
How a TV Sitcom Triggered the Downfall of Western Civilization (2016) - enitihas
https://medium.com/@thatdavidhopkins/how-a-tv-sitcom-triggered-the-downfall-of-western-civilization-336e8ccf7dd0#.cidztjpmk
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DanBC
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=How%20a%20TV%20Sitcom%20Trigge...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=How%20a%20TV%20Sitcom%20Triggered%20the%20Downfall%20of%20Western%20Civilization&sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=story&storyText=false&prefix&page=0)

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acqq
And this one, 300 days ago, has a lot of comments (77):

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11354581](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11354581)

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Paul_S
Surely, the sitcom you meant is the big bang theory. The modern minstrel show
with geek chic instead of blackface.

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jedikv
jeez, never liked the whole blackface/nerdface comparison. feel so extreme

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seanalltogether
All of the characters on the show have immediate and recognizable flaws. They
also have immediate and recognizable strengths. It lets the writers create
comedic situations that resonate instantly and its the reason the show was so
successful. Every character teased and made fun of all the other characters
flaws, no one was given a free pass.

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aaron-lebo
This is a fun tongue in cheek read until it turns into tropes about the
persecuted intellectual.

Intellectual bullies exist, too. Much of the backlash against intellectualism
today is due smart people telling other people that they are stupid. As though
people who prefer chess over football are somehow inherently better and not
rife with the same flaws.

Maybe stop putting to put people into boxes. Stop assuming your tribe is
better.

The piece ends praising Bill Gates. His business practices were exactly what a
bully would do! Just because the nerdy kid turned the tables doesn't mean he
wasn't a bully.

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SixSigma
If you think nerds started getting bullied in the 2000s, you didn't grow up as
one.

Revenge of the Nerds was in cinemas in 1984 -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenge_of_the_Nerds](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenge_of_the_Nerds)

And even that depicted us as rapists and idiots.

Still, I wasn't put up against a wall and shot

1971 killing of Bengali intellectuals -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_killing_of_Bengali_intell...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_killing_of_Bengali_intellectuals)

Mao Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_to_Suppress_Counterre...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_to_Suppress_Counterrevolutionaries)

The Khmer Rouge especially targeted ... Western-educated intellectuals,
educated people in general -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pol_Pot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pol_Pot)

The execution of Ahwazian intellectuals in Iran -
[http://ahwazna.net/en-461_The_execution_of_Ahwazian_intellec...](http://ahwazna.net/en-461_The_execution_of_Ahwazian_intellectuals_is_an_obvious_phenomenon_of_national_.html)

The clandestine execution of thirteen Jewish intellectuals in the Soviet Union
under Stalin, was one of Stalin’s last acts of persecution. -
[http://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/digitallibrary/galle...](http://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/digitallibrary/gallery/jewish/Pages/Jewish-
Victims-USSR-1952.aspx)

etc.

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jMyles
Against the odds, that was a good read.

As a 10-14 year old, when I watched it, I liked Friends. I don't know that
I've seen an episode in the past 20 years. I cringe at the thought of it now.

I certainly never noticed the motif of Ross as the intellectual victim of a
Greek tragedy. But in retrospect, it sounds about right.

I think the chances are much better that this TV sitcom triggered the downfall
of the western evening TV lineup than all of civilization, though. :-)

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jankotek
Was not 'intellectualism' rejected long time ago? It is classic comic book
story that strong simpleton defeats smart bad guy (preferably with PhD ;-)

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AnOscelot
This reminds me of my childhood church, in the late 70's & early 80's. The
pastor was absolutely obsessed with Three's Company. Felt like not only was it
the worst show on television, but that it was a harbinger of the end times.
That women in short shorts in a comedy of manners was going to destroy America
as we know it. Mom at first forbade it in our home, and then she caught an
episode by accident. Turned out to be one of her favorite shows and a regular
in our house.

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jimbokun
In my church, it was the Smurfs and its promotion of witch craft.

Very thankful I found intellectual, thoughtful Christians later in life. My
faith remains the core of who I am because of it.

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d--b
This has nothing to do with being intellectual. Ross is a neurotic, self-
obsessed, career-oriented douchebag. Honestly, I don't understand how they
could put up with him for so long. He was such an unlikeable character...

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empath75
That was funny but America didn't need a sitcom to tell them to pick on nerds.

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camus2
IMHO, what hurt western civilization the most is reality shows like Big
Brothers,Survivor, Jackass, Celebrity show X or Z. Somehow these shows reward
narcissism, individualism, greed, anti-social behavior, sexual, moral
harassment and exploitation.

When MTV started to broadcast Jackass I knew a paradigm shift had happened.

People like to blame anything sort of things for our decline, but for me
broadcasting that crap and accepting it as moral absolutely shaped the modern
west.

Friends was just a funny sitcom that actually talked about friendship which is
something positive, no matter how bad it handled that theme.

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k__
I don't think these shows are the cause, but the result.

Things go down the drain because babyboomers and generation X failed and
people try to hold on stuff that is easier to aquire than wealth.

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liberte82
I think it's fair to argue that a result can also be a cause for further
decline. Chicken and the egg.

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LordKano
I could never get into friends. Something about the idea that they lived in a
version of NYC that only contained three or four black people was something I
could never get past.

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jimbokun
We just had a massive nerd living in the White House for the past eight years.
Comic book movies and sci-fi rule the box office. Everyone knows software and
computer companies basically rule the world.

My guess is the anti-intellectualism of the incoming President and his
supporters is triggering these renewed feelings of nerd persecution, because
it is such a jarring contrast to the outgoing administration.

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peterwwillis
Books are overrated and not buying things hurts the economy, but okay, I like
nerds too. Nerds have always been uncool, mainly because their obsessions
cause them to ignore their own unattractiveness. But Friends did not cause the
downfall of western civilization.

It was MTV.

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devoply
Writers are often idealists themselves. So what they see in the world and how
they see it, they put on the screen. Then other people see that and that
affects their behavior. It's a cycle. Anti-intellectualism was alive and well
in every school in the United States in the 90s. The cool kids are not the
nerdy kids. And the nerdy kids end up in engineering roles to be ruled over by
the cliques of cool kids. Scientists are owned by their universities, again
run by the cool kids in administration. The hierarchy of humanity is stupidity
and egotism rules at least the masses and middle management.

So I think that this guy is not reading the situation properly.

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forgetsusername
Or maybe _Friends_ was a statement on the fact that just because you have a
PhD doesn't mean you're smarter, more of an "intellectual" or more deserving
of attention based solely on your education.

Maybe Ross was simply boring and annoying.

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jstewartmobile
A better article would be how sitcoms in general are taking down western civ.
Even the good ones pacify and distract us from the real-life things we should
be focusing on--family, friends, self-government, our fellow man, and the
like.

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legodt
Counter-point: [http://reallifemag.com/what-was-the-
nerd/](http://reallifemag.com/what-was-the-nerd/)

