@RomLoneWolf: Of course this wouldn’t fly post-2016. But this is 1992, the year when a third-party candidate actually garnered a significant chunk of public support for the first time in basically ever. And it fits well with Joel and friends’ established attitudes, the ’90s punk DIY approach of “nothing satisfies me, I’m gonna change everything”.
Sorry, JBWarner, the age of “Both Sides Suck” ended in 2016, when the Republican Party put a goddamn Authoritarian Douche in office, who mostly won his election because not enough people were motivated enough to vote to keep him from winning.
Yeah, Mrs. Brockhurst’s efforts were ham-fisted and filled with condescending bullshit, but at the same time, the price you pay for not participating in politics is being ruled by people who WILL want to disenfranchise you.
America is a country where, in theory, the common citizen CAN affect Government. You can either put in the effort to make sure you have a voice, or not. But if you don’t use the voting power you have, you can affect nothing.
Sorry, even as an adult I still uphold the same political apathy i did as a teenager lol
But I liked this little storyline. I don’t blame the kids for snarking, but I also like that the teacher kept her cool, even though she wasn’t very open minded to the points they were trying to make under the snark.
@Sean: Not to mention we, the readers, are currently living in a time where we can’t afford this level of political apathy. We let our guard down in 2016 and we are still paying for that mistake now. Talk like what Joel and his friends had this week is what got us into this mess.
@JBWarner: The thing is, if I could at the time, knowing what I know now, I’d STILL take Clinton over four more years of Reagan. Act II. THAT’s the big issue here; a fat, lecherous hillbilly is still preferable to continuing to hand the Republicans all three branches of government like third-party voting would do.
Mrs Brockhurst let the kids talk amongst themselves, didn’t keep an oppressive atmosphere like stamping down the direction of ‘mock’ election, and let them express their ideas in class. The class had more freedom than voting lines, airports, and Joscelyn’s house.
Brockhurst wasn’t condescending, or at least was unnoticeable next to the condescension of real adults towards teenagers.
Welp. I just marathoned about three-ish years of comics in about two days, and all around, I gotta say I thoroughly enjoyed the story. Please keep up the great work!
Man, a lot more people sympathized with Mrs. Brockhurst than I expected. You notice how she kept telling the kids what they’d like, instead of asking them what they’d like? How condescending and out-of-touch she was? And how rigidly she insisted that everyone had to follow the two-party system, because that’s just how things are?
She’s a stand-in for every government figure who’s tried to be all “Hey, kids, voting is radical!” in a shallow attempt to curry favor for themselves. And Joel and his friends can see right through it.
Honestly, I feel sorry for Mr.s Brockhurst. So far she seems like the only nice high school teacher in this entire story (a genuine breath of fresh air), and yet she still gets sassed… granted, not as much as the other teachers deserve, but still. At least she tried to do something interesting with them.
I’d love to see her show up in more stories and… not become as jaded as the rest of them.
“This is what I get for trying to be the cool teacher.”
Well, to be fair, she didn’t lose her “cool”. Gotta give her props for that. She’s still cool in my book. If she was Deb… that’d be another story… which I think WILL be…
I think this storyline does the “adults are stupid, kids are smart” better than it usually does. It has little to do with the “cool teacher” path. Of course the students are going to snark it up- not every reaction is the same as Ron and neighbor shouting over the fence. The kids have nothing to gain from the election, and nothing to follow- it’s just background noise that they’re “supposed to care” about, sayeth those who think that they’re supposed to care about it. If politicians were doing their jobs right then it wouldn’t be such a personality contest, it would be a vote over who could run departments better. Y’know, the president’s _job_.
I kind of agree with TheJayster49 on this.
I actually like the previous incarnation a little more. The students took their stance on their issues with the candidates much more seriously.
That being said, I do want to see them engage with Mrs. Brockhurst more. Maybe they can come at a crossroads where both of their worldviews change for the better.
@Tarotsu – True, I’m glad she didn’t, but it’s still frustrating that the teacher was trying to be nice to her students and they instead just basically snarked at her the entire time.
I am going to be truthful here, I felt this was a weak storyline due to how anvilicious the political messages were. It also would have been far more interesting to see the gang try to get Mrs. Brockhurst to change her worldview and realize that her beliefs are not as right as she believes them to be. Especially since Mrs. Brockhurst came off as one of the INCREDIBLY few teachers in this comic that actually wanted to engage with her students, and it didn’t seem like she was actively trying to come off as a strawman.
Instead, this storyline was just the same “adults are stupid, kids are smart” shtick that I honestly wish this comic would start cutting down on.
@RomLoneWolf: Of course this wouldn’t fly post-2016. But this is 1992, the year when a third-party candidate actually garnered a significant chunk of public support for the first time in basically ever. And it fits well with Joel and friends’ established attitudes, the ’90s punk DIY approach of “nothing satisfies me, I’m gonna change everything”.
Sorry, JBWarner, the age of “Both Sides Suck” ended in 2016, when the Republican Party put a goddamn Authoritarian Douche in office, who mostly won his election because not enough people were motivated enough to vote to keep him from winning.
Yeah, Mrs. Brockhurst’s efforts were ham-fisted and filled with condescending bullshit, but at the same time, the price you pay for not participating in politics is being ruled by people who WILL want to disenfranchise you.
America is a country where, in theory, the common citizen CAN affect Government. You can either put in the effort to make sure you have a voice, or not. But if you don’t use the voting power you have, you can affect nothing.
She is probably the first teacher in history to flunk an entire class.
Sorry, even as an adult I still uphold the same political apathy i did as a teenager lol
But I liked this little storyline. I don’t blame the kids for snarking, but I also like that the teacher kept her cool, even though she wasn’t very open minded to the points they were trying to make under the snark.
@Sean: Not to mention we, the readers, are currently living in a time where we can’t afford this level of political apathy. We let our guard down in 2016 and we are still paying for that mistake now. Talk like what Joel and his friends had this week is what got us into this mess.
@JBWarner: The thing is, if I could at the time, knowing what I know now, I’d STILL take Clinton over four more years of Reagan. Act II. THAT’s the big issue here; a fat, lecherous hillbilly is still preferable to continuing to hand the Republicans all three branches of government like third-party voting would do.
Mrs Brockhurst let the kids talk amongst themselves, didn’t keep an oppressive atmosphere like stamping down the direction of ‘mock’ election, and let them express their ideas in class. The class had more freedom than voting lines, airports, and Joscelyn’s house.
Brockhurst wasn’t condescending, or at least was unnoticeable next to the condescension of real adults towards teenagers.
Welp. I just marathoned about three-ish years of comics in about two days, and all around, I gotta say I thoroughly enjoyed the story. Please keep up the great work!
I think a lot of people were thrown by the teacher not being a raging apathetic lol
Also, third party voters are generally frowned upon by society, so that probably muddied the waters further
Man, a lot more people sympathized with Mrs. Brockhurst than I expected. You notice how she kept telling the kids what they’d like, instead of asking them what they’d like? How condescending and out-of-touch she was? And how rigidly she insisted that everyone had to follow the two-party system, because that’s just how things are?
She’s a stand-in for every government figure who’s tried to be all “Hey, kids, voting is radical!” in a shallow attempt to curry favor for themselves. And Joel and his friends can see right through it.
Kinda hard to be cool and talk about elections, Mrs B.
Honestly, I feel sorry for Mr.s Brockhurst. So far she seems like the only nice high school teacher in this entire story (a genuine breath of fresh air), and yet she still gets sassed… granted, not as much as the other teachers deserve, but still. At least she tried to do something interesting with them.
I’d love to see her show up in more stories and… not become as jaded as the rest of them.
“This is what I get for trying to be the cool teacher.”
Well, to be fair, she didn’t lose her “cool”. Gotta give her props for that. She’s still cool in my book. If she was Deb… that’d be another story… which I think WILL be…
I think this storyline does the “adults are stupid, kids are smart” better than it usually does. It has little to do with the “cool teacher” path. Of course the students are going to snark it up- not every reaction is the same as Ron and neighbor shouting over the fence. The kids have nothing to gain from the election, and nothing to follow- it’s just background noise that they’re “supposed to care” about, sayeth those who think that they’re supposed to care about it. If politicians were doing their jobs right then it wouldn’t be such a personality contest, it would be a vote over who could run departments better. Y’know, the president’s _job_.
It was a chill arc to calm down from the drama of the previous arc. Not the strongest week arc, but it still gave me a couple of chuckles.
Also, Aaron gesturing to Joel in the third panel is funny.
I kind of agree with TheJayster49 on this.
I actually like the previous incarnation a little more. The students took their stance on their issues with the candidates much more seriously.
That being said, I do want to see them engage with Mrs. Brockhurst more. Maybe they can come at a crossroads where both of their worldviews change for the better.
20 years, eh? Good luck against Obama. Steve.
@Tarotsu – True, I’m glad she didn’t, but it’s still frustrating that the teacher was trying to be nice to her students and they instead just basically snarked at her the entire time.
Well, at least the teacher didn’t have a mental breakdown at the end. That counts for something, right?
I am going to be truthful here, I felt this was a weak storyline due to how anvilicious the political messages were. It also would have been far more interesting to see the gang try to get Mrs. Brockhurst to change her worldview and realize that her beliefs are not as right as she believes them to be. Especially since Mrs. Brockhurst came off as one of the INCREDIBLY few teachers in this comic that actually wanted to engage with her students, and it didn’t seem like she was actively trying to come off as a strawman.
Instead, this storyline was just the same “adults are stupid, kids are smart” shtick that I honestly wish this comic would start cutting down on.