I rewatched it a few years ago. It's has some very bad conservative takes in some episodes and yet some incredibly lefty ideas in others.
Like one episode is about how unjust taxes are and how corporations can provide everything the government does but better and cheaper so we should make government smaller. Then the same season has an episode about how the corporation has cut safety rules back to save money and how they'll do anything they can to cut costs and thus should never be trusted.
It's got a libertarian streak basically and some of its "family" episodes are awful (the daughter wants to grow a large tail to attract boys!! The son involuntarily did "the mating dance" in class because he fancies a girl! The son gets involved with carnivores! The son then becomes a herbivore for a girl! Hoho whacky prehistoric hijinks indeed). But it was definitely better than people remember.
I think most TV tends toward the libertarian perspective - because it's financed by the rich and that's what they believe. Government is evil and useless. Corporations are evil, but useful. You can't deny that corporations suck, but that's just how the world works, fuck you, shut up, eat your McBurger, that's all there is to life.
The only truly trustworthy government characters in media are soldiers and spooks, and that's because they also finance TV.
The narrative that government is democratic, that it takes care of problems when people organize - that's usually played for laughs: the mob goes rabble-rabble, the government fucks up by trying to help, haha that's what happens when you trust democracy!
Yeah its really just that the few bad episodes are really bad because they were trying to be something they weren't, rather than there being a lot of them.
I rewatched it a few years ago. It's has some very bad conservative takes in some episodes and yet some incredibly lefty ideas in others.
Like one episode is about how unjust taxes are and how corporations can provide everything the government does but better and cheaper so we should make government smaller. Then the same season has an episode about how the corporation has cut safety rules back to save money and how they'll do anything they can to cut costs and thus should never be trusted.
It's got a libertarian streak basically and some of its "family" episodes are awful (the daughter wants to grow a large tail to attract boys!! The son involuntarily did "the mating dance" in class because he fancies a girl! The son gets involved with carnivores! The son then becomes a herbivore for a girl! Hoho whacky prehistoric hijinks indeed). But it was definitely better than people remember.
Also the baby raps at one point and I hate it.
I think most TV tends toward the libertarian perspective - because it's financed by the rich and that's what they believe. Government is evil and useless. Corporations are evil, but useful. You can't deny that corporations suck, but that's just how the world works, fuck you, shut up, eat your McBurger, that's all there is to life.
The only truly trustworthy government characters in media are soldiers and spooks, and that's because they also finance TV.
The narrative that government is democratic, that it takes care of problems when people organize - that's usually played for laughs: the mob goes rabble-rabble, the government fucks up by trying to help, haha that's what happens when you trust democracy!
Okay that is pretty wild. I guess I'm cancelling that rewatch then, seems like I'd scratch my head way too often in exchange for a few good moments.
nah, watch it, there are more episodes that are good than bad.
Oh cool, if that is so then it goes back on the menu.
Yeah its really just that the few bad episodes are really bad because they were trying to be something they weren't, rather than there being a lot of them.