuff Girls reminded us that true feminism is about equality and not misandry. Indeed, one of the most beloved series of this decade, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, was so powerful because all of the characters were so wonderful, even the guys.

So while I do realize my role reversals can be a little bit… denigrating… that’s the point. But I don’t denigrate for its own sake.

Old-school cartoons were free to frequently humiliate their males, but they just as often put their females on a pedestal. If we take the genders and swap them, we can see that what’s bad for one gender is bad for all of them. I will of course continue to cover old-school cartoons, because they need more scrutiny. We have plenty of people to cover the latest woke outrage.

But I want to go deeper.

I want to be the one to say…

…the problem never left.