Übercomplicated

Of course that’s up for debate; we’re not even sure what consciousness really is. That is a whole philosophical debate on it’s own.

What do you mean? The article just points out that the show’s demographic may somewhat overlap with, for example, Rogan’s demographic:

The show’s core demographic—predominantly men aged 18 to 49—overlaps meaningfully with the audiences of figures like Joe Rogan and, to a lesser extent, Andrew Tate.

They are not saying that Rogan listeners also watch South Park, or that South Park is republican. The article is just pointing out that this demographic of men aged between 18 and 49 overlaps with “Joe Rogan[’s] and, to a lesser extent, Andrew Tate[’s demographic].”

They even frame this as a potential advantage, saying that

South Park holds a rare cultural position in that it can potentially speak directly to groups adjacent to the MAGA movement without preaching, pandering, or being immediately dismissed [emphasis added].

I don’t know about you, but it didn’t feel like it was calling South Park fans like us Joe Rogan listeners. It felt more like the article was pointing out that some, maybe even a majority, of fans could also be Rogan fans, which would make the audiences that South Park reaches with this anti-Trump episode especially influential.

Idk; I certainly didn’t feel offended or anything like that, but I might be misunderstanding you here.

I’m traveling right now, but will get back to you on my playlist generator.

I hadn’t thought of syncing music libraries! You are indeed right, MPD does not have that, and it would be a hassle to set up. One point to apple…

MPD works pretty well for the music thing, and, I don’t know if this is would be an option for you, but I programmed my own smart-paylist-generator in rust as a hobby project to get control of my 500Gb (around 10,000 100% legally acquired tracks cough, cough) library. The additional control over the algo meant I got something that works waaaay better than pretty much anything else I’ve tried (including Spotify suggestions, etc. — the only thing I still use is Bandcamp for new artist suggestions); if you have the time, I highly recommend a homemade solution like that. It is a lot of work though.

Ah you may be right vis-a-vis immigration. Germany is not the most inviting place…

And I knew I shouldn’t have trusted my autocorrect on März! Goddamn you Google keyboard shakes fist at sky

CDU is center right by normal terms, so no, Merz as an individual is likely not more progressive than Biden or Harris. But because the existing systems that Biden, Harris, and Merz occupy are radically different, the ultimate effect of their politics isn’t decided exclusively by some meter of how progressive they are. Anti-immigration vis-a-vis Germany is very different to anti-immigration vis-a-vis the US, for example. (edit: bad example)

What I mean to say is that a conservative led government in Europe, such as Germany under Merz, will still be much, much more progressive than a progressive led government in the US (i.e. hypothetically Harris with dems controlling the house and senate). This is because progressive issues like gun control and healthcare are unrealistic dreams even for Dems in the US, while they are established policy in Germany, that even Merz will not change.

So while you are right that Harris and Biden are, as individuals, more progressive than Merz, I think that in the grand scheme of things this does not show itself in the governments that they would run. This is also often what is meant with “Europe’s Right is America’s Left.”

Edit: Merz, not März; thanks for the correction.