Some quality sneer in Parks and Rec

Some quality sneer in Parks and Rec (https://www.reddit.com/r/SneerClub/comments/ko4e0w/some_quality_sneer_in_parks_and_rec/)

posted on January 01, 2021 03:45 AM by u/JohnWColtrane

There’s an an episode of Parks and Recreation in which a doomsday cult who dub themselves The Reasonabilists predict that a lizard god will destroy the world. When asked why they call themselves The Reasonabilists, Leslie Knope says “because if people criticize them, it’ll seem like they are attacking something reasonable.”

Just thought that was funny. I’ll pretend it’s not just a coincidence.

u/noactuallyitspoptart 22 points at 1609494213.000000

I have a certain uncharacteristic fondness for parks and rec for lines like this

Overall it’s an exhaustingly coy show because it sets you up for real vicious satire but rarely brings itself to really twisting the knife - Horatian rather than Juvenalian if you know what I mean

It also occurs to me - because he lives rent free in my head whenever I’m reading this sub - that in the Classical Period Scott Aaronson would have got very angry and called Juvenal a bully back in the day

He’s probably a fan of parks and rec

Which is funny because he wrote a book that pretentiously characterised itself as knowing things about the classical period.

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u/JohnWColtrane 14 points at 1609515719.000000

> if you know what I mean Not at all but I like that you said it.

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u/noactuallyitspoptart 21 points at 1609519076.000000

In lit crit and classics there’s a famous thing they teach you about a supposed distinction between two kinds of satire 1. Horatian: stuff like parks and rec, basically poking fun at social mores and stuff like that 2. Juvenalian: the contemporary pop culture equivalent would be something like Black Mirror, i.e. vicious and cynical, not always entirely funny The distinction stems from the two Roman satirists Horace and Juvenal and the perceived difference between the two: Horace addresses social issues of his day with a sort of light-hearted irony; Juvenal makes dark sarcastic remarks about the functions of power - positions himself a bit like the underdog Dostoevsky in *Notes From Underground*. It’s a relevant question whether any of this is actually representative, but it at least serves as a useful explanatory metaphor for conversation

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u/completely-ineffable 14 points at 1609520680.000000

> I have a certain uncharacteristic fondness for parks and rec for lines like this The early seasons are decent, but then it fell for its own pretense that its characters are good people at heart

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u/noactuallyitspoptart 8 points at 1609521146.000000

A much more succinct way of putting my point, and absolutely right

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u/dgerard 5 points at 1609502440.000000

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_of_the_World_(Parks_and_Recreation)

https://parksandrecreation.fandom.com/wiki/The_Reasonabilists

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u/dizekat 4 points at 1609650911.000000

Would be interesting to figure out if the author got this close to rationalists by filing off serial numbers from scientology (and mixing in some rajneshi) or they knew of rationalists. I honestly think the latter is very possible.

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u/relightit 5 points at 1609507915.000000

keep reason free https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/Copyleft_white.svg/48px-Copyleft_white.svg.png

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u/dizekat -1 points at 1609494890.000000

Wow… that is obviously not a coincidence by the way.

Rationalism is based directly on scientology (parasitizing on silicon valley the way scientology parasitizes on Hollywood), and so are most fictional cults, so it is no coincidence that fictional cults tend to hit pretty close in general, but this one really seems like it was made with knowledge of rationalists.

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u/noactuallyitspoptart 9 points at 1609495246.000000

California doing its usual job on how things get written I guess

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