Analyzing the politics of a work that's meant to be apolitical is actually a really interesting exercise because it asks you to critically examine what the creator considers to be "political" in the first place. Which ideas are just How Things Are, and which ones are Political, and how is that influenced by the creator's beliefs?
Usually this just ends up with you looking like a moron btw
Angrily lashing out at the suggestion that it's possible to do basic media analysis was foundational to the ragebait ecosystem of the 2010s, from which we got basically the entire culture of modern far right politics, btw.
I genuinely believe myself and others are being so sincere and literal when we say TOUCH GRASS
I went outside and got an education, that's where I learned that you can obtain knowledge and insight through analytical methods, then noticed that some people who sit on the internet yelling at strangers get really mad about that constantly.
So actually if you really wanted to use your analysis skills you'd realize that what people are annoyed about is the implication that there's never a story or creative work they can create that can escape people like you attempting to assign political meaning to it when they just don't want that. That in fact people's presumptions about life are not, in fact, political (at best they are cultural, which is not an inherently facet of politics). And that by you people arrogantly pushing this idea you are intruding on the fact that a lot of people use fiction as escapism from politics and insisting that "urm no actually your favourite cartoon actually has politics cause no human being is 100% unbiased" is in fact, supremely fucking annoying
"Stop having fun wrong, it ruins my fun when you have fun wrong, it's not enough for me to just scroll past the analysis I don't like, if anyone anywhere is saying that the cartoon exists in a political context that's undermining my enjoyment of it!"
That's you. That's what you sound like.
by Omar Sakr
I've been thinking about this poem a lot lately, because for sure that's not the Authorial Intent. But the creators still had to make decisions about how to depict this character, and the real-world analogues they had to pull from. Which makes it a great example of what OP was trying to say.
And the point that the vocal "Touch Grass" contingent is missing is the same thing all those HR Consultants are bringing in to try and tell you about: unconscious biases.
I've not really seen Bluey, heard good things from the kids and parents I know. From what I understand, its creators are kind and pleasant people. But there is an inherently political angle to depicting a soldier that you kinda can't escape. Soldiers fight other soldiers to solve political disputes. They kill on behalf of a country.
Yeah, we're not gonna tell that to the kids in fucking Bluey. But for the adults watching along, especially those with Certain Ideas about who's allowed to kill whom and why, you can't really pretend that it's not there.
Unconscious biases.
They don't make you a bad person, but you also can't undo them until you make them a little bit conscious.
Back when Key & Peele were doing sketch comedy, they had one skit about Politically Correct Sea Shanteys, one of which had the punchline, "You probably thought the doctor was a man."
My last two doctors have been women, but I still sometimes find myself assuming an un-gendered doctor in media is going to be a guy. Likely because a lot of the media I grew up with had male doctors and female nurses.
Then I hear Peele's pirate voice chastising me for the assumption, and I remember my unconscious biases--and how the media I grew up with shaped my assumptions.
Yeah, there's even politics in sketch comedy.
it's insane how hostile people are to thinking deeply about things they like. Some of the blogs in the "touch grass" camp have absolutely dog shit politics too, total far right creeps. I can see why they'd want to shut down any and all political analysis; the only way they can enjoy media is by stuffing their hateful politics in a drawer for the duration of their media experience. They can only enjoy media by turning their brain off completely.
Of course, if they simply abandoned their shitty politics, they could enjoy media and life in general without that painful contradiction.
