Top 10 Stupidest Moral Guardian Moments

If you ever thought the social justice warriors were bad, think again. Moral guardians make them look like petty activists in comparison.

The moral guardians are extremely annoying, often religious wingnuts (though occasionally liberal, but that's rare and would more accurately fit under the "social justice warrior" label). They claim that various forms of media (video games, music, television shows, etc.) are damaging to society, especially to children, who are usually their main concern. Some of the things they've tried to ban include rock and metal music, depictions of Satanism, gothic or irreligious content, stereotypes, intercourse, curse words, violence, "any difference to same" (read: LGBT) relationships, pigs (in Malaysia and Indonesia), and more.

Unlike most social justice warriors, however, moral guardians often follow through on their plans. They do this by filing complaints with organizations like the PTC, PTA, FCC, or other media watchdog groups. They sometimes use heavily biased arguments or make nonsensical claims about why certain content is harmful. I'm not making these up. You can find examples all over the internet (especially in mother groups), and the TV Tropes page on "Moral Guardians" is a good starting point.

I won't be including events related to video game violence, apart from a few notable exceptions, because covering that topic in full would take too much time. Even though I'm aiming to make this list comprehensive, I'll be focusing only on the events that truly highlight the absurdity of these people.

The Top Ten

  1. Banning a UK advert for KFC for depicting "bad eating manners"

  2. Censoring music

  3. Enforcing the Comics Code Authority

  4. Creating the National Action Against Obesity

  5. Jack Thompson targeting Grand Theft Auto over the Hot Coffee incident

  6. Scrapping a My Little Pony character over an "offensive portrayal of the disabled"

  7. Being Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons

  8. PeTA bashing Super Mario 3D Land for "using fur from a real animal"

    PETA sucks, and Super Mario 3D Land rocks. Enough said.

  9. An Italian psychologist getting Sailor Moon taken off the air in Italy

  10. Enforcing the Hays Code

    The Hays Code is a very tricky thing. The censorship it caused was absolutely terrible, forcing characters, endings, and entire plots to be rewritten. Artistic liberty was placed behind the morals of the time.

    At the same time, the movies we got from that era were among the greatest and most influential Hollywood had to offer. Films that went down in history and shaped not only cinema but also our broader culture wouldn't have looked and felt the same without it.

    That's my conflict. From a moral point of view, I despise the Hays Code. From a cinephile perspective, this era was quite possibly the greatest of all.

    11. The Contenders

  11. Removing a joke about diabetes from the home media version of Hotel Transylvania 2

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