The one I'll bring up, as an example of "not as political" but still harmful, is used by chuds, libs, and leftists alike as a throwaway putdown, insult, and thought terminating cliche.
"WHO HURT YOU?" :very-intelligent:
The damage it does to social discourse comes from further normalizing the implication that being hurt is a mockable thing that deserves ridicule and dismissal, and the other problem is that it makes sincere suggestions to actually seek actual help, stated in good faith, get lost in the haze of :reddit-logo: tier le epic takedowns.
My runner-up is "grindset." The entire concept is poison and seems to contaminate impressionable brains at an alarming rate. Motivating people to improve themselves and achieve things in a healthy way is harder to do when so much online discourse is chuddy grifters jerking themselves off while bullying people for not "grinding" hard enough, no matter that person's situation.
I got it!
BAZINGA!
"Bazinga" didn't do much social damage compared to the show's misogyny normalizing ideology and its :my-hero: worship.
I don't think anyone says "bazinga" anymore except people using it as a way to summarize, well, bazinga behavior.
I'd say it's the summarization of the societal devastation it wrought in it's journey to pathfinding/wrecking the way for today's consumerist media landscape.
Then again we could throw marvel in place of the show and say that's a more accurate description. But shoulders of giants and all that.
South Park as a whole did long lasting, generations long societal damage in so many ways.
Even the "manbearpig" (invoked by consumers whenever climate change is brought up) and "screw you, hippie" (whenever anyone cares too much about basically anything) and "vegan = lel vagina" (need I say more about this one?) messaging was internalized enough to continue to be invoked by its consumers, gen-x assholes especially.
ah but that's basically "shitty politics: The TV show", and an easy win for the "name some form of media that's caused a devastating impact to society" game lmao
honestly if you really try to keep the answer apolitical (lol) it actually becomes very hard to think of something.
I'm also gonna throw "Microtransactions" into the ring as something that's caused significant societal damage.
It's "centrist" and "makes fun of everything" (except the shitty libertarian ideology of its chud owners) which in the minds of far too many people means it's not shitty politics. I know it's an edge case because I said try to avoid direct political messaging, but the fact that it was "centrist" therefore "not political" by extension to its fandom was fuuuuucked.
:only-good-gamer: should have held the line at Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion horse armor. :sadness:
Thank you Todd Howard
:todd: You're welcome! Now buy Skyrim again.
I'm still holding the line at cd-keys and printed manual copy protection codes, like the Deserter in Disco Elysium.
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Also "makes fun of everything" means that Mormons get made fun of for being silly and goofy and having dumb lore(Also goes for how they mock Scientology), while trans people get made fun of through
CW: Describing transphobic south park shit
Comparing them to surgically trying to be black, or a dolphin. Or the whole separate episode from that shit where trans women are mocked as literal macho men trying to brutalise cis women.
They'll superficially make fun of everything except their own empty superficial rich white nihilistic libertarian asshole ideology.
The fact that South Park unironically peddles Eric Cartman as the good guy, multiple times.
Eric Cartman has become a role model for multiple generations of men, under the idea that evil is good and good is evil.
I've heard so many claims that Cartman wasn't supposed to be a role model or emulated, but he was a Rick Sanchez prototype and pulled in the same kind of admirers that emulated him and what he stood for (himself).
I'll give south park this: when they aren't trying to push an opinion trey and Matt can be really fucking funny. They're at their best when they're just being silly. Fun Times With Weapons and the Guinea Pigs 2 parter as well as Casa Bonita are some of the funniest things I've seen even still. They have shitty political views or when they aren't bad views they're presented really bad but when they try to be dumb as hell or kinda reach into how shitty 4th graders are an play with that it can hit really well.