"Sorry Homer, but I'm a coward now... like all recovering alcoholics"
What did The Simpsons mean by this? That getting over an addiction that ruins your life is somehow emasculating, feminine and enfeeble, and that trying to improve yourself is a joke that should be laugh at?
yes you coward
Maybe its just another shitty joke.
The joke is how blunt and brutal such a statement is regardless of actual truth.
The joke is literally that it's mean spirited
Maybe it means the alcohol gave him false bravery?
I don't think that all recovering addicts or alcoholics are cowards. However, people who openly identify as 'recovering addicts' or 'recovering alcoholics' very often are (these phrases originate in Alcoholics Anonymous, which for all its strengths, is definitely not a life philosophy for people who are courageous.)
What episode?
It was a fucking joke you coward
it was to help establish a situation where homer would want to quit the one job he's had where, in his own words he isn't "Lazy, stupid, or corrupt" and maintain status quo.
>quitting something that you're addicted to is cowardly
That's the joke, it's absurdist, contrarian, mean and doesn't make any sense. It's a 'wait what' moment, in addition to the facts others have mentioned such as 'calling for strength'.
It's like when Lisa lists off all the different branches of religion she could change to, but Methodism is just too far. Or when Homer gets the cursed Krusty doll disclaimer, and the seller starts going into minor curses and complete non issues.
You know as opposed to IMPENDING DEATH.
>That getting over an addiction that ruins your life is somehow emasculating, feminine and enfeeble, and that trying to improve yourself is a joke that should be laugh at?
Here's the thing about addiction, it generally doesn't happen to good people. It's almost always people who have something inherently wrong with them. I think deep down most of them want to be addicted to something. Even when they get clean they are still giant pieces of shit.
Then they join that sham of AA and become preachy retards.
>Even when they get clean they are still giant pieces of shit.
Hey man, I agree that many, maybe even most addicts are whiny, manipulative pieces of shit, but a large proportion are just very meek, sad, unassuming people (usually victims of abuse.)
>Then they join that sham of AA and become preachy retards.
It's ironic that you bring AA up, since they're largely responsible for perpetuating the myth that there is a single "alcoholic type". I think that the population of addicts is at the very least bimodal, in terms of "shittiness".
I read a study once where AA only "works" 4% of the time. So that means it doesn't work at all.
You're a whiny faggot like all recovering alcoholics
You don't understand that zombie simpsons was a mean-spirited show with mean-spirited jokes? This was the era where they killed Maude for laughs and doubled down on it by making light of Homer impeding EMS. This is the era of Homer getting raped by a Panda.
Yes, they're calling addicts cowards. It's that kind of show. Everyone is a sociopath .
...
Yeah chemical dependence basically only happens if your body's chemicals are asking for it.
Most people are at a predisposition are become affected greatly by everyday things people go through. You should realize at their core most people, while generally not awful, are assholes. An addict is defined solely by there addiction. Most people are actually ashamed of being an addict/joining something like AA. Only the ones who were preachy before are preachy afterwards usually.
Bunch of retards in this thread. It means he is so obsessed with doing no wrong that he won't commit to any action that could be construed as oppositional.
A successful recovering addict lives their life in fear, because they've had it drilled into their head that a single slip-up gets them right back off the wagon. Only a coward can remain recovering.
It's an avoidance thing; they never actually overcome their alcoholism which is why they start every AA meeting with "my name is X and I'm an alcoholic". Alcohol still controls their lives, they have to plan every aspect of their day around avoiding alcohol and temptation to drink. They have no moderation, they are all or nothing drinkers, which is not addressing the problem. If they were brave they would follow the scandinavian method of tackling alcoholism by teaching people how to drink responsibly by having 2-3 beer and being able to call it quits instead of downing a fifth after having one beer because of the "if I've had one I guess I can keep going" mindset.
that's one reading
another would be that Barney's the kind of "recovering" alcoholic who has frequent lapses, therefore his "recovery" is nothing more than a learned fear of drinking; he's not quitting because he wants to or believes he can or feels in control, he's doing it because he's afraid of the consequences of a perfectly legal activity, which is a shitty way to live
there's nothing wrong with quitting drinking, but the way you go about it makes a lot of difference to whether you'll succeed
>victim blaming
BECAUSE ONLY COWARDS QUIT!
EITHER DON'T START OR SEE THAT SHIT TO THE END!
Courage Wolf. Man, talk about a blast from the past
AA (and NA, CA, MA whatever other bullshit 12 step spin-offs there are these days) are awful. They have extremely low success rates and are basically just an obnoxious quasi-religious substitute for whatever it is you were on.
Nothing wrong with trying to improve yourself or needing help but fuck them.
Alcohol doesn't create a chemical dependency, alcoholics have a psychological need to drink. In essence, they are weak-minded, like all psychological addicts. They have poor self control and externalize this onto whatever they happen to be addicted to: alcohol, sweets, porn, whatever. The only way such "addicts" know how to confront their problem is to reject it completely, because they refuse to accept the problem is fundamentally one of self control it is easier to simply demonize things outside of yourself and spend your life avoiding them.
>Alcohol doesn't create a chemical dependency
stopped right there. Alcohol is literally, and I mean quite literally, the only drug where withdrawal symptoms will kill you.
Fuck you dude for this fake information what the fuck is wrong with you
>Alcohol doesn't create a chemical dependency
you are a fucking moron.
no being drunk lowers your inhibition you'd do shit you'd never do sober
the joke is hes sober so he realizes its stupid or will backfire
bingo
>and I mean quite literally, the only drug where withdrawal symptoms will kill you.
Wrong. Benzo withdrawal can also be fatal.
I'm an alcoholic, but as someone who has been to these programs, they're a whole big deal of bullshit for anyone with even the slightest hint of self reliance. Oftentimes these people are in 2-3 "programs," and spend all day in meetings with the absolute lowest of the low people, who even sober, will try to take advantage of you. This is even in nice areas.
Add in the contingent of people who are there because the courts don't know what else to do with them, and you get a completely useless program with free coffee and a cultish vibe. I'm a corporate marketing executive who drinks way more than is comfortable, but I don't get any value from the program by being grouped in with the woman who left her toddler in the snowy backyard for 8-12 hours while she was unconscious.
One size fits all programs suck.
absolutely correct
Yep.
Why do people treat this show like it's the Bible? Even at its best it was a vehicle to sell ad place and worthless merchandise and toys
cowards give up, its a joke but a lame joke
all it needs is a laugh track
...
This guy gets it. South park made a whole episode about this.
>you 'rack-a disaprin'
Alcoholism is a real disease.
This user is right.
A former friend of mine hit the bottle bad after his girlfriend cheated on him. He received three DUIs in the span of almost two months. His probation officer ordered him to either pick solo therapy or some AA knockoff. He chose the later and after three weeks of getting pretty much told that Jesus would save you. Also you should donate money to not tempt you to purchase booze. He switched to the solo therapy. Completely got his life fixed up afterwards.
Reason I say former friend is that he died two-years ago due to an allergic reaction.
You can tell they really tried in animating that lion, but their fundamentals are so garbage and the digital art style is so sterile that it just looks glib and hollow
Did it walk in from a different show?
They're out of fucking ideas, every other episode is a journey into a famous fable or some other kind of what-if.
Also checked for Satan