What pop culture reminds you of the goodness of humanity?

The A.V. Club:

This week’s election has left many people in a dark place, feeling frustrated, sad, and fearful for the future. So we’ve decided to make this week’s AVQ&A a hopeful beacon of light in these troubled times.

What are yours?

(I need to think about it for a while)

It says a lot about my headspace that I thought this thread title was "White pop culture reminds you of the goodness of humanity?"

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/albums/6399/8ee6420c.jpg

My actual answer to this is "humanity is a fucking sewer unless it can be convinced that doing 'the right thing' is in their self-interest" so I probably am bowing out of this thread after this post

honestly fuck pop culture it's all sewage and i love it but it's garbage it's not ennobling -- lol actually wrote this before seeing DJP's post

I scoured through my various collections of stuff last night for something that filled that hole and finally settled on early Peanuts. It sufficed.

I never have before but I kinda want to read the earliest issues of Captain America right now. A couple of Jews bravely resisting popular sentiment and creating stories of a hero smashing a xenophobic demagogue at a time when our country still hadn't taken its own strides in that direction.

http://www.craveonline.com/images/stories/2011/Film/Battle_Royale_Class_Photo.jpg

high maintenance web series is one of the most affirming things i can think of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7qT-C-0ajI

I actually think this is a super important question right now for a number of reasons. Just on a personal level, I've been in the process this week of making radical changes to the way I want to live my life going forward, and between that and the waves of intense and near-constant stress and despair, I've been having sincere concerns about the toll this is taking on my physical and mental health. I need to keep reminding myself of what's good in the world, of why we need to fight and what we need to fight for, and one aspect of that is remembering why art and culture (pop or otherwise) matters and why it is worthy of preservation and perpetuation. Among other things, it's an outlet through which I can cope with overwhelming existential horror in a way that hopefully keeps a blood vessel in my brain from rupturing.

This is not a super important question right now. A super important question is "Do I need to alter anything about my daily commute to minimize the chance of falling victim to a hate crime?"

I will stop ruining this thread now. Sorry.

You aren't ruining it. "None" is a perfectly reasonable answer right now.

Not in the place for it now but even over the last eight relatively positive years I've found a lot of comfort in empathetic TV - so many shows with a litany of awful people doing awful things and reality freakshows, I appreciated the heart of How I Met Your Mother or rewatching Serenity etc.

no podcastry after auschwitz

always Cardiacs

books are an amazing immersive escape for me, in general and this week. i dunno if they count as popular culture, and of course i'm in a different country so i'm well aware this is a lot more present and frightening for many itt.

I'm going to see A Matter of Life and Death on Sunday, lol British I know but pure, unadulterated, beautiful, romantic escapism

charting my porn tastes according to my rollercoaster sense of hope has crystallized into great clarity over these past few weeks

I will stop ruining this thread now. Sorry.

science fiction tends to do it best for me

Yeah, a bit of Kim Stanley Robinson maybe.

so many shows with a litany of awful people doing awful things and reality freakshows, I appreciated the heart of How I Met Your Mother

slight lol at this

Colbert's show has been really good these last couple days I guess

Parks & Recreation is the ideal of shows featuring people being nice to each other.

My immediate instinctive response to this thread was Calvin & Hobbies but I have no real reason why.

threads begs at least two questions, fpd

Parks & Recreation is the ideal of shows featuring people being nice to each other.

I know, every fucking plotline seems to be about what gift a set of characters are going to get for another character.

Steven Universe

really, everyone should be watching Steven Universe with their kids

yes that's actually a great answer to thread q

Rick and Morty while stoned is my equivalent of Steven Universe with kids, I think

Staple Singers

maybe not quite as life affirming but there is a hidden empathetic core to it xp

is there a useful distinction to be made between "pop culture that reminds you of the goodness of humanity" and "pop culture distracts you from the badness of humanity"? I'm trying to answer this question, but most of what I'd comes to mind is totally escapist stuff.

after two days of anti-Thatcher/Reagan hardcore, lots of union songs and civil rights songs today
last time I cried unrelated to a death was "A Change Is Gonna Come" on Election Night 2008, it's helping again

I guess the pop culture I want to engage with when feeling "in a dark place, feeling frustrated, sad, and fearful for the future" is stuff with no humans in it at all, e.g. funny pictures of cats

fuck the motherfucking AV Club

yeah I'm not interested in escapism personally, inspiration is more important to me at the moment

'The Greatest Love of All' has been fucking me up this week. Didn't see that coming.

In terms of escapism, watching mostly comedy tv shows for much needed levity. For inspiration, listening to and playing lots of piano.

*listening to music I meant to say.

Of course America votes to deport Muslims and Mexicans and A/V Club is like "Which season of Mad Men is helping you get through"

which morbid angel album is helping you get through

http://68.media.tumblr.com/859ceb0d19d439aeb30e525e3dec2fbf/tumblr_ocshdaYFrC1vnokczo1_540.gif

binge coping

i watched encino man the other night with the kids...might watch son in law tonight...

put on dazed & confused last night but i got too drunk to enjoy it...

REALLY ENJOYING THE APPRENTICE RIGHT NOW CHEERS A/V CLUB