The Simpsons Against the Animated Existant: 13 Theses on Rebellion and Recuperation in Springfield

This video compiles more recent clips from the popular long-run TV series, The Simpsons, that speaks to both class struggle and the State’s attempts at containing it. Remember: “They have the plant, but we have the power.”

At times, we realize that the tools for our self-liberation have been right before our eyes, all along. “If it was a snake it would have bit you,” my mom used to say. And a year or so ago, in a spate of downtime and mild depression that saw me re-watching every single season of the classically sarcastic Simpsons, it clicked. It’s all right here. Capitalism has sold us the cartoon rope to hang it with.

So, in the spirit of humorous but critical media studies a la Walter Benjamin, here is a methodically curated series of Simpsons clips espousing wisdom on everything from animal liberation, destroying surveillance cameras, and the general strike to the pitfalls of institutionalized leadership, how to predict a riot, and how not to throw a brick through a window.

For other, slightly more serious and historically informed texts, interviews, and archival revivals, check out burnt ends press.