The Rabbit Hole of Conservative Kids' Books | Propaganda Deep Dive

[@zoe_bee]

THERE IS A HAIR ON MY FOREHEAD AND I ONLY JUST SAW IT AND NOW I CANNOT UNSEE IT WHAT HAVE I DONE

[@JamesonHuddle]

No need to flex so hard on all the balding folks...

[@LaCafedora]

Your hair is beautiful and so is your forehead. It will be okay.

[@paperbeatsrock_]

It's not really noticeable at all; I had to try to focus in order to see it, and even then it wasn't all that visible.

[@LuckyPigeon1111]

Where? I don't see it.

[@airplanes_aren.t_real]

I had completely forgotten about "Jonny the walrus" until you mentioned it and I had a rush of fucked up memories

[@caitlinsnowfrost8244]

In all seriousness I feel like an analysis of leftist kids books that tried to be progressive but ended up being problematic could be interesting.

[@tardigradeColonies]

Yes, I'd SO love to see an analysis of these. There is a lot that ends up going wrong in really interesting ways in that area.

[@jackriver8385]

I would love to see that! There's a book about a non binary baby that is just badly written and almost seems satirical. I don't remember the title though, I saw someone read it on tiktok

[@max_punch]

@@jackriver8385 is it baby X? Not sure if it's like a book or something, but there's an animation of it I used to watch on youtube

[@mamadragonful]

@@max_punch No, baby X is about avoiding limiting children by sexist stereotypes. Has nothing to do with gender theory. The book being reference is literally titled Nonbinary Baby.

[@MrMike855]

No, she should cover leftist books that have the same blunt, barely hidden metaphors that also fail to work, and thus aren't very engaging as media. It takes a lot to be able to criticize media that you don't like, despite agreeing with it, and simply critiquing leftist books that don't work because "they're accidentally problematic", isn't very helpful.

[@catbox1677]

A children's book that fucked me up was "The Little Rabbit Who Wanted Red Wings." It's basically the typical character decides to be different BUT instead of being accepted, he is disowned and everyone is afraid/weirded out by him. The "happy" ending is when he begs the well to return him to normal, so that everyone accepts him again.

[@abirdonacreek8705]

Scary that conservatives think this is ok

[@LAM49_51]

Holy shit

[@breadmonkeys]

That's fucked

[@heathflick8937]

That's genuinely scary

[@afoolishfopdoodle3284]

Whelp, I've been disturbed for today

[@crouchingidiot]

Imagine how easily that ‘don’t trust yourself, only the adult family members in your life’ narrative can easily be used as justification for abuse.

[@francescobarale2694]

Yea this Is true, i didnt think about that

[@hmnhntr]

Well, given that it's a book promoting transphobia....that's literally exactly what it's doing. That's its entire purpose.

[@voodoodummie]

it is also the rhetoric to keep people in churches. Keep your head down, and be a good obedient choir boy.

[@pancakes8670]

I mean, that's essentially what Conservatives are trying to do. They just wanna abuse other adults as much as they wanna abuse children

[@robertmartin6800]

Children should trust their family.

[@FellRagnarok]

There’s absolutely no way that Matt “I violate my children’s consent all the time” Walsh self-inserted himself into his own book, simultaneously painting himself as the smartest character in it. There’s just no way 💀

[@Yeetusdeletus897]

I swear something is gonna come out about him some day He’s the one person from the daily wire I legitimately wouldn’t be able to stand talking to.I think I could have a good conversation with most of the main people of DW but something just creeps me out about Walsh

[@themaxterz0169]

​@@Yeetusdeletus897 im a right winger and even i think theres _something_ up with him. I do respect him for being pretty much the most upfront though.

[@Yeetusdeletus897]

@@themaxterz0169 I’m a leftist but I somewhat respect members of the daily wire ever so slightly but Walsh is just not a good person. He did an entire segment on the term “drag mom” (an experienced drag queen who helps out newer drag queens with makeup,hair, and getting booked for shows)not even knowing what the term meant which means he didn’t do a single google search or just lies to his audience. Same with that clip from the joe Rohan podcast which was him acting like he was a professional on these issue and after he made an entire documentary he was asked how many kids were receiving GAC and he said millions of minors (only teens get gender affirming care so that would mean if 2 million teens were on them 10-15% of teens would be trans (there are only around 21 millions teens in America) which is not accurate at all) and one google search later he was proven wrong So yeah I can’t respect him

[@themaxterz0169]

@@Yeetusdeletus897 im curious, what are your reasons for respecting the other members of the daily wire?

[@Yeetusdeletus897]

@@themaxterz0169 just out of the fact they are extremely well educated individuals who have been able to gain large followings (even if they lie all the time it’s still impressive to have that many subscribers)

[@BradsGonnaPlay]

The moral of all these books seems to be “YOU don’t want to be *WEIRD* do YOU??? We’ll all laugh at you!”

[@methodtomyradness2939]

thats just projecting your insecurities

[@BunniRabbi]

@@methodtomyradness2939 If you're saying that's what the author is saying, I think that's more glib than realistic. If you mean the previous commenter... Well, moreso.

[@methodtomyradness2939]

@@BunniRabbi glib and realism arent exactly antonyms. the use of the words "seems to be", and than saying it was something it wasnt, is indeed projecting. note the use of the term "YOU". its specific and the fact they put it in quotation marks comes across like making it about themselves, and their own experience. projecting.

[@BunniRabbi]

@@methodtomyradness2939 As you describe it, it seems less likely. Could you describe how those premises lead to that conclusion?

[@BradsGonnaPlay]

@@methodtomyradness2939 god damn you’re a massive loser. That’s not subtext, that is literally what the books are telling kids

[@HyenaBlank]

As a hyena connoisseur, that second book is also based on horribly outdated tropes about how hyenas as nothing but lowly scavengers when the ironic fact, is the lion, the rival predator they love to compare themselves to, actually scavenge even more or about the same amount. Also the fact that hyena's are greatly successful hunters on their own with a very strong and complex social network and hierarchy.

[@bionicleapple1254]

hyenas also have exo-vaginas. just saying. that is the only interesting thing i know about hyenas.

[@nobody4248]

Most predators are also scavengers. It's basicly free food, especially if you are bigger then everybody else who wants to eat it.

[@ineedzemedic5810]

Conservatives when they see an animal work together and share (They are communists)

[@crzychill7623]

Hyenas will chase lions off for food. Nobody f###s with a hyena bro.

[@thebruceleefan]

Factually wrong hyenas scavenge way more than lions, lions actually poach kills from other carnivores

[@crewmatewillthrowthesehand7600]

for a good chunk of my childhood I grew up in a dicator run country. One of the stories taught in school language class was of a crow who wanted to be a peacock. so it collected fallen feathers of peacocks and stuck it on itself. The peacocks brutally mauled the crow for trying to be like them. When it returned to the crows, it got pecked to death by the crows for 'betraying' them. The entire story was just an Aesop's fable turned into engineered propaganda. Be exactly what we expect you to be or you will be persecuted from all sides. And as an adult, i feel chills when i recall this story and how its still being taught in schools there today. As expected, that country is still a hellhole, rife with civil war and military coups.

[@wolfetteplays8894]

At least your country is actually sovereign instead of being overrun with weak assholes

[@1gbtrights]

which country is this if you don't mind me asking ?

[@christianmolina2442]

That book is just calling it like it is. As sad as it is anyone who refuses to pick a side will be persecuted by both sides due to differences in their ideologies. Thus is the problem with a dichotomy

[@claudiabcarvalho]

​@@1gbtrights probably Myanmar?

[@claudiabcarvalho]

​@@christianmolina2442 do you understand that the point of the story isn't to criticize dichotomy, but to reinforce it? It's saying there's only 2 groups, nothing beyond that, and crows have to stay and fit in their original group no matter what, or else it'll be the end of their lives. And the thing is that peacocks are portrayed as superiors, because they don't want to be crows, crows would want to be them. There is a hierarchy in play, and the story just says "shut up and serve".

[@wieldylattice3015]

14:13 I’d like to also point out that both: 1: a grim heavy handed kids book can absolutely work, just take a look at the Lorax. It’s an extremely depressing and foreboding tale. The Lorax seemingly floats off to heaven and dies, leaving a stone with the word “unless” engraved in it as it seems the word around him has died. The hope is vague and unhelpful for the most part. It shows that not every story can have a happy ending, and not every story should, after all, if the Lorax did have a happy ending, it would undermine the point of the story 2: another thing the Lorax shows us is that children’s books can have bad guys that are more than 1 or 2 dimensional, bad guys that may not even try to actively be bad. The Onceler was an entrepreneur that wanted to do something with the resources around him that would put food on the table, so he cut down the truffula trees to use them to make clothes to sell. The Lorax acts as a foil to the Onceler as he is consumed by greed and slowly destroys the environment around him. When the last truffula tree is cut down, his business dies out and he’s left in poverty as a strange sort of karma. Despite arguably being the bad guy of the Lorax, the Onceler ends the book by giving a boy the last truffula tree seed, representing hope for the future and an attempt at reconciliation not just with the world, but with his own conscious The Lorax is what these books wish they could be, but can’t, as they try to cover up serious issues with bright colors and black and white morality, something that the Lorax deliberately avoids

[@TheAmyrlinSeat]

The lorax has got to be one of the best children's books I've ever read.

[@Aaa-vp6ug]

The funny part is, EVEN THE MOVIE is better at that than those three shits that are better as reverse toilet paper than literature. You know, the one that basically exists to act as corporate propaganda?

[@witherschat]

The movie adaptation continues after the Onceler gives the seed to the kid, who causes a revolution in the comically-artificial town and gets everyone to work together to grow the forest back. The after-credits scene shows the Lorax coming back down from the sky. Both versions of the story have their charm, and both have a powerful message.

[@kevinalmgren8332]

The most grim Dr Seuss book is definitely the butter battle book, which talks about how we live under the constant threat of total obliteration at all times for very little reason.

[@BunniRabbi]

Like Seuss, I'm a Unitarian, and we often use The Lorax to teach lessons as part of our religious exploration programs for kids. It helps to introduce our 7th Principle, which is an environmental ethic.

[@Nikkidafox]

What is so ironic is that if you remove the ""subtle"" analogies like "SPOT LIVES MATTER", the first book could be interpreted as having the COMPLETE OPPOSITE moral, and a good one at that. The spotted cheetahs spend so much time trying to bring down the striped cheetahs that they end up failing themselves. The lesson could easily be "if you spend all of your time trying to bring down others because of what your elders tell you, you can end up just bringing yourself down." But no, it's just... "racism doesn't exist lol"

[@CrypticCobra]

doesn't change the fact that the lesson you like, is indeed something many people could learn from. MANY people are professional victims and cry racism when factually it simply is not there. Yes, racism exists. But that doesn't mean every time a white person interactions with a black person, it's racist.

[@ladylover1134]

@@CrypticCobra your last sentence is so far fetched i'm baffled that anyone could seriously come to that conclusion. of course nobody is going to call you racist for your interactions with a black person - well, at least, assuming you aren't going "hey, n word". and "cry racism when factually it simply is not there" they literally show a banana peel on the track at the final race. of course there are people who make false accusations, but in this case, as you ALSO ACKNOWLEDGED, racism exists. people tend to think so black and white that they say "well, we dont have black people in chains anymore, so that means racism is over!"

[@CrypticCobra]

@@ladylover1134 I whole heartedly agree most people think in black and white. THATS THE PROBLEM! Racism is a thing ya, but people are notorious for assuming racist intent with literally no evidence of intent. Everything that ends poorly for a black person just gets the blanket assumption of racism.

[@makenna264]

@Adude601 that's what I was thinking too especially after they accidentally acknowledged at the end that racism exists

[@sgregory0753]

The message of “improve yourself instead of blaming others” is good, but I agree that the execution of the message with an racial analogy clearly has an intent of twisting it into “improve yourself instead of blaming others, you black(or any minority color) people”.

[@mikeymacaque]

I love how in most kids’ books, “bullying is bad” seems universal, but in conservative books the takeaway is “maybe the assholes are onto something.”

[@nenmaster5218]

Even IF Matt-Walsh wasnt nicely-roasted in it, i would still recommend the Third GOP-Video of "Some More News". After the first 2 dealt with Roe v Wade and Gay-Rights, this time Child-Endangerment and Kid-Problems are discussd.

[@BunniRabbi]

I work in a middle school, and reliably, when I have to reprimand a kid for bullying, it's the more conservative kids who try to argue the victim had it coming.

[@annakevlin8634]

@@BunniRabbi Yes, you are right about conservative kids saying that a victim deserves what they got. However, when teachers and other staff members sit on their hands and do nothing while they can. The future of anyone that interacts with them as an adult will be worse for the teachers and other staff members doing nothing. I am not blaming you, or saying you don't act. Nor am I trying to say that it is only up to teachers, and other staff members. However, this is a serious problem that effects everyone. It is a lot easier to teach a child empathy than an adult. Conservative parents won't or can't do that for their child so it is up to the rest of us unfortunately in all the little ways we can. By existing in the most visible way we can.

[@BunniRabbi]

@@annakevlin8634 I've actually found myself having to sit down with the kids for several variations of 'retaliation is not a justification' talks. And I've had parents chew me out for it. Revenge is really seen as a virtue by some people, even when they can make a distinction between revenge and justice.

[@annakevlin8634]

@@BunniRabbi that is concerning. Especially when so many people think that it is okay to just ignore bullies. Which is no more an answer than retaliation. Bullies need to learn empathy and compassion. Not just ignored. Unfortunately, so many bullies became parents before they have learned these important lessons and can't teach their kids something they don't know.

[@paulboone9132]

the funniest part is how they casually insert the word "supremacy" in the first book assuming its target demographic knows that 3 syllable words even exist

[@ChRW123]

Good point but it's actually 4 syllables.

[@juiceoverflow]

The funniest part of this comment is how pretentious it is despite saying "supremacy" is a three syllable word

[@blidea9191]

@@juiceoverflow they didn't though?

[@commandercorl1544]

Guys, I honestly interpreted this as being that 4 syllable words are way too high above their level, let alone 3 syllable words. Maybe OP just didn't think before they typed though, who knows.

[@Somebodyelse141]

Probably because they assume parents help their kids read

[@RedAngelPonderings]

There's humor to the fact that library vendors don't have most these books in stock because the publishers refuse to partner with them. I can't imagine why.

[@Ronnie.Raymond]

“because woke libtard agenda 😡”

[@Hexie094]

free market bby! the invisable hand of the market wants none of it!

[@DerMeisterEdits]

They have childrens' books teaching kids how to give blowjobs. "I wonder why." Good luck wondering, cause wondering is about the only thing you can do. It unironically is a wonder.

[@BunniRabbi]

What leads you to think venders don't have them?

[@RedAngelPonderings]

Depending on what vendors the libraries use (I know my system doesn't use all of them) unless the demand for a book is enough , especially if it's self-published they usually won't stock it. They don't want to waste money they might not have. @@BunniRabbi

[@VoyivodaFTW1]

Right wing throwing “banana peels” that could potentially trip up their own kind as long as it trips up the other team is a completely valid analogy to how they work. Look at all the laws they get passed that negatively affect others on their team, but not in their socioeconomic class

[@K-newborn]

me a minority who left the varrio.....explain

[@vincent67239]

Also equating lynching to fucking banana peels… Fuck these people.

[@PhosphorAlchemist]

Exactly. "This might (will) hurt you, but wait till you see how much it hurts the other guy!" is the PR arm of right wing policy guidance.

[@RedSunUnderParadise]

@@PhosphorAlchemist The right is a lot like an unhinged Guardsman calling for an exterminatus.

[@TubbyWonka]

Probably the biggest banana is their overt racism. A common anti-immigration argument includes that immigrants often come from nations with reactionary cultures, therefore, those people have reactionary thinking. Why would leftists want reactionary people ruining their vote? Now this is true to an extent, a great deal of mexican immigrants aren't super open to trans people or gay people. However, these people are pushed harder into progressivism because they cant vote republican, because republicans are explicitly racist. So, democrat it is.

[@SomasAcademy]

"More than spots and stripes" is hilarious to me because hearing a scenario where a group set aside from others by nothing more than an adjective are declared to be secretly cheating in sports, leading to them being protested by those who think their participation is unfair... the first analogy that came to my mind wasn't race.

[@raxusveritas]

Drugs?

[@heyoitsollie]

Yeah me too…I thought it was going to go in that direction. Like “even if you tell everyone you have spots we all know you have still stripes!!!!! That’s just bIoLoGy!! ” Or some bullshit like that.

[@Sadakorka]

@@raxusveritas transphobia

[@lunarlynx5972]

Exactly, it sounds almost exactly like transphobia lmao

[@Bored_Overthinker]

When they were going on about cheating and sports, my mind actually went to transphobia, because one of the big conservative talking points is trans people in sports.

[@LaCafedora]

One of the many wonderful things about well-made SciFi like Star Trek is that they frequently avoid metaphors entirely. Instead they will create the exact same situation, but in space, in the future, with aliens -- and they may change the pieces around. Case in point, Star Trek: The Next Generation season 5 episode 17 "The Outcast" is definitely 100% about homosexual and/or transgender people, laws, and conversion therapy. Except in that episode, the alien species has NO SEX OR GENDER. Instead, they are all the same sex and there is only one gender. The titular outcast is an outcast because she prefers to be female and desires males, making her effectively heterosexual, except that in her society that makes her the abberation. The episode is a bit clutsy at times and could be improved, but the basic premise and design are genius.

[@RattlesnakeJakey]

I feel like that's generally the case with Star Trek, it starts with a really exciting and clever premise that challenges traditional values and then trips a little over its writers' inherent biases along the way. I've always thought of Star Trek as your well-meaning friend who was raised hyper conservative and is trying to unlearn all that crap but doesn't fully get it as much as they know what they were taught was wrong

[@marieugorek5917]

um... creating the scenario in space with aliens IS a metaphor.

[@thor30013]

See also TOS's "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield." It was about as unsubtle as physically possible - the two aliens are literally the same species, but one is white on the left side and black on the right, while the other is the opposite. When one of them points to this as how the difference is "clear as day," you can almost *feel* Kirk's barely-restrained, "but that's stupid."

[@LaCafedora]

@@marieugorek5917 No, it's a fiction. The literal circumstances are unreal because it is a play, but the situation is a direct corollary to how society treats homosexual or transgender people (in 1991). It is actually about sex, gender, behavior, law, societal values, and the violation of law and consequences. It's fiction because none of the charactes are real characters, none of the places are real places. By contrast, a metaphor is to use a different situation, then reason by analogy. If A implies B, then P implies Q. If cheetahs cheat to win the race, then black people cry racism to get preferred treatment. Black people are NOT cheetahs, racism is NOT a running race, and winning isn't the same as getting preferred treatment. Zoe literally outlined how the argument is flawed in her long and carefully-composed video and I feel like I'm unnecessarily restating what she said with insufficient words. I refer to the video, chapter Book 1 runs from 6:39 to 10:11.

[@starmaker75]

Reminds a book I used to read in sci-fi English. The book was called the “forever war” in which after shenanigans of space time relavity, the main character is in a world of where non-binary people are the normal with basically clothing birth. So him being a male that wants a family with a woman that old fashion way is seen as weird and unheard. While the forever war is not amazing, it is a interesting flip viewpoints on things

[@expresslysoy8573]

When my dad was a kid, his father would say, 'The blue jays went home with the blue jays, the crows went home with the crows, and the doves went home with the doves.' It was a way to imply that interracial or gay couples were not natural. However, as my dad grew older, he came to understand the distinction between birds and people, realizing that humans possess the capacity to love. Thank you for this video.

[@SunlessSage]

It's also a bad analogy. Arguing a dove and a crow can be together as a couple would be the same as arguing a human and a gorilla can be together as a couple. Interracial and gay couples are still humans being in a relationship with humans. Pretty natural if you ask me, especially considering gay couples are a thing in nature too.

[@expresslysoy8573]

@@SunlessSage yes

[@SunlessSage]

​@@chris135xWell, what would an alternative meaning be? One option would be "always go home with your parents", but there's far more effective ways to teach kids that.

[@drywall1873]

​@@chris135xwhat would the alternative analogy be

[@drywall1873]

@@chris135x where does it mention mating in the analogy?

[@skepticdank1121]

I love how the zookeeper was clearly depicted as Matt Walsh.

[@Aeivious]

Matt loves shoving his face into children as much as possible. Evidence: Matt Walsh in a diaper for kids' (totally not pedaling some fetish)

[@princessaur]

I love how god awful the art is. Did he illustrate it himself or something? Telling me multi-millionaire Matt walsh was too cheap to hire an actual artist?

[@bibianaguadalupeislasherre9880]

​@@princessaur Matt Walsh (not to be confused with the comedian of the same name) probably thinks that artists shouldn't be payed at all or they should work in a real "Job".

[@jessicahill6207]

A better metaphor for transness represented as animals is literally "the Ugly Duckling". All the other ducklings make fun of him because he acts different than them, looks different than them- but they still call him a duck. But the reality is, he's a swan, and always has been a swan. It feels awful to be like "trans kids are just ugly ducklings", but in the context of the story, it's not wrong.

[@HitTheFloor16]

Okay but the swan is *actually* a swan it's not a duck *wanting to be* a swan

[@jessicahill6207]

@@HitTheFloor16 exactly- it's the perfect metaphor. Because a trans man is a man, and a trans woman is a woman.

[@HitTheFloor16]

@@jessicahill6207 That is completely untrue and idiotic

[@jessicahill6207]

@@HitTheFloor16 and you're a bigot

[@marisbury]

@@HitTheFloor16Yeah it's insane, just like everything leftist ever did in human society. Since "left" is just cancer of human culture. It erodes the civilization like Musk said. It can't win, since it can't live, it can only destroy what was before.

[@zackv4850]

Something I find funny about “paws of my cannon” is that it’s not even talking about the gun problem. If you were to accurately portray the gun problem it wouldn’t be hyenas attacking a village they don’t live in, because that’s a invading force, but it would be closer to a friend of the main character being very badly trained on his cannon and hurting people, or using it to get his way. And the answer being either training him to use it better or take it away because he can’t use his “cannon” responsibly. Though I suppose that’s a little too anti gun for them, you know, suggesting you should know how to use a gun if you own one.

[@nenmaster5218]

The Alt-Right is Intense, i hope were all updated on that, using available Info-Sources to their fullest? Info-Sources like videos like 'Marjorie Taylor Greene Has DEEPLY Disturbing Views' by Telltale Fireside?

[@Chill-mm4pn]

💯Gun safety is the most important part of being a gun owner. If he cannot be responsible then he will lose rights to own a firearm (as he should!) while doing time for reckless handling of said firearm and felony charges. It's not anti-gun it's just the law really and being irresponsible is not welcome in the 2A community. I am disturbed by the fact that right wing extremists are trying to condition children to not think for themselves and be critical thinkers. It's like forcing a kid to be Christian and to not acknowledge the contradictions in the Bible.

[@jacobp.2024]

That's reductionist. This is a problem regarding the Constitution, and what we value more: personal safety and responsibility, or safety and responsibility entrusted to the state? No guns means it's up to law enforcement and our military to deploy them when needed, but we lose that ability to defend ourselves and take that responsibility for our life. Yes guns means we leave the responsibility of personal protection to us, and that we trust the same people who can vote to also use a gun. That doesn't even touch on every issue regarding gun ownership and regulation. We haven't even opened the can of worms that is the ATF. They use an unconstitutional precedent from an old case involving Chevron that allows them to, in practice, be a judiciary and executive power at a federal level, without oversight from elected officials. I also haven't touched on other reasons you may want to own a firearm that don't involve personal safety, because there's so much to talk about. So, truthfully, if you wanted to accurately represent this problem, you wouldn't make a children's book trying to. Congress doesn't exchange children's books to argue their points, and the president doesn't address the nation with "Paws off my Cannon." These books do little more than coach kids on concepts they can't really understand, which is toxic on EVERY end of the political spectrum, but present nonetheless. Here's an idea for every prospective parent: help your children come to their OWN conclusions, and stop forcing your biases on them! And don't try to foster your own echo chamber at home by 'educating' your kids on things you know they could only understand at a surface level at their age.

[@zackv4850]

@@jacobp.2024 yep. i personally advocate for a militia. your guns are registered, you need to do a monthly training to show you know what your doing, and you have a license. still in the hands of the people but regulated like the constitution says.

[@garethbaus5471]

@michał mizera Where I live you can buy a firearm if you haven't been involuntarily committed to a mental hospital you probably pass the mental health portion(an extremely low bar that doesn't exclude a lot of people with fairly severe mental health issues), and there are no licensing requirements so you don't have to prove that you know how to safety use a firearm to own, open carry, or concealed carry a firearm. The federal regulations in the US are too lax, and the state regulations are practically non-existent in many states.

[@Hahahahaaahaahaa]

The company is ACTUALLY called 'brave books.' Like, that's how insecure all of their customers are and they know it.

[@thebruceleefan]

So you don’t actually have useful content to add

[@BunniRabbi]

@@thebruceleefan You don't actually need to post to talk to yourself you know.

[@BunniRabbi]

It's kind of like all those groups and bills they give patriotic names to when they are advocating or instantiating something horrible.

[@Geojp849era-my4ti]

It must be sad to have nothing better to do with your life than say nuh-uh or dumb one-liners disagreeing with everyone here. @@thebruceleefan

[@thebruceleefan]

@@Geojp849era-my4ti says the idiot also not addressing anything valid

[@Orion-fj2kr]

So Matt Walsh saw Tusk and thought to himself "ah, this story is about transition, ill write a kids book about this"

[@RichConnerGMN]

nice pfp

[@airplanes_aren.t_real]

@@RichConnerGMN same

[@skylarsaysstuff]

Thought it was just me lol

[@aliengeo]

I feel like a key detail was missed with the elephant book. Birds and elephants aren't random as gender metaphors: one is small, delicate, and colorful (as well as slang for a woman), while the other is strong, large, and plain. In the context of gender stereotypes, birds clearly represent an ideal of femininity to the elephants' masculinity. This is relevant because a lot of transphobes have a fixation with scrutinizing trans women's appearances for signs of "masculinity" and weaponizing said appearances in an attempt to shame both them and other trans women. A trans woman, in the mind of a transphobe, is not just faking being a woman but must be *literally visibly bad at it* and therefore worthy of ridicule. It's not just "thinking you're a different gender is as ridiculous as thinking you're a different species," there's a specific transmisogynist undercurrent involved in his inability to "pass" as a bird.

[@Re-writer233]

And notice how the villain bird is a vulture, a big, ugly, and almost all black bird, the opposite of the other “birds”

[@benhuang2773]

Also, you know, Elephant = Republican

[@CTHD13]

Good point, and it also emphasizes their fixation on trans women, since they seem to forget trans men exist. Plus, as the video points out, they often frame manhood as a punishment they’re enduring that no one should “escape”, and I find that interesting as well.

[@bauefrenchmen3126]

Dont forget they also want to make sure teens are denied gendercare so they can never pass like happened to alot of us they currently bully and therefore will always be able to know whos trans at a glance. While its thous of us that dont pass who receive the most discrimination its telling that its usually the women who pass and cant defend themselves from cis men then come out who tend to be the ones who get murdered but theyll claim their scared for their life and children then go and activly try to make sure trans kids get discriminated against and hurt as teens/adults.

[@ragingumbreon2003]

@@CTHD13 they only "forget" trans men exist because they more than likely, as they do with lesbian people, sexualize them and see them as nothing more than their bodies. for them a trans man is just a "rebellious woman."

[@TheHuskyK9]

9:25 The fact that the banana-throwing from the striped cheetahs could potentially affect the other striped cheetahs in the race, despite that it being intended for the spotted cheetah, in the first book is a prime example of them trying to prove their point but instead it proved the opposition's point further. It's like an ironic self-own

[@Lyladagger02]

Right? If they wanna do this analogy, say the stripped ones were tripping the spotted ones. That's better than "Whoops. That peel was meant for Ted not Bob."

[@susanhillwig5784]

@@Lyladagger02 - Another way to enforce the analogy would be to show that very few spotted cheetahs race these days because so many striped cheetahs tripped others way back when, to the point where folks now say that spotted cheetahs aren't good at racing and point at how few do it as "proof". Rebel is literally that: rebelling against the idea that spotted cheetahs aren't good racers.

[@Nerdsammich]

I mean, it's exactly like rednecks voting against measures that would help them just because it would also help "urban libs", so really it just accidentally makes the analogy better.

[@commandercorl1544]

"A woman is a female who can give birth with XX chromosomes!" Yup, basically what this is. They end up hurting their own in their blind rage.

[@raelogan]

The whole "You're not a bird because birds have wings" metaphor really falls flat when you also account for insects. And also bats, who are most certainly not birds.

[@Echoday2day]

Homologous and Analogous Traits are the terms used for evolved traits e.g for flight. (if you were curious and wanted to read up more about it)

[@mysticdragoon5789]

BEHOLD A MAN *shows up holding up a plucked chicken*

[@sciencewithfun2052]

​@@mysticdragoon5789I mean both have two feet

[@ExtremeWreck]

Shoutout to the classic 90s cartoon, Dragon Flyz!

[@itaiko5498]

Bats definitely need more love

[@danielzak4405]

The fact that someone actually wrote "Paws off my Cannons," basically telling kids straight up that violence IS the solution, and thought "Yeah, this is something non-evil people write for kids."

[@bingobunny7862]

Don’t worry, they only scared them off. Because cannons never kill, right? Smh these books.

[@TheFakeJake_UwU]

I mean, it is sometimes Oppressed people have to fight for their rights, often using physical force Teaching kids to be compliant is unproductive

[@SharienGaming]

@@TheFakeJake_UwU there is a stark difference between a possible solution... and THE solution... as in the only or best solution... violence is a last resort, when nothing else works, not the go-to approach for a problem also i believe you meant "complacent" not "complaint" ... though it is possible that predictive text or auto-correct got in your way there

[@manictiger]

@@SharienGaming To be fair, if someone is trying to take away rights wholesale, then civility has failed and it only leaves one last option, the bloody one. I can't really tell where that line is, but when it happens, I have a strong feeling we'll all know it. This country is being sabotaged because it is the only one that can fight back against a global dictatorship.

[@ripleydarby7006]

a lot of the time violence is the solution, trans kids are being kidnapped and people are acting like voting is the solution

[@dud3655]

So, basically, they were trying to say that: 1)Gun good, give everybody gun 2)All criminal bad 3)Trans people bad 4)All internet bad I smell some hypocrisy here

[@SolarFlareAmerica]

except for leftist, no gun for them >:(

[@ryv1n1312]

​@@imnugget8085 does this really happen? What are your sources?

[@imnugget8085]

@Ryv1n yes you could just Google it same goes with about 30% of Trans actually regrets being Trans but most stay Trans cause there so deep into lgbt if they were to change back they know they be block from there friend group and the whole organization just like again catholic did with gays t

[@ryv1n1312]

@@imnugget8085 again, sources? You can't make claims and then not give any proof

[@ryv1n1312]

@@imnugget8085 also, if 30% regretted it, that'd still mean the majority didn't

[@thoughtfuldevil6069]

"Culture the Vulture" is the single most blatantly moronic 'metaphor' I have ever heard. It's as subtle as an axe murder.

[@Deadflower019]

That's an insult to how subtle you can be when it comes to killing someone with an axe. Try it, you can get real precise.

[@joshuahilliker2364]

There were nuclear bombs that went off with more subtlety than these books.

[@doubleoof7907]

I'm using that as a band name

[@evanbarth7173]

An axe murderer named Axel lol

[@nenmaster5218]

@@Deadflower019 ...Even IF Matt-Walsh wasnt nicely-roasted in it, i would still recommend the Third GOP-Video of "Some More News". After the first 2 dealt with Roe v Wade and Gay-Rights, this time Child-Endangerment and Kid-Problems are discussd. Trying to spread Awareness, i will; for better Visibility; say this Recommendation here multiple times.

[@yuishishido8780]

The elephant and bird one actually could’ve worked. That is, if you had all the other elephants constantly telling him “Singing is for birds, you can’t sing.” And “elephants need to act like this.”, have him face constant ridicule and bullying because he didn’t “act like an elephant” Until eventually he starts feeling like there is something wrong with him and decides being a bird is the only way he can feel comfortable as himself. Oh, but they can’t portray the enforcement of gender norms as harmful can they?

[@pennysanchez7656]

Or you can just watch Dumbo.

[@eldritchcupcakes3195]

That kind of acts like transness is a choice made because of insecurity or the propaganda they spread claiming leftists think kids are trans because they like sports as a girl or dolls as a boy. You might not have intended that but it does kind of reflect that unfortunately

[@cameronsitton501]

"Brave Books" is a weird name when they aren't saying anything "brave". Unless you define brave as "something that people disagree with", in which case they should agree that trans people are the bravest people ever. Edit: Although it does reveal that conservatives have to convince themselves that what they're doing is "brave", because even they know that their bigotry is cruel and unusual. If you're going to commit war crimes, you either have to convince yourself that you're a brave knight or admit that you're a terrible person.

[@realhumanbean7915]

“Brave books” *proceeds to uphold status quo*

[@cameronsitton501]

@@realhumanbean7915 "So brave!" - someone who thinks that wearing a mask is for "sheep"

[@robproductions2599]

40 to 50% suicide rate is not brave

[@dozyproductionss]

What is conservative bigotry that makes someone terrible and how can you differentiate it from bigotry from the left? Are you going to use extreme examples, hyperbole or strawmans to explain it? In today's world, being gay or trans will not get you fired nor get much condemnation in the West. You'll be told how brave you are. Saying that there are two genders will. Sharing that kind of opinion ,which half the people think is normal, can cost you your livelihood.

[@cameronsitton501]

@@dozyproductionss You're equating being trans with being transphobic, as if they are both equal in all ways except that the latter is persecuted harder. And I'm just gonna point out for the SAKE of argument that obviously that is not the case, as demonstrated by the zero examples you provided of someone being fired for saying "there are two genders" when I can provide you literally dozens of conservative pundits and such off the top of my head who explicitly say that regularly and are not losing any money or audience members over it.

[@purplesoda793]

Something kinda funny is that the “elephants are not birds” could be stretched to be a pro trans story. If you think of the character as a trans person being their true gender, but because “culture” saw they had this one trait ( in the book singing, in real life chromosomes) they are told that they are not who they are. They try to be what culture told them to be but it doesn’t fit, so they have to go against what culture told them and be who they’ve always been, their true self. (An elephant, their gender) I guess this could show another way that their metaphors are not good for showing their point.

[@krunkjunk]

Also has the added benefit of pissing off the intended audience.

[@thiscontent9621]

You are describing the plot of Hamilton Mattress

[@1049662]

I love this reading! :D

[@12DAMDO]

i don't do reddit, but this is an r/accidentalally moment

[@nunyabisnass1141]

If you redifine one term to mean another then yes, and your interpretation isnt wrong based in the context of your interpretation. But metaphors are limited to the scope of the similarities of the comparison and should not be expected to be strawmanned as a stated fact to work equally in all applications. Im not saying you did that, but in arguments ppl often do this and the only thing they acheive is losing sight of the argument.

[@HellbillyWizard]

For some reason, the part that most confuses me about Matt Walsh's disturbing Tusk-fanfic is the insistance that Johnny needs to eat worms. Why worms? I know that walruses sometimes eat worms, but that's not their main food source. They mostly eat clams and other shellfish, which are also eaten by humans. They also eat fish, which again is also eaten by humans. This is even more ironic because Johnny is taken to the zoo to live with other walruses, and captive walruses in zoos are fed fish and clams, not worms. Johnny could have adopted a pescatarian diet to live as a walrus. Why is Matt so insistent that Johnny would have needed to eat worms? My only guesses are that either Matt Walsh is an idiot who doesn't actually know anything about walrus diet and just pulled the worm thing out of his ass, or he intentionally cherrypicked it because it's the most disgusting thing to humans that walruses are known to eat simply to gross out his audience.

[@MrPiccoloku]

Also humans eat worms sometimes too

[@commandercorl1544]

bold of you to assume Wett Mulch knows anything about any subject

[@TrainsTer-91]

It's also very xenophobic, there are some culture where bugs, and also, worms, are eaten regulary Mostly cooked though. But still, if he wanted to "gross out" their audience, then it also shows how little he knows about other culture.

[@loserlemby7273]

No he just wrote a rhyme in a really good kids book.

[@loserlemby7273]

@Retlas 💺•95 Years ago Then dont ignore the message

[@gretazimmerman8299]

I've heard about this book called "Mommy, Why Don't We Celebrate Halloween?" It's exactly as the title suggests. Two siblings named Jerry and Sarah ask their parents why they can't go trick-or-treating like all the other kids, and their parents say that Halloween is devil worship. I just thought that this book deserved to be mentioned on a list like this.

[@daforkgaming3320]

I’m pretty sure it does stem from things related to the devil, however asking your neighbours for candy isn’t devil worship, so it really isn’t something that should be enforced on the minds of children

[@kirbykinnie3691]

​​@@daforkgaming3320lassic halloween celebrations and activities dont have anything to do with the devil at all, they're just not from christian backgrounds which is why christians dont like it. Most traditions came from pagan and celtic backgrounds and are actually meant to ward off evil spirits rather than invite them in (dressing up scary to blend in with spirits/scare them off, jack o lanterns were mwant to scare spirits away from houses, etc) because halloween, or originally All Hallows Eve or Samhain (pronounced sow-en) was the day that the veil between worlds was the thinnest and spirits would roam and cause trouble. As Christianity spread and tried to snuff out other religions and beliefs, they turned Halloween into something evil and continue to do so to this day to scare people into their beliefs. Funniest part is that christians willl constantly spread fear by saying things like this are the work of the devil when 1) many religions dont believe in a devil or satanic being like what is portrayed in the bible in the first place and 2) christians have appropriated and integrated other certain holidays and traditions into their own religion (easter & the spring equinox, christmas & the winter solstice) with no issues, its just other religions celebrating their holidays the way they choose that's the issue

[@The_Jerkinator]

@@daforkgaming3320nope It never stemmed from the devil in any way shape or form It mainly came from a pagan belief of actually celebrating passed on loved ones and warding off the evil spirits and what as a whole would be counted as "the devil" So it literally came from something entirely wholesome

[@daforkgaming3320]

@@The_Jerkinator I mean not all sources will agree on the same thing. Can be we know the absolute truth for things that happened so long ago in history?

[@feral_orc]

​​​@@daforkgaming3320yes because it can be traced back through historical records... It's literally the Celtic Samhain festival for the end of the harvest. The walls between our world and the spiritual are thin, so if you go outside you have to wear a mask to blend in with the ghosts and they'll ignore you. It has nothing to do with Christianity at all.

[@hopefulhyena3400]

Imagine writing a whole book about how women are a different species and expecting to be taken seriously.

[@AlexReynard]

Imagine writing a whole book about how the beliefs of an individual should matter more than objective evidence to society, and expecting to be taken seriously. Interesting how much trans overlaps with Christianity that way.

[@Oreo-gd2zq]

@@AlexReynard and how often do you require "objective evidence" before you're willing to label someone as a man or woman?

[@augustuslunasol10thapostle]

@@AlexReynard except we have proof trans existence with objective evidence you people are delusinal idiots

[@augustuslunasol10thapostle]

@@Oreo-gd2zq very little considering the objective evidence is fact

[@Oreo-gd2zq]

@@augustuslunasol10thapostle then what objective evidence do you need before deciding what you think a person's gender is?

[@TheAlmightyJello]

The cannons book is so disingenuous. By painting the threat as hyenas against the peaceful gorillas, it completely destroys the actual debate. We aren't worried about the hyenas. We're worried about the some gorillas that shouldn't be able to get cannons because they'll use them to harm those around them. The threat was always the other gorillas. It's not an us vs them good guys vs bad guys.

[@the_vanguard5314]

Indeed, the analogy fails completely. The hyenas are a foreign invasion force and it‘s the military’s job to take care of that situation. Conflating that with gun control laws is missing the point so much that I don‘t know if it is plain stupidity or malicious intent.

[@guaposneeze]

One thing to understand about Conservative thought and writing is that "people are different" is absolutely core to the whole system of thought. Gorillas are different from Hyenas. Hyenas are inherently bad and Gorillas are inherently good. It's the same line of thought that leads to why they care so much about trans folks. Men are different from Women, and that difference is important! Black and white. Good and bad. Men and women. Christians and heathens. Dividing up the world into neat tidy categories is the only really consistent through-line of what conservatives want to conserve over the last ~300 years. It goes all the way back to the thinking that Aristocracy and Peasantry are as different as the Gorillas and Hyenas in that kids book. Somebody always has to be the nice gentle aristocrats. And somebody always has to be the rough lazy evil peasants.

[@LauraGrrrr5370]

They also leave out the bit where the gorillas have their own police force who constantly coconut any gorilla who reaches behind themselves to scratch their ass.

[@connorellis4402]

@@LauraGrrrr5370 thank u! The real threat is the pigs with the coconut cannons! People loooove to say "why do people need AR-15s" or whatev. And my only answer is: cops have em, soldiers have em. As long as police have these weapons, people need em to protect themselves from the porcine menace. Cops kill more people every year than all our school shootings ever combined!

[@nenmaster5218]

@@LauraGrrrr5370 The Alt-Right is Intense, i hope were all updated on that, using available Info-Sources to their fullest? Info-Sources like videos like 'Marjorie Taylor Greene Has DEEPLY Disturbing Views' by Telltale Fireside?

[@metagreen1931]

Something I noticed about book 2 was that the hyenas aren't depicted as living in the village, but coming to the village, envisioning crime as this outside force due to a set of others, rather than something from someone in the community. Directly I think it is trying to say that only immigrants are criminals, and, from simplification due to it being a children's book, all immigrants are criminals

[@matthewwhite343]

The book would have better represented if it wasn’t just the hyenas who were the ones they fought against. Rather than just Hyenas it should have had multiple different animals along with the hyenas who are lazy and result to stealing from others. There should have also been good hyenas who understand hard work and fight along with the other animals to protect their cupcakes.

[@Haqpyfeet]

Have you not seen the statistics of demographics shifting in America from being mostly white to Joe Biden saying; "Folks like me who are Caucasian, of European descent, for the first time in 2017 will be an absolute minority in the USA. Absolute minority. Fewer than 50 percent of the people in America from then and on will be white European stock. " -Biden, Feb. 17, 2015

[@katieorsomething115]

for the cannon book, it also says that an outside group is shooting people with cannons, instead of someone from the village that got their cannon from the easy cannon access

[@dagoth-ursbeekeeper9119]

Or someone's cub used their parent's cannon on an authority figure they don't like

[@Trailmixxed]

Mass gun violence wouldn’t be an issue if the perpetrator 1) had fears that their target may also be armed and 2) was able to be taken down by someone that was armed while the police are standing outside refusing to go in…

[@IminyourwallsThonas]

​@@Trailmixxedyou had me at the first half not going to lie

[@noahlatzer9462]

@@TrailmixxedOr we just didn’t have guns, like almost every other highly developed nation. My wife is originally from Australia and they passed sweeping gun control reform after the Port Arthur Massacre in 1996. There have only been two mass shootings in Australia since then. Gun control works, obviously.

[@justinhall7214]

Trans person: I just feel like a woman. Matt Walsh: Look, obviously we all desperately wish we were women, but that's just not how this works.

[@Miss_Trillium]

You know, I've heard of a not-so-uncommon thing is that eggs will flirt with the authoritarian right before breaking out of their shell. It's something that has come up in conversation with my friends in private I assume the reason is that you can either double down on shutting yourself away from your feelings and the world, or you break free which is scary. Structure is something people who are scared tend to like That being said, I am NOT saying that this is inevitable, or even that there are trans women not out to themselves out on the right (although I wouldn't be surprised)

[@Exo594-b5v]

@@Miss_Trillium Hey yeah, I was starting to egg at the end of highschool and turned to e a r l y youtube cryptofash/"libertarian" channels. After a few years, got outta that and eventually accepted that I was trans.

[@Necrapocalypse]

@@Miss_Trillium I've definitely thought this, and hell I've experienced it. The thought that "I do not fit the standard idea of masculinity and do not want to" first led me to "media glorifies a certain kind of masculinity, and the impact that has on society makes life hard for men like me" with certain youtubers leading me down the right wing pipeline and only much later (years after being repulsed by a youtuber further along the pipeline) to "wait am I trans?" It's actually the best explanation for that meme of being a brony in 2012 leading down one of two paths: become trans, or become a white supremacist. It's not a guarantee, but there is definitely reason to believe some white supremacists just haven't realized they're trans.

[@allthenewsordeath5772]

@@Necrapocalypse Perhaps your understanding of what exactly a man is was just wrong, like we don’t all have to be Brad Pitt, being a man is far more about how one carries them selves end sees the world around them, then it is about how strong their jawline is. Like no one fits Squarely into the 100% masculine or 100% feminine boxes in terms of our qualities, they say gender is a spectrum these days but in my view it’s a spectrum with binaries on either end. I don’t want to discount the biological component to this either, because that’s incredibly stupid, the body and mind are very much interlinked, and regardless of one’s psychological state I don’t think sterilization physician assisted or otherwise is a healthy idea, but I digress. Sorry to ramble but saying that the psychological and biological components are completely irrelevant to each other and can be separated in a healthy manner seems just as reductionist to me and anti-holistic as suggesting that gender roles are purely a result of biology and not various economic and historical forces.

[@JaxdoesArt]

Hey Matt you wanna talk about it?

[@isaiahthomas6744]

One thing about these kids books is that it reveals how rudimentary conservatives thought process is on these topics.

[@Blancodraws]

Yeah, they don't even know what a pronoun is... Even if it's taught in school long ago

[@K-newborn]

@@Blancodraws what is a biological woman?

[@kenziemathews926]

@@K-newborn a meaningless term made up by conservatives who want to sound smart. It's meaningless, it doesn't have medical worth in medicine.

[@kenziemathews926]

@@K-newborn It's, "Sexed female", not "biological woman". And at that point you sound like a total freak.

[@K-newborn]

@@kenziemathews926 chromosomes and science over lunacy from whites

[@deltahalo241]

I couldn't help but laugh at the fact that the zoo keeper in Matt Walsh's book looks exactly like Matt Walsh, the fact that he had to create his own author self insert in order to 'win' his fictional argument in a kids book and still failed.

[@RiveroftheWither]

Really highlights his narcissism

[@jaycorbin5361]

@@RiveroftheWither Better than Dave Rubin who as a married gay man, has guests on his show that believe that his marriage should be invalid because it’s gay, and he agrees with them. I feel bad for his husband.

[@h0nk_821]

@@jaycorbin5361 wth

[@jaycorbin5361]

@@h0nk_821 Ask Dave Rubin that. Apparently he just really loves licking the boot that stomps his head into the ground.

[@julieporter7805]

Great a kids version of a Gary Stu terrific!🙄

[@CargodHera]

I have a sister who has been transgender their entire life. Bobbie's gender has always been male. We are both in our 50s and did not grow up with the internet "influencing" our ideas. What's more, we were home schooled and isolated and had no opportunity to have anything remotely like "outside influence." A person's gender identity is deeply, intrinsically part of who we are. It is not some idea that is put into our heads.

[@emmetharrigan5234]

Another very revealing aspect of the gender books is that the reason the characters "detransitioned" is because they weren't capable of doing the things that are /biologically/ defining of the species they want to become. They cannot fly, they do not have tusks. It makes the argument that gender is defined by a biological imperative and not a social one. The thing that defines you as a bird is your ability to fly (or, for a woman, to give birth), and doesn't offer any explanation for how birds that cannot fly are still considered birds. Because the author has such a restrictive biological view of gender, they end up excluding huge swaths of cisgender people as well. It reduces the concept of gender as a system of social expectation and benefit, to a system of social /utility/.

[@joe-q2n]

I assume the author doesn't know much about penguins, emus, and ostriches

[@emmetharrigan5234]

@@joe-q2n Even sticking with just one bird species it doesn't hold up. You're telling me a bird has never been in a bad accident and can't fly anymore? That a bird was born with wings too small to allow it to fly, or if it tries to fly it could be really dangerous? It's literally braindead ideology.

[@JuriAmari]

@@joe-q2n or seahorses!

[@airplanes_aren.t_real]

That's the main problem with quantifying womanhood or manhood, at some point you either exclude someone or bring In to many people, if you go by physical characteristics (chromosomes, estrogen, womb) you inevitably exclude someone that doesn't fit the criteria

[@mookinbabysealfurmittens]

@@airplanes_aren.t_real Maybe not make everything a "personal attack". How does some trans woman in Brazil affirming her gender _at all_ affect whether you or your sister are "true" women? I'm not trying to be argumentative; I'm really asking. Because I can't find any way that would, and I honestly can't keep a straight face with the "real woman" thing. Who cares? Why do people care so much? It's all on a foundation based upon lies, the "nuclear family" and the constantly changing ideas of "femininity",which is also somehow grabbed up by the "traditionalists" who act like history was something totally different. It's all lies, but I guess that's the thing about gaslighting and "starting em young"... You have to outright _lie_ and drill it into heads before they grow up, so that it's "just common sense". I don't know how this ragged house of cards stays up, honestly. I think some people just have a lot of anger and a need to follow orders.

[@kailin9257]

Conservatives be like "we don't want agendas and radical ideologies being pushed on our children" then turn around and do shit like this

[@ambmamb8370]

i mean yeah. thats not very radical. its just right of center

[@grinningtiki220]

The difference here is that these are not mandated reading all across the nation. They're freely available to be read by those who want to read it.

[@kailin9257]

@@grinningtiki220 homie, this is not the place. And I didn even reference or imply mandated reading

[@grinningtiki220]

@@kailin9257 then what place is it?

[@kailin9257]

@@grinningtiki220 a KZbin comment section, where it would be incredibly pathetic to start a back-and-forthing.

[@natsmith303]

I feel like the framing of all the other animals mocking that little elephant as "correct" highlights a lot of conservative thinking. In most other children's books, those characters would be shown up or just plain ignored by the protagonist, here they're the moral center.

[@sarafontanini7051]

a very "are we th baddies" moment

[@BunniRabbi]

My grandfather once told my son "A bird may love a fish, but where would they build a house?" and my son, 5, replied, "If you love each other, you make it work." When something matters to you, you may have to blaze a trail.

[@HitTheFloor16]

Your 5 year old son did not fucking say that 🤦‍♂️

[@cajunking5987]

This is why we don’t take children seriously lmao

[@BunniRabbi]

@@cajunking5987 I think it's a great response. There's plenty of times relationships are inconvenient, but if it matters enough to you, you find a way.

[@cajunking5987]

@@BunniRabbi we’re not talking inconvenient Hun lmao It’s impossible for a fish and bird to live with each other. “They can make it work” is pure delusion.

[@BunniRabbi]

@@cajunking5987 Quitter-talk. It's not as if there are no symbiotic relationships between birds and fish in nature, as if a thinking creature would be limited to what already exists. Hope you aren't so narrow-minded about your own goals in life.

[@sarahrichards1281]

As a trans woman myself, one of the most striking things implied by elephants are not birds and the walrus book is that actually transitioning feels wrong to the person. In both books the characters "Transitioning" become more and more disalusioned and unhappy as they move towards being a bird or a walrus. In reality, an overwhelming majority of trans people (myself included) feel a sense of euphoria and happiness as they start to transition and recieve gender affirming care. There seems to be a common idea that being trans means you are just a depressed suicidal mess, tricked by society into pretending to be something you are not But in reality the sadness and high rates of suicide associated from being trans comes from being denied access to gender affirming care and transphobia. Trans people do pretend to be something they are not, but that's before they come out. Once they move to align themselves outwardly with how they've always been, happiness, comfort and confidence skyrocket.

[@EKTE64]

Johny the walrus is just Matt Walsh saying "the woke left is going to transition all your little boys to girls". I don't have any statistics but I'm damn sure a parent seeing a child doing something not conforming to their biological gender aren't just going to transition their child

[@sarafontanini7051]

These types of peopel have no empathy. They cannot understand why we're unhappy with ourselves and so jump through hoops to try and come up with 'reasons', blidning themselves to the fact that they're ignoring our feelings because us being different from what they expect from us makes them uncomfortable, andd they can't handle that.

[@Samantha_yyz]

Yes all this!! It's not that being trans makes you depressed, it's how society treats you for being trans that can lead people to becoming depressed! Like seriously it's not even complicated, if ppl tell you, you don't exist, you are wrong, you don't know what you want, you are going to suffer

[@Radhaun]

@@Samantha_yyz like, literally the biggest factor on whether a trans youth attempts suicide is how accepting their family and peer (but mostly family) is of them. I definitely was on the dark road, but my parents were super supportive, even before any of us really had language for what I was experiencing.

[@Samantha_yyz]

@@Radhaun I'm glad to hear things went well with your family. I always try to remember how lucky I am my family and friends all accepted me when I came out. That acceptance is so important to being happy and comfortable being yourself

[@crystalcrusader711]

The fact that I thought that “not just spots and stripes” was LEFTIST propaganda at first should make it clear that it’s bad. I thought the lesson was that you shouldn’t judge a group by their past, as in political parties, not races. That what matters is their current actions. I’ve heard people tell me that the KKK were leftist as a criticism against them and my beliefs. Beautiful.

[@crystalcrusader711]

@Mary Beth I was never questioning wether or not it was. My point was that the propaganda was so bare bones and poorly constructed that I thought it was pro left.

[@crystalcrusader711]

@Mary Beth I just thought my stupidity was interesting I suppose. Adds to the message of the video. Ultimately it doesn’t matter at all though.

[@raymondammon1176]

The fact that not caring ab how someone looks is leftist now is so sad

[@AlexReynard]

"I thought the lesson was that you shouldn’t judge a group by their past" YES, THAT IS THE LESSON. Also that, people who WANT you to judge groups on their past are bad. Conservatives who do this are bad; liberals who do this are also bad. And while the KKK weren't "leftist", a hell of a lot of them were democrats. Like George Wallace, and Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton's mentor Robert Byrd. Joe was pretty pro-segregation for a good chunk of of his career.

[@Lanaestra]

From my perspective as a trans woman, the fascinating thing about the "Elephants are not Birds" one in particular is that it is accidentally extremely emotionally resonant in the exact opposite way the author clearly intended-- "listening to what culture told me to do," "not just being me," and all the bizarre and unnatural affectations all perfectly capture the whole vibe of the extended period of time _before_ I transitioned.

[@atanvardecunambiel8917]

There’s this character who was born with a penis, but since she had a twin brother and same-sex twins were thought to be a curse in her small village, she was raised as a girl. Said character lived as a boy for years to spite her upbringing, but this season of life, she realized that wasn’t who she was. This reminds me of her, in a way. TL;DR Dumbo if Dumbo was raised by birds and had a sick-ass yo-yo.

[@Emma_The_H0ppin_H00ligan]

@@atanvardecunambiel8917 bridget from guilty gear?

[@sheepcommander_]

AHHH

[@williamshane6113]

There's a word for what you are...a man...

[@rebrandedidiot]

Both of the "trans is bad" books did that. The first one was Culture telling elephant that he "must be a bird" because he likes singing. The second one was the "internet people" telling the boy's mother to force him into being a walrus. Either way, these characters *did not* believe they were truly the thing they were forced into. That's the "before" of the trans existence. The world just telling you how you're incorrect about what you are and forcing you into a specific box. Honestly pretty wack to see these books prove the exact opposite view lol

[@cathuff5802]

22:21- convincing children their own thoughts and feelings can not be trusted really hurts the child. That happened to me continously throughout my childhood and adolescence. To this day I find it difficult to trust my own feelings and that has gotten me in A LOT of unsafe situations because I'm easier to manipulate

[@user-mv5zt8qd9l]

The belief that one's mind is inherently unreliable and deceitful is one of the fundamental underpinnings of religious doctrine. It's amazing how cultish even mainstream religion becomes when you begin to pick apart its core teachings.

[@axonice]

*children*, those are *CHILDREN*. their brains literally aren't developed enough to be able to trust their own feelings. don't you know biology?

[@thatguy.9886]

@@user-mv5zt8qd9l It's well-documented that your brain _is_ unreliable, though.

[@BunniRabbi]

@@user-mv5zt8qd9l As a former professor of theology, I can say that not only is that vastly untrue (with a single categorical exception), the opposite problem is a typical criticism of religion.

[@theartistswings9810]

@@BunniRabbican i ask what that categorical exception is? I dont wanna make any assumptions but Im pretty sure I was raised in that categorical exception

[@phagtacular]

The part about teaching kids not to trust their feelings has a really dark aspect, when we talk about staying safe from predators and other situations, we say things like “if something feels wrong, run away and tell an adult,“ not “if you can prove with facts and logic that something is wrong, run away and tell a gun person to gun the bad person in the face with their gun.“ They’re basically teaching kids to be easier victims to bullies and predators.

[@michaeladams5318]

Given how Matt Walsh defended Josh Duggar, that tracks

[@nunyabisnass1141]

But what if they did actually lose their puppy and have candy in their windowless van? Wouldnt you feel like an idiot. Stranger danger is a real thing and a valuable lesson to teach to children to find a more competent adult to deal with the situation when they dont feel they have the capacity to judge the situation on their own. But that kind of story tends to stay with ppl so far into adulthood that they selectively choose which situations are worthy of objective criticism baded soley on the aesthetics of a situation, and not its merits.

[@maddieb.4282]

@@nunyabisnass1141 I’m seeing you all over this comments section and your opinions are a contradictory mess but this is really nonsensical…. What do you even mean by this?? Are you saying that… children should be more discerning about what situations they fear? That adults are still afraid of bad situations that look bad? What exactly is bad about judging a potentially dangerous situation visually and backing out? It sounds like you view that as problematic. And I’m also not sure whether you’re speaking literally or metaphorically

[@nunyabisnass1141]

@@maddieb.4282 well according to you im speaking contradictory. Im not contradicting myself in those other threads because mainly im responding to errors or flaws in the reasoning of others. Sometimes its playing devils advocate, other times its defending the use of language within its commonn usage. In the context of op here its more about how the objective reality of any given situation can be far different from our subjective perception of it and that its just as dangerous to hold to an absolute as it is to believe all things are relative, which ironically is also an absolute position. Many of the ppl in these comments have opinions i agree with, but the way they support them deacribes a lack of understanding for them or critical thought that will sugfests they themselves dont know why they think they way they do. Other ppl i do disagree with, jowever they have good insights and i want to use them to explore my own position. So yes i can see hkw thst can come off as contradictory or inconsistent, but that's only because i have a purpose in the challange that isnt necessarily ego driven...or maybe it is, i havent been convinced yet.

[@fennwenn3317]

As someone who was groomed, this tracks. One of the things that kept me in the terrible situation I was in as a teen was ignoring my gut feelings, because a) the men doing it were older than me and therefore had authority in my mind and b) because I was taught to ignore discomfort as a kid. Go to school sick so you don't miss a test. Stay in that uncomfortable pose staring at the sun so you don't ruin Mom's picture. Ignore how sleepy you are so you can keep studying. You're not *really* in pain, are you? Then keep going, let it happen. If they say this is fine, then it is, and you have to go along with it. So, yeah. This is not just a hypothetical. And honestly? I think that's part of the point of US conservative rhetoric. They want easy marks, though not always for grooming; they want kids who won't question their parents, wives who won't question their husbands, and a flock who won't question their religion. Because why earn respect as an authority when you believe that the way of the world is that you should inherently have it from the beginning?

[@JoseBird]

That render of the blue jay is just too cute for words.

[@troywalkertheprogressivean8433]

Even if you do say so yourself😜

[@leeshajoi]

The changing-species-as-a-metaphor-for-changing-gender thing reminds me of another, much more popular kid's book: _Stellaluna_ by Janell Canon. A lost baby fruit bat ends up in a bird's nest, and is expected to live like a bird: sleeping at night, eating bugs, and resting upright instead of upside-down. And while she *can* do all that, it's deeply uncomfortable for her and she never really fits in. Then the bat is found by a group of bats and suddenly the things about herself that her bird family found weird are the things that make her fit in. I'd say this is a much better metaphor for being trans, as well as the queer experience in general.

[@leeshajoi]

For the record, I'm not saying that species-as-gender is a valid metaphor. But *if* you're going to use it, Stellaluna makes a great counterexample.

[@NoMereMage]

I also related to Stellaluna a lot as an atheist who could never conform to christian beliefs or beliefs in any sort of mythology or faith in general. I would try so hard to convince myself, or take it in order to fit in and keep friends but I just couldn’t and felt uncomfortable living a lie. When I finally met others like me, I felt so at peace feeling this way.

[@ravenblackwing7888]

Ok no… No no no no no. I was gonna mention Stellaluna-but in the other way. That movie and book was so helpful for me with being myself and not trying to be anyone else-which was SUPER hard for me because i lacked confidence

[@ravenblackwing7888]

@@NoMereMage similar thing for me. I still believe in God, but i don’t agree with a lot of the things i was told as a kid

[@ravenblackwing7888]

@@guilhermehouck4872 exactly. God is love. Most Christians I’ve dealt with don’t follow that principle 🤣🤣🤣

[@johnathanmonsen6567]

Increasingly, the impression that I've gotten of the core of conservative ideology is the belief that it is morally wrong to care about people.

[@IkomaTanomori]

The banana peel that could trip up any cheetahs makes a great metaphor for systemic racism, by accident, since that kind of system hurts a lot of people who aren't the target created race demographic while hurting the target demographic worse and statistically more often.

[@kaiyotee2475]

Nice profile picture.

[@shanefoster2132]

Damn, I thought the same thing. What's funny too is that it's almost a class argument too. The runners (proletariat) who are doing all the work will experience the consequences of social divisions. The race could be better in every way should they unite to end the banana throwing and brutal race schedule demanded by fans and allowed by administrations.. Unfortunately, some must race or they will not get an allowance and others are focused on winning regardless of if the race was fair or not. To them that's just how the race is. Of course that is not how things are presented but neither is the world shown as such by them either.

[@MajatekYT]

It'd be *so* easy to rewrite it to show why someone shouldn't judge others for their spots or stripes and keep the banana peel element. The story's peak could have the race be held at night, and one of the striped cheetahs' crew could throw in a banana peel thinking they'd stop the spots from winning - only to throw it at a striped cheetah, which not only causes sprained legs for the striped cheetahs, but also stops the entire race. Nobody wins. From that point onwards they agree to look out for banana peels for each other and never throw a banana peel as the race is more than about winning, it's their life.

[@westonmeyer3110]

Except you actually have to identify the real life banana peel and you also have to prove that the banana peel isn’t affecting the rest of the runners.

[@rachelle2227]

I have a baby, and my sister got me a book for her when she’s older about two gay penguins. The zookeepers ended up giving them an egg, so they could raise their own penguin baby. Such a cute book! It was based on a real story.

[@wrenkozlowski8362]

fun fact that book got banned in the US for a while. They love talking about how they're the only victims of cancel culture but they literally ban books about being gay or ban you from saying it

[@rachelle2227]

@@wrenkozlowski8362 Oh so you know of the book! That’s dumb, the book is so benign and sweet.

[@vylbird8014]

And Tango Makes Three. It's a regular occurrence on the American Library Associations list of 'banned books.' The books aren't actually banned by law: They are the books which have attracted the most angry letters from parents demanding that libraries must stop making them available. Those books are usually banned from school libraries though, because political figures at the school district get involved and order schools to get rid of them. The list consists almost entirely of books that either treat Christianity with disrespect (A Handmaid's Tale is usually there) or which feature characters who are not cis-gendered and straight. Tells you a lot about the sort of parent most willing to write angry letters to a library.

[@AnnoyingAllie3]

@@wrenkozlowski8362 America

[@AnnoyingAllie3]

@@vylbird8014 Kids can read books about a preteen learning magic who attempts to murder a noseless creep, but two penguins raising an abandoned penguin is truly horrible for children to read.

[@LaCafedora]

The reason why these books are so critical to Alt-Right Conservative cause is that the goal is to create unquestioning and unwavering loyalty to the ideology and officially recognized leadership of that ideology. Get children to disregard their own feelings, to reject the whispers of the conscience, and to replace that with baseless trust in selected authority figures; that's the key to creating a legion of devout followers to rally behind whatever the leadership says is true. Anything that encourages reflection, contemplation, education, investigation, or real human conversations is the enemy of that goal and must be systematically dismantled and discredited.

[@riptaiyo]

So…..the idea to raise obedient children and good people in their ideas?

[@dalstein3708]

@@riptaiyo That is the authoritarian mindset. Loyalty good, independent thinking baaad.

[@riptaiyo]

@@dalstein3708 idk idc tbh. Pretty much how all parents work that I’ve seen. A parent child relationship is what I would assume is a “authoritarian” dynamic. Child listen to parent. Maybe it’s a blck thing. You Caucasian probably have more “power” over your parents. Not most black households so. You can also be loyal and independent

[@lawrencehan537]

There’s so much conflation in that I don’t even know where to begin. So developing critical thinking skills are bad in your opinion then? Amd children shouldn’t bother? How you about to be that confidently racially reductive?

[@Tustin2121]

lawrence han - You might wanna brush up on your reading comprehension skills. He’s saying they want to *replace* critical thinking skills with baseless trust in authority figures. That’s what has to happen to have devout followers who don’t question authority. The core of critical thinking is questioning authority.

[@joidss]

My aunt and her son came to visit us one spring and mentioned that, on the train ride, her son was watching an old Soviet cartoon where a little train deviates from his path and ends up in some spooky location, having to be saved by a kid who redirects him to the correct path, and all is well and good again. Conservative kids' books make me think a lot about this little cartoon. There is a system, and if you deviate from it-by exploring or experimenting or trying to learn something that's outside of the system-havoc breaks out until you return to the system. It's interesting that US conservatism has become so similar to that Soviet idea of staying silent and working without complaint.

[@nobody4248]

That also kinda sounds like a "don't get lost" story. I remember reading a similiar story with Thomas the Tank Engine, where he ended up at scrapyard by accident and the trains that lived there tried to kill him.

[@thomasoates3003]

​@nobody4248 I believe you're referring to Stepney Gets Lost.

[@thomasoates3003]

The train metaphor falls flat, though, when you remember that trains have their path set for them in advance.

[@rattydust7210]

I guess it's The Train from Romashkovo, I always thought it was about responsibility, if you need to bring your customers to the place they want to go to, then do your job right

[@augustedupin7112]

@@rattydust7210 that's exactly what I was about to say. Plus soviet cartoons are so many and so different

[@zaplepikachu]

Zoe Bee: Species are not socially constructed Me, a zoology student who just had a principals of evolution class where we discussed how it's very difficult to define species because there are so many exceptions and how it's mostly a tool for helping people outside of the field understand things: Well...

[@ericmoore9952]

Yeah, I was going to add a comment to this effect.

[@zaplepikachu]

@@ericmoore9952 My partner literally asked me to define species and after describing how many exceptions there are, I said to them "It's like gender" which made them die laughing because they're genderfluid and understood immediately what I meant.

[@Hi-oo5xb]

@zaplepikachu your comment is textbook dunning-kruger effect

[@ignisvis8867]

Me, a biologist: make them f**k 😎

[@notfounderrornotfound]

@@Hi-oo5xb what

[@borkborkx10]

I was worried that conservative kids books had finally gotten good illustrations, but then I saw Mat Walsh's book. Good to know they still just use crayon, literally and metaphorically.

[@anitanielsen1061]

Can we please stop shitting on crayons? It may not be the best thing in the world for Professionalism, but it works just fine and dandy for the average person! And some people only have or prefer crayons! And also people makes AMAZING art out of crayons. It’s about the skill, not the utensil!

[@hps362]

I liked the aesthetic of the 4th book's illustrations...

[@commandercorl1544]

It looks like something I would draw, and I'm a horrible artist.

[@masterofthecontinuum]

The cheetah one looked really good, it's a shame it had to be in a trash book. The matt walsh one sucked though.

[@SaadTheGlad]

Mat walsh is based

[@bramvanduijn8086]

There's a lot of bullying going on in the latter two books but it isn't called out at all. The implicitation that bullying is acceptable behaviour is the most damaging part of those books.

[@BunniRabbi]

That's a theme I see in a conservative context quite a lot.

[@SquirtleHK]

"Elephants Are Not Birds" also ends with a disgustingly clear metaphor where the boy elephant uses his trunk to spray out water to put out a fire, making him grateful he has, like, a penis.

[@wakeup.daniell]

I think that's stretching it a bit, it's a trunk a giraffe wouldn't be able to do the same

[@calebhawkes6005]

Don't be trans or your risk of house fire triples apparently

[@seekingabsolution1907]

​@@wakeup.daniella giraffe would probably be able to spit water over a fire to put it out.

[@Somebodyelse141]

Yeeaahh, making that connection is definitely a you problem

[@ohyoudidntknow93]

Why do they think, "Can I be a walrus or a helicopter," is a remotely convincing argument? A person cannot be a walrus or a helicopter, but a person can be a man or a woman, so identifying as one or the other is not nearly the stretch they're pretending it is.

[@ADITYASHARMA-im2qo]

Surely we know we can't be a walrus because it's a different species. But where does this logic go when a man claims he's a woman? Then you will play pretend with him that he's a woman.

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

What a f***ing brilliant comment. That's a perfect way of explaining it!

[@ganimol9691]

You can't be a helicopter cus you don't have motor you can't be a woman cause you don't have a vagina

[@darthvader9173]

You can't change your gender buddy :)

[@daniblabla709]

hi! please don't see this as an attack of any kind, i agree with your overall point, i guess i'm just kinda thinking out loud, but this argument only makes sense if you define it to make sense Were I a transphobe, perish the thought, I could easily blurt out something to the effect of "well I'm not a human, I identify as a mammal, and a mammal can be a human or a walrus just fine", and we would still agree that, despite their rhethorical tap dance, they're still not a walrus This, I feel, is the heart of the standard transphobic accusation: y'all are just crazy people, doing mental gymnastics and torturing language to pretend you're something you're not Conversely, we could also narrow down the definitions - if we were to boil down the difference between "man" and "woman" to how bumpy your crotch is or which letters your genome has, then it would be perfectly sensible to argue that a person with XY chromosomes can't be a person with XX chromosomes Neither of these transphobic arguments are illogical, fallacious, contradictory or unconvincing - the problem isn't that they're poorly structured, it's that they're just... wrong The experience of being trans *is* real, it does have distinct, psychologically tangible characteristics, it *isn't* just something people make up for attention, and pretending otherwise *is*, indeed, ignorant and just plain cruel Our conception of gender *is* socially constructed, it does have a ton of nuance and complexity and personal self-expression, it *isn't* just a question of whether you've got a uterus or not, and pretending otherwise *is*, indeed, dehumanizing and just... really weird? These, I think, are the arguments that need to be made - otherwise, you and I, the hypothetical transphobe (who, strangely, isn't just yelling slogans at you), are just gonna be talking past each other

[@DoveArrow]

With the trans analogies, I feel like you missed a big point. The characters are ultimately unhappy trying to be a bird or a walrus and they are receiving pressure to be that way. That can happen. However, by and large, we're happier being trans, even if we still feel like we're not quite birds or walruses. That's something that the books don't address at all. If the elephant and the boy were happier being a bird or a walrus, then what's the problem? Let them be who they want to be.

[@kurooaisu]

Great take! Nowadays, our culture sometimes encourage people to be transgender. This culture sometimes contribute to gender dysphoria, leading to confusion like what happened to the elephant or Johnny. By the way, to clarify my position, this is coming from a person who lean more to the Right regarding transgenderism. I am okay with trans people but I will not encourage my future kids to take the path, because transitioning is not an elixir to cure all your gender problems. I also watch Matt Walsh.

[@niconicorom]

I think that the people who feel "unhappy" when they transition is not because of the transition, but how the world doesn't accept them as who they really are or want to be. I might be wrong (please tell me if I am), but in my experience as a trans man, I'll be really happy if I could transition, but the thought of other people alienating me and looking my way with disgust makes me really reconsider staying with my biological sex and try to "mask" into the world. I know some people say "but you need to accept yourself and don't think about everyone else", but when the "everyone else" is like a biiiig big part of society which may point at you for being different, that phrase changes.

[@shaunsteele8244]

@@niconicorom they're "unhappy" because they mutilated their bodies and know deep down they're still the same gender they were born with, no matter how many hormones they pump themselves with. Denying reality and going to such lengths to force an illusion will only drive these people to suicide... which it normally does

[@AngelusNielson]

@@niconicorom it is my understanding, actually being involved with the trans community, that the majority of the tiny amount of "De-transitioners" do so mostly because of things like pressure from parents rather than genuinely being unhappy with transitioning. This generally leads to a lot of bitterness and trying to drag down people to their level of misery. (As in, "If I can't be happy nobody's going to be happy) The people who made a mistake are a tiny percentage of that tiny percentage. And considering that there is a lot of "Live for 3 years as your gender before the transition and have all of this therapy." gatekeeping It's not a surprise to me that most of the people who decide to transition are ready for it..

[@eiliswalsh9293]

The problem is that a lot of people aren’t going to want to pretend that some children are really birds and those people have the right to live their lives how they wish also.

[@fredskull1618]

That’s the issue with kids books with such pointed metaphors: Kids don’t really care about politics or culture wars. The best kids books have simple, relatable messages that often preach peace or tolerance or sharing. These messages aren’t overtly political. These books feel more like counter programming for its own sake rather than actually trying to win hearts and minds. Fodder to counter all those “woke” publishers I guess.

[@theboombody]

Bad stuff on both the left and the right.

[@commandercorl1544]

@@theboombody average centrist saying "both bad!"

[@ronantheronin3521]

@@commandercorl1544 And thats why centrists are generally better. Being a extreme leftist usually means being completely insane fascist, communist or anarchist, being an extreme right-winger means being an insane monarchist, ethnostate supporter or corporatist. Both sides are completely disgraceful and immoral when in full power. Having a neutral stance allows for a healthier society, than the disgusting partisanship both sides push now.

[@BunniRabbi]

It's an earnest attempt, but with a lack of identifying what you are pointing out about kids ' perspective. The authors are simply having trouble understanding that the kid's context is different than their own. Working in a middle school, I think that has been my most fundamental take away; a child's vast lack of context. There have been so many times in the process of trying to teach them something that I had to point out things like, 'No they didn't have cell phones in the Middle Ages... No not even the kind of phones that were connected to walls.' or 'someone who owned a horse and armor wouldn't also have owned a lawnmower'. The current moment really is the whole cloth for them.

[@CyberCervine]

I remember reading a book that was about a girl who always had to have everything pink. What she wore, what she ate, etc. Eventually, if I recall, she gets bullied, and tries to change everything about herself because others think she's weird for having everything in pink. She is absolutely miserable because of this, and her whole personality changes from cheery to depressed. Eventually her parents catch on and try to talk to her about it, and I forget what the solution is but in the end she goes back to being her happy pink self. I feel like this book helped me understand that no matter how I am and how I feel, I can't change that, and I shouldn't change that for other people. In a way this book can be a great metaphor for being gay or trans, so in theory, making a book for a kid's audience that is about embracing oneself and accepting others for being different does seem easy, it might be that the fact these kinds of topics are complicated in a political sense. But as you said, kids don't care about politics and the simpler the message is, the easier. Obviously because they are political issues they are not as simple as the book would put it, but it would introduce the kids to these kinds of talks so that they feel comfortable and less confused about the issues. Sorry for that paragraph, you just got me thinking lol

[@Uggnog]

I can't believe "Why everyone needs an AR-15" is a real book made for kids and not satire

[@fourcatsandagarden]

The cheetah one strikes me as possibly being accidentally better than it is, given how racist parents will often subtly teach kids that, say, black people are criminals or thugs or whatever, so a kid who put themselves in the main character's shoes might learn that they shouldn't judge their non-white peers for the perceived sins (as defined by the racist rhetoric those kids would be growing up around) of their ancestors. But maybe my brain just always worked differently. I did read an Ayn Rand book in high school and manage to come away with a super anti capitalism, pro socialism message, which I'm sure would infuriate Rand to no end if she was still alive.

[@TheModdedwarfare3]

She's relying on social security in hell where she belongs.

[@maskmaster8898]

Was that The Fountainhead? That sounds like The Fountainhead.

[@The2012Aceman]

Rand's entire purpose in writing was to give people the courage to do what they wanted. If what you want is to make a better world, to give charity to your community, and to create a Socialist Utopia, she would back you. So long as you aren't wrongfully coercing others into it. Show others what is possible so that they might follow your example.

[@maddie9602]

Reminds me of a video analysis I saw that read Ender's Game as an allegory for trans rights, knowing full well how much that would piss off the (extremely anti-LGBT) author

[@fourcatsandagarden]

@@maskmaster8898 Anthem. Its the only one of hers I could get through, and I did it for their essay contest. Still an absolute total mystery in every way how I didn't win the prize. Lol. (I bet the people who read it literally clutched their pearls at the scandal of how someone could dare come away from any Rand books with an anti-capitalist message.)

[@pantslesswrock]

The worst part about the race analogy of the first book, what immediately jumped out at me, was the assertion that the striped cheetahs "built the racetrack", if not the whole city. So, the book, through its direct analogy of white to stripes and black to spots, is flat-out saying that America was built through the labor of white people alone.

[@AbsolXGuardian]

The two transphobic books I think also betrays a very high level sexism. Men and women are as different as two different species. Even if you insisted on a gender = sex framework, humans are species with relevatively low levels of sexual diamorphism.

[@rickc2102]

*dimorphism

[@josephgardner5059]

Yes I was going to say something like this. When you say "I feel like I want to be a woman, or that I'm a woman inside" they're like "Oh yeah, what's next, you wanna be a FISH?!" just like when they say "if same sex marriage is okay, then what's next, bestiality?!" I think homophobia has a lot to do with sexism. Many men are afraid of being perceived as gay or feminine because they know that other men look down on and even abuse women. IMO it's less about the fear of gay people, but the fear of being perceived as a sexual target by other men. The whole "I don't care if you're gay just don't hit on me!". Men know how awful men can be toward women and they don't want to be on the receiving end of it.

[@mookinbabysealfurmittens]

Yeah, homophobia & transphobia definitely stem from misogyny and the kind of men who treat women like dirt. Suddenly they're "a target" (don't flatter yourself, homophobe) cos they suddenly see everyone on the same level, and they get scared. They don't want to be treated _like that!_ It's so transparent and it still baffles me... I remember specific people, and many new ones apply, and the cycle just continues. I understand the fear of letting go of what you have, even if it's a broken situation - really, do I ever! - but it's the complete lack of compassion for other human beings that really rattles me.

[@nunyabisnass1141]

@@mookinbabysealfurmittens what about the women that feel the same way? Is rhst mysogeny or misandry?

[@nunyabisnass1141]

@@mookinbabysealfurmittens compassion isn't the same as acceptance. One can be compasssionate to a male that feels like they should be female and say "yeah, you do what what you need to to find self acceptance," but accepting they are sexually female and capable of sustaining male definitional male biological functions are not the same thing.

[@MashieMutt]

Did Matt Walsh draw the book himself? Even for like kids books that has to be some of the ugliest drawings I've ever seen

[@jameswilson807]

Me, explaining to Matt Walsh that there are only 2 species and all other animals are mental illnesses:

[@brook_angel]

It's called bilingual so there can only be two languages. Just two Nur zwei Seulement deux . .. ... Oops

[@cajunking5987]

There are only two sexes hun. Unless you just wanna abolish my sexuality. That would be very homophobic of you tho.

[@jameswilson807]

@@cajunking5987 I mean technically there are 3 sexes, if you wanna be scientific about it. And if your sexuality is fickle enough that it relies on a millennia-old Latin prefix to have meaning then I guess you maybe need to do some soul-searching 😅

[@cajunking5987]

@@jameswilson807 I don’t consider a mix of the two sexes a new third sex 🤷‍♂️

[@cajunking5987]

@@jameswilson807 my sexuality ISNT fickle. Tf are you talking about 💀

[@PercivalBlakeney]

"Telling someone with ADHD, to just use willpower, is exactly the same as telling a child with dyslexia, to «Just learn to read.»". - Dr. Russell Barkley. ❤️

[@delphicdescant]

@@sourdough_ak998 "I'm tired of hearing about this disorder because it's not about me. And since I don't care, it really doesn't exist."

[@imnotoriginal8980]

@@sourdough_ak998 lol your first sentence just directly contradicted the quote from a psychologist, try again and listen to people who know what their talking about and not "well I'm right because other people don't have problems and they need to deal with it"

[@conspiracypanda1200]

@@sourdough_ak998 I'm fully, professionally diagnosed with ADHD-i and I can confirm the quote is correct. ADHD in all its presenting forms is a disability that often requires assistance or medication in order to help the ADHD-affected person (such as myself) focus on and complete day to day tasks that those without ADHD might not find difficult at all. How and why could that make you mad?

[@PercivalBlakeney]

@@sourdough_ak998 Sours old boy, I think what you find "old" and "woke" is simply anyone who doesn't feel sorry for "Sourdough" the way that he feels sorry for hisself. Y'know? 😐

[@fenndev]

@@sourdough_ak998 Congratulations, you've told us that you're an idiot who doesn't understand even basic psychology without actually saying it. If you're going to be stupid, at least shut up and sit down so your stupidity doesn't affect anyone else. It's cringe to be a moron, but it's even more cringe to be a moron in public. People like you are the reason we can't have nice things and ultimately are one of the main things holding us back as a species. Do everyone a favor and never have children, although with an attitude like yours I don't think we need to fear you spreading your lunacy and ignorance around the gene pool.

[@jocloud31]

One thing I find interesting about "Paws Off My Cannons" or whatever it's called is that it assumes that criminals live entirely outside of the society they affect. They live somewhere else, come to where good people live, do crimes, and leave. I don't know if it is intentional on the part of the author, but I think it also says something about their views on foreigners and immigration in general. It also fundamentally misunderstands the root cause of basically all crime, but that feels pretty in character for many conservatives, especially those who fall into the MAGA camp

[@feministadentata4041]

Oh, I read the metaphor as POC coming from the ghetto to the white suburbs, but yours isn't wrong either!

[@mm1145]

also it asumes that coconut cannons come from somwhere else as well. that no matter what the villagers do there will be hynears and cocernut cannons

[@DungeonMiser]

That's literally what what happens. Do you think upper-middle class wasps drive around their own neighborhoods looking for Amazon deliveries lol

[@mm1145]

@@DungeonMiser the crimes do not really happen in the suburbs eather not like shown

[@khill8645]

@@DungeonMiser Interesting that you only see crime as a lower-class problem when wage theft, embezzlement, and forgery are called white-collar crimes for a reason... Also, have you never lived in a WASPy neighborhood? That absolutely happens, it's just done by the teens there - it isn't like a WASP upbringing makes those communities immune to delinquency

[@factualopinion8849]

I love how the fourth book is basically a kid-friendly version of the horror movie Tusk.

[@thomasoates3003]

I was wondering if anybody else would point that out. I'd much rather watch Tusk than read this garbage to kids.

[@cajunking5987]

@@thomasoates3003yeah you’re lying

[@thomasoates3003]

@@cajunking5987 Eh?

[@cajunking5987]

@@thomasoates3003 nobody would rather watch Tusk than do ANYTHING

[@cajunking5987]

@@thomasoates3003 and Johnny the Walrus isn’t garbage. It’s a great book about… believing in reality. A lesson you wouldn’t think adults need to hear, but here we are.

[@TheBonkleFox]

The cheetah story ALMOST works. I half-expected it to be a metaphor about the conspiracy the right peddles that "trans people are plotting to take sports away from us" and the ending could have been that the main cheetah was so preoccupied with being angry about striped cheetahs in sports that she made it a self-fulfilling prophecy. But no. We're not allowed fun ideas

[@kaiyotee2475]

That would've been so good! I'm personally not really into political books for young children that press (not discuss but actually press) any view onto children, but I always love a good twist like that.

[@wolftitanreading5308]

honestly it does sound like a good one, where the story was about how, if you focus on the other person is cheating and not pushing yourself to try to be your best you're just going to fail. so try and focus and do your best and try to play fair.

[@audiblek]

The real problem is they forgot that all of the refs and judges were previous race winner, making them all striped cheetahs. They tend to let striped cheetahs get away with more things that should get them disqualified because "striped cheetahs are more promising". Also, throwing those bananas injured and demoralized the first generation making it harder for them to train the younger generation of spotted cheetahs... You know, it really could work if the added a few more parallels to reality

[@shanefoster2132]

@@wolftitanreading5308 yes and that would be more in line with average or moderate children stories. But that would be a liberal argument. No, it is not just misguided to demand equity and sportsmanship of participants and fans. Those who suggest you do so are actively trying to mislead you!

[@wolftitanreading5308]

@@shanefoster2132 fair enough was just pointing out that out of all of them that has the potential to actually be good

[@OtakuD50]

The cheetah book kinda also exemplifies a weird conservative trait where they think people can't focus on more than one thing.

[@dr.emilschaffhausen4683]

Well here's a fun fact for you, you can't literally focus on more than one thing at a time. You may be able to do things in rapid fashion or switch between tasks rapidly, but it is not true multitasking.

[@BabzaiWWP]

@@dr.emilschaffhausen4683 you can focus on different things at different times?

[@dr.emilschaffhausen4683]

@@BabzaiWWP No one can literally multitask. People can simply perform multiple tasks in rapid succession or jump from one task to another quickly. That's simply how the brain works.

[@BabzaiWWP]

@@dr.emilschaffhausen4683 like computer?

[@dr.emilschaffhausen4683]

@@BabzaiWWP Yes, computers can process in parallel.

[@ThildasBeinhaus]

I love how the book about guns sees laws against guns just as a "sign" instead of something that would be followed by actions. Implying that they themselves would ignore such signs in a heartbeat and arm themselves illegally.

[@theliving1037]

What stops people who commit crimes from committing another crime?

[@uuncoolguy6]

What I thought was funny was they immediately made 2 villages. Implying a civil war stand off where the relocation of neighbors happened due to the others politics. Very scary stuff.

[@PokemonRules333]

Yep some people shouldn’t have guns like imagine giving patients in mental hospitals access to guns

[@theliving1037]

@wolfsdownpies If there were no one who committed crimes then we wouldn't need ways to discourage them from committing them. You aren't wrong guns won't full stop people, but the same could be said about most things. Police cars won't stop people from speeding, but seeing one might cause someone to slow down. There is no such thing as a perfect society, but I would feel safer having a gun than not. There isn't a law saying everyone needs to own a gun. If they make you feel uncomfortable then don't own one.

[@Musik-cs5nd]

@@theliving1037 to my knowlege higher gun ownership doesn't increase the safty in the community by disscouriging criminals. In fact from the research that was done in europe (I know it doesn't translate 1:1 but sadly most US studies are obstructed by the NRA) it seems more guns only make crimminals more aggressive and dangerous. Far better deterent for crime and violece is a good social sefty net and ample working opportunities.

[@TheGameQube]

I can't believe someone wrote a book about a gorilla who has a coconut gun that fires in spurts.

[@hdrunx4840]

And if he shoots you, it’s gonna hurt

[@Rachel98246]

*D K* *DONKEY KONG*

[@phoenixfire6433]

And then there’s Chunky he’s dead

[@chrishughes7408]

I feel like picking a bird and an ocean animal has to lead to at least a couple kids thinking "wait a minute, didn't we invent ways to fly and breath underwater? I'm not sure that natural roles matter that much to humans."

[@maxpower8373]

This. Conservatives pretend we live under natural law but human beings have not lived under any "natural law" since the agricultural revolution.

[@Trees...]

Technically walrus dont even breath underwater. Haha.

[@arisily]

Oh yeah, I used to work as a children's library assistant. Conservative propaganda for kids is huge, and parents often seek it out (esp in homeschooling communities, in my experience). Focus on the Family has published a massive amount of books that lay the groundwork for instilling these ideas as natural and "the way things are" to kids. (Also, commenting before watching like I am isn't great, but I was so excited to see a video on this topic lol)

[@GeteMachine]

Sounds like why Conservatives want to gut public schools for alternative home schooling and theocratic private schools now, along with more "choice" private schools.

[@kappadarwin9476]

I can't believe how ham fisted some of these books are in the video. Like the Cave man one isn't going to age well.

[@TheVoiceOfReason93]

Sounds like great books... great for use as tinder.

[@FiSH-iSH]

@@TheVoiceOfReason93 not worth givin em your money tbh,, theyd be better off selling firewood with “trump 2020” carved on it

[@TheVoiceOfReason93]

@@FiSH-iSH Yep.

[@xxivletxx]

My mom had always blamed my transness on my internet friends also being trans. I just wish she knew that they actually helped me find out that I was trans, not force me to be trans. Nobody in the trans community is forcing little Johnny to become a walrus.

[@airplanes_aren.t_real]

I've actually seen a couple people say that the message of the book doesn't make sense because a lot of conservatives try to make intersex children do surgery to conform to the gender they were assigned to at birth, sometimes even pushing for legislation that makes it necessary in case of sexual deformity or divergence (much like the internet people that force the mc to be something he isn't) so the high ground the author is trying to make is hypocritical

[@FrozEnbyWolf150]

People with similar life experiences and interests tend to band together, even if they're not immediately aware of what exactly they have in common. I had something similar happen, where I found out quite a few of my internet friends are trans, around the same time I realized I was trans myself. I had known some of them for years prior, but it never really came up until then. Also, the idea that someone can be forced to be trans is essentially conversion therapy, e.g. that someone's sexuality or gender identity can be changed from the outside, which is something most right wingers believe in despite a complete lack of evidence.

[@mirandas4832]

as someone on the other end (a friend of mine wasn’t allowed to talk to me anymore bc she did a male cosplay once and her parents thought i was turning her trans even tho i had no clue she even did the cosplay), i find it funny that they think being trans is like some sort of indoctrination. if anything, i think i’ve helped reaffirm cis peoples’ gender more than “made people trans” because i was able to offer some perspective on how i interpreted my feelings and got to the conclusion i did

[@xxivletxx]

@aellyks Did you get indoctrinated into a conservative lifestyle that teaches you to hate minorities?

[@NOWABO]

You knew something is wrong with the way you relate to your body (because everyone has that to different extents) and your internet friends put it in your mind that if you just identified as the opposite gender, everything would be better. Then they celebrated the fact that you decided to go along with it. Does that ring a bell?

[@yharr3789]

If you put more then 2 seconds of thought into the metaphors, the whole book falls apart because thats how much thought went into writing these

[@dee_is_tired]

"I'll enjoy being me." is such an interesting thing to come from a conservative let's apply the metaphor they're trying to push, yes? Elephant is an elephant who likes doing bird things, he is a man who likes doing "woman things" when have you seen a conservative celebrate a man breaking gender roles? when have you seen diversity of this kind be celebrated?

[@GlitterGum]

I hear it all the time from them though. "Omg just be a tomboy!"

[@naomitheminion6275]

@@GlitterGum the thing is, if you were 'just a tomboy' they would have had comments on that too.

[@tfclassicengineer1005]

@@naomitheminion6275 No, they surely wouldn't.

[@brook_angel]

@@tfclassicengineer1005 well, but they do. I used to be "just a tomboy" and they didn't like that either. They wanted to pressure me into being more feminine, wear dresses, sit womanly, talk... "nice?" As long as you don't conform to their version of woman/man (especially if you're a feminine man tbh) they will not accept you. (obviously not talking about all conservatives, but a large part that might even be the majority)

[@tfclassicengineer1005]

@@brook_angel, then it was a small majority. I have yet to met a conservative that dislikes tomboys.

[@crassiewassie8354]

"Being trans is easy" Never heard a more out of touch statement in my life lmao Like bruh i'm entirely happy with how everything is going in my life and I still wanna die over just that one specific thing Like How can you call that an easy problem?

[@SariaSchala]

I hope you really don't want to die. Please be okay.

[@crassiewassie8354]

@@SariaSchala I'm okay :) Dont worry about me i'm a stranger. It's just a certain part of being trans ya know. Like other than that I am extremely happy. Happier than most people I think. I think the world treats me fair

[@SariaSchala]

@@crassiewassie8354 I'm glad to hear it. I wish you every happiness.

[@Alice-gr1kb]

God yes why do people think we want this. Goes to show cis people don’t know anything. Like i just want to transition and move past it.

[@moonstrifflimestone5493]

Yes oh my god! "Being trans is easy", tell that to me two years ago, gripped with fear in the shower, thinking about the family I could lose, the jobs I could be denied, the high hate crime statistics, the things I could hear... I love being trans, I could never imagine myself as cis and I don't want to be! Being trans has introduced me to such a wonderful community and people, and has pushed me to think more about the world. _And_ being trans is work! That's why trans activists and protests exist, we're _fighting_ ! If being trans was easy, trans people wouldn't have to go back to being closeted or semi-closeted (me oof), or we wouldn't be pushed to never come out at all. I love being trans, _and_ it's pretty hard!

[@ZILtoid1991]

The "transition as an easy way out" trope is often being thrown at nonconforming cis people. I personally don't care about being "ultra macho", and due to various conditions, I cannot compete in a lot of parts in it, like pain tolerance, or driving a car. Me being a lot weaker than the average man coupled with having almost no pain tolerance and being more emotional resulted in some quite edgy transphobic stuff being thrown at me. I won't go into details, but if you spent any time around transphobes, then you'll know what they suggested me to do.

[@max_punch]

Reminds me of how one of my aunts told me I need Jesus, and the other one threatened to never let me into her house again, all of this because I cut my hair very short lmao (i'm not a girl but I was born one so that's why they got mad at me) And the worst one was my mom threatening me to shave my head if I cut my hair (wich makes 0 sense if she doesen't want me to have short hair. I told her to do it but she only got angrier) but after I did it she only uses me to boast to her friends about how she's "progressive" and "doesen't care what other people think" even tough in private she's the most conservative homophobic POS you can think of. Great

[@Anonymous-df8it]

@@max_punch Conservatism is clearly a cancer on society!

[@Anonymous-rp1rs]

@@max_punch As a Christian, myself. I hate how people try to use religion to make people into an image they desire

[@trawrtster6097]

The claim that "transition is the easy way out" seem to point at how intolerant society is of gender non-conforming people without trying to address that at all.

[@mikeoveli1028]

The point that teaching kids to not trust their feelings is behavior of a child predator. I hope more people are making this point. Remember a Republican accusation is nothing but A confession!

[@agayactornamedmichaeldougl6289]

More projection from a leftoid... telling kids to not trust their parent IS ACTUAL PREDATORY BEHAVIOR. remember, everything a democrat advocates is a confession...

[@rayman11]

​@@agayactornamedmichaeldougl6289coming from the party that tries to protect convicted pedophiles

[@the-nick-of-time]

23:00 "They are teaching their kids that if they question things, they need to hide those questions. They need to blindly trust only a few select people and deeply mistrust everyone else, including themselves, if they have any concerns or questions about what they're learning." My opposition to dogmatic religion in a nutshell. If you aren't allowed to question, you'll never be able to figure out what's wrong in your life. It's very literally grooming.

[@angelic3276]

Trans girl here, probably the most terrible part about book 4 is that the kid looks 6 years old, yet its very clearly implied that a kid that age is able to get surgeries and medically transition, which is absolute bullshit and DOES NOT HAPPEN. A child can only receive hormone replacement therapy after age 16, and surgeries only after age 18 in many countries. And this is not an easy process, theres dozens of meetings with psychologist, psychiatrists, try out periods where you attempt to live as the gender you really are etc, I think many transphobes's opinions on trans people would change if they knew the reality of the actual process

[@Anonymous-df8it]

Also, a) the kid doesn't even feel like he wants to be a walrus, and b) even if he wanted to be the 'walrus gender', whatever that means, it would mean that he wants to be part of a group with mostly walruses, not that he wants to be a walrus.

[@georckbread3403]

man, conservatism is such a circlejerk. they refuse to actually do their own research and just go by whatever other conservative figure says instead

[@Anonymous-df8it]

@@georckbread3403 lol!

[@shaunsteele8244]

you're a dude

[@pissass.8675]

I will note that I actually got put on testosterone at age 15, but only after an extremely long and frustrating process. I will also note that I absolutely would not be here today if I had to wait till I turned 18 to go on t, so I agree

[@MegaChickenfish]

I've always advocated when people want books to be banned to actually read or watch the content in question. The Owl House comes to mind, being told it was "demonic" and "teaches kids to be gay" (???) only to find some of the most wholesome, mutually supportive relationships, both romantic and platonic, I had ever seen in kid's media.

[@brook_angel]

It's such a good show

[@AlexReynard]

I believed the exact same thing. The only reason I started supporting banning books was seeing video after video after video of parents at school board meetings, reading out loud directly from the books given to their children. Some real examples: A kid describing giving blowjobs at age 10. A kid describing having sex with an adult priest. How to use hookup apps. What "scat" means. How to give a blowjob to a strap-on. Oh, and how white privilege is a result of white people signing a contract with Satan. I wish I were making those up. When it was conservatives yelling about Heather Has Two Mommies, they were clearly in the wrong. The left eventually became the insane caricature the right painted of them, in terms of giving sexually inappropriate material to minors.

[@no1uno388]

i have to watch it, i always forget :p

[@Just_To_Say]

Precisely. Can’t know if you like it till’ you’ve tried it! They just see what *they* want to see, and even what they do see they twist it into the concept of “Woke Propaganda”. As you’ve presented, let’s use The Owl House as our primary example. They don’t see the BEAUTIFUL character arcs, the incredible story, the moral lessons and relatability of the characters yet the art of maintaining that fantasy worldbuilding. Overall, fantastic. Best show I’ve ever watched. But they don’t see that. They see queer characters, and they leech onto that like their life depends on it. Why? Nobody actually knows at this point. Every “Excuse” for claiming solely being a member of Lgbtq+ can be numbed down to either blatant stupidity, generationally taught stupidity or using religion as a shield around that “Excuse” as religion is a topic that not many folk want to debate about. Hence, just leaving them to lavish in the argument they think they’ve won. My conclusion is they only see what they want to see rather than taking the whole picture into account, and use tactics that give them higher ground in an attempt to defend that stupidity. Leaving them in an echochamber surrounded by people repeating those tactics, to which they believe they are correct, as people can’t argue with them. This creates bigger and firmer echochambers that effect the youth. Taking note on this, they write propagandic rubbish as shown in this video.

[@AlexReynard]

@@Just_To_Say "My conclusion is they only see what they want to see rather than taking the whole picture into account" Have you talked to any of them to see if that's how they actually view things?

[@crocutamire4909]

"gross and sad" is probably the quickest, easiest way to describe most of these people and their weird bullshit

[@beanstheclown]

What's really interesting about the elephant one is that (assuming we take the gender=species at face value, which we already adressed doesn't reeaally work), it could very easily be a metaphor for experimenting with gender and discovering what works. Maybe he doesn't end up being a bird, but he does find several other bird things, like singing, which he does enjoy, and that's ok. He can be an elephant and still love to sing and sleep in a nest, for example, even if he isn't a bird. Maybe some things aren't just for one "species" or another, but just seem that way because that's how the separate communities treat them. As a young boy who loved the colors pink and purple, loved to sew, loved cute things, and had little interest in sports, cars, and hunting, I was often pulled between the opposite camps of "Boys don't do that" and "You must be a girl because you don't do this." It took a long time to be truly comfortable with the fact that "Boy" stuff and "Girl" stuff wasn't necessarily set in stone, and that I could like both video games and playing barbies with my sister and still be a boy.

[@olaczyk]

Yoo that's a good conclusion, I like your comment, very well thought😳

[@reaganharder1480]

See, I wonder about this. As a straight guy who fundamentally does not understand the experience of transgender folks, I wonder how many people are indentifying as trans now because they enjoy "other gendered" things and are hit with that pressure of "you can't do that as a boy" or "you must actually be a girl". And I don't say this to invalidate anyone's experience as a trans person, I just don't fundamentally understand that experience and could see a logical line where gender expectations are so deeply entrenched in your understanding of the world that when you find you do not fit them, the only conclusion is that you must not be that gender.

[@pablorocky6064]

@@reaganharder1480 it's true that some people are like that but I honestly had the opposite experience. I was told that " just because I didn't meet all the marks, doesn't mean I can't be the gender I was born". I took it to heart but still felt the discomfort and suffering in my body. I thought that being trans was weird until I did my research and it clicked. But you are correct that it does happen to some people. If you wish to talk more I'll gladly tell of my experience

[@annasolovyeva1013]

​​@@reaganharder1480ure. In my country it's totally valid for girls to do boy stuff and to tell all the karens claiming that "girls don't..." to f off. Or ask if they would tell it to one of our famous female soldiers. Not all girls here do masculine things, but some do. At the same time, there's way less people into LGBT.

[@uttsu1537]

This is exactly my experience by as a girl viewed too boyish to be called one. This is a lesson we should teach to kids because like me and op, kids suffer from it. Since everyone told me I was more boy than girl because I didn’t care about my appearance, I liked cartoons, pokemon and playing video games. So I didn’t experiment girls thing because I wasn’t one and it took me a long time to realize it

[@horricule451]

I feel like if you handed kid me a copy of that elephant book I would've interpreted it as a "be yourself and don't let society define who you are" instead of "wow look at these evil transes". Like if you don't know who wrote it then that would've been the much more obvious and immediately apparent message to take away from it

[@snakesonthismondaytofriday1750]

The "Paws off my Canon" story also makes it seem like those "good ones" with canons can't possibly be a future problem. That they are always the solution.

[@benhuang2773]

Every bad guy with a gun was once a good guy with a gun.

[@keiyakins]

... Neither of those "gender" books make sense *even if you accept the metaphor*! If something is making you miserable then don't do it. I've known a few people who spent some time experimenting with gender and gone "yeah, I'm cis." and I am happy for them because they now understand themselves better.

[@thatguy1593]

That’s because they don’t even know how to feel about what a “social construct” is. If you bring up gender is a social construct,they will say either that means it isn’t real or the exact opposite (that being a social construct doesn’t make it any less real to those who experience it, which is true), but can’t decide on one or the other. So, they just say gibberish and hope people agree with their gibberish.

[@altrag]

"Kids are being taught not to trust their feelings." I kind of disagree here, primarily based on what I've seen of people like Ben "facts don't care about your feelings" Shapiro. What I've seen is not that they ignore their feelings, but that they are being taught to assert their feelings *are* facts so that they don't have to call them "feelings" and sound "unmanly".

[@shaunsteele8244]

"trusting your feelings" is the dumbest thing anyone can do. Feelings are fleeting.

[@altrag]

@@shaunsteele8244 Sure, but often they're the only thing we have to work with. We're not omniscient, we don't have full knowledge of most things. The majority of problems come into play in areas where we _do_ have knowledge and decide to trust our feelings anyway simply because we don't like the truth. Religion in particular tends to lead us down that path, as faith is often drilled into us very deeply from a very young age, but its hardly the only thing that causes us to ignore reality in favor of some preferred delusion.

[@altrag]

@currenthing20 What ideological fantasy are you referring to? That we're not all omniscient? Sure there's a lot of idiots who think they know everything, but I'm pretty sure not one single person on the planet really does know everything. But hey, feel free to break me of that "ideological fantasy". Please show me the person who literally knows everything, I'd love to learn more about them.

[@greenbros.3350]

Feel free to not read this, I don't mind. Question, and if this sounds rude sorry but I disagree with your second point. the first one I don't have the context for so skip everything up to just after Shapiro. I don't think what your saying is quite true as I, as a man, haven't had an experience like the one you listed. Back in the day I used to agree with Benny and the "facts don't care about your feelings" actually helped me prioritise fact checking myself. Was he the only reason, No, but the main point I want to bring up is that the line "facts don't care about your feelings" helped convince me of the opposite. But now that you've heard my side of the story, I want to hear yours. Why do you believe what you said? I'm curious. and just so we're clear there are no wrong answers to this question, just different ones. Anyways have a good day.

[@altrag]

@@greenbros.3350 > Why do you believe what you said? Because I've seen far too many people who have gone the other way with the same information. I bring up Shapiro because that one-liner quip is well-known and illustrated the point well, but the same applies to many if not most of the "intellectual" branch of the right wing. Hell, I was well on the way down that path myself in younger years. I predate the widespread availability of "internet personalities" but the world moved a couple decades faster, I was a prime candidate for them: Disaffected youth from a conservative family in an even more conservative city, more than happy to believe that I was both simultaneously ignored by the world while also being so important than the entire world was out to get me for no reason beyond my existence. And I have younger friends who are falling down that rabbit hole as we speak. "They help me!" I'm sure they do, but the question is what do they help you with? And usually when you pull apart all the bullshit rhetoric at the end of the day the "help" they provide amounts to "all the problems in your life are someone else' fault". Its the democrats or the immigrants or black people or gay people or women who need medical treatment or whoever else the bogeyman of the day happens to be. > actually helped me prioritise fact checking myself This is a big difference, and you should be proud of yourself for taking this path! That's not the type of "help" most people get out of it. The problem with Shapiro and similar speakers is that they don't say "facts don't care about your feelings, so go do some fact checking". They say "facts don't care about your feelings, and I'm going to tell you what you should believe are the facts". But they rarely provide any basis for their "facts". They could tell you any damned thing they want and many of their listeners will just.. believe it. And its even more insidious when they get extremely emotive while telling you their version of "facts". If you listen to most of Ben's speeches, they follow a similar format: They lay out a bunch of numbers and data. Usually this is true data pulled from real studies (though not always properly peer-reviewed, but I'll let that pass as most media ignores that rather important step these days). The data he pulls is generally cherry-picked to illustrate whatever point he's trying to make, and then he tells you his _interpretation_ of the data as if it was just as factual as the data itself. Its not. That's not how science and research works. The interpretation aspect is _always_ up for debate, no matter what the data says. That all said, I'm curious what your idea of "fact checking" is. I know the "do your own research" idea has been redefined from actually doing research to "look for a KZbinr that says what I already want to believe and call it a day". I don't think the idea of "fact checking" has morphed that direction yet, and your manner of writing suggest that you've gotten yourself a good handle, but I've not run across too many folk who claim to have gone from Shapiro to doing their own fact checking, Oh, as for the word "unmanly" - that's just another fill-in. Can replace it with "unAmerican" or "unChristian" or "libtard" or whatever else they tell their audience will happen if the audience doesn't believe their ideology whole-heartedly and unquestioningly.

[@dawn8293]

I feel like the trans books are upsetting to me (admittedly a cis person) because if a lot of people deeply felt like a different animal, I would hope those people would be handled with compassion and not dismissed. And if they could find a way to live how they wanted to, while being safe and taking care of themselves, I actually would probably support that. But we don't have a lot of people who want to be animals. We have a lot of people who want to be people, and to look how they like, and to pick out a fun new name and to be spoken about using particular pronouns. And sometimes they want cosmetic surgery without people making it weird. And they can do that safely, and still take care of themselves. It's even better for society than the animal one, because we have to change almost nothing about day-to-day life.

[@mr.x2567]

You had me at the first half, not gonna lie

[@Rupert3434]

I have never wanted to see an Innuendo Studios/Zoe Bee collab more than now.

[@putnamehere256]

Yeah, once I saw the into I knew it was the alt right play book.

[@ferndoesart4734]

This. I was so surprised by the intro lol

[@truegamer2097]

It seems as though Johnny Walsh doesn't only have no idea what a woman is, but also what a walrus is... where tf are the worms in the -50C Arctic?

[@mctul]

"Ah yes, lets teach kids to make fun of people!" is not a take I expected of kids books, yet here we are.

[@joaquinzabalegui884]

The 3rd and 4th made me think of a fable I had to read more than once when I was in elementary school. The story goes something like this: A farmer is walking in the mountains, comes across an egg and takes it home, giving it to a chicken who is caring for her own. When the eggs hatch, the chick is not that much different from the others, and impronts on its chicken mother. It grows up eating seeds and worms, fearing the fox and never abandoning the hen house. One day, when he is all grown up, he sees another bird in the distance, soaring above the clouds. He feels as if something is calling for him, a wake up call. He comments it to his chicken siblings, but they laugh at him "Quit daydreaming, you gotta be realistic" they say, and he returns to his chicken life. He ages and eventually dies as he lived: as a chicken, never knowing that he was born an eagle. A possible interpretation with the "gender as species" metaphor makes this a story about staying in the closet. Addendum: the fable is called "Morir en la pavada" by Mamerto Menapace. It's actually not an eagle and chickens but a cóndor (a native south American vulture species) and turkeys ("pavada" in the title is a wordplay with "pavo" and "a silly thing"), but I found the eagle and chickens easier to retell the story in English language.

[@forkalamari6093]

Oh I remember this story!

[@Aaa-vp6ug]

That’s honestly sad as hell, sad as it is, it’s an important one, about living as yourself.

[@lobstrosity7163]

I'm worried if English speakers don't know what turkeys and condors are.

[@jstir6437]

Turkeys, absolutely. Condors tend to be a little more regional (in the US, at least), so it makes sense to me if someone doesn’t really have a good idea of what a Condor is.

[@PamSesheta]

The part where the Elephant tells the Vulture off feels like ... gender euphoria vibes? It's like, these bass-ackward conversations I had with my mom about my experience being trans. To her, it seemed impossible, incalculable, incomprehensible that I'd just choose to transition as a reflection of my true self. In her mind, it had to be some imposition from the outside, something that inflicted a disease on me. And like, there are these moments where there's an achingly close contact to understanding. She understands that my situation is long-lasting and that it has caused me suffering, but it's like she's seeing everything upside-down. I was born a woman and have to deal with the fallout of a testosterone-fueled puberty, but she thinks I'm just a feminine man that's been struck with a mind-virus by external actors. But like, no, it's the truth that I know, based on what I understand about how I feel about myself. I can't qualify it or prove it, but I can't refute or ignore it! Just like in your video's brief bit about parents not trusting their kids, there's a sad, pathetic gulf between myself and my mother. She doesn't seem to really grasp that I am my own person, like you said, there's a lack of trust that I am able to articulate an accurate conveyance of my own thoughts. There's so much of that: "Oh I'm a mom I can intuit your deepest thoughts" in our conversations it feels like I'm sitting on the other end of a one-way window of her own making, where she insists her projections of who she thinks I am ARE who I am. She seems to think I'm some hapless dipshit, a piece of programmable meat-furniture and not a slight glimmer of the light of sentience in my airhead skull. But uh, my career in electromagnetics and integrated semiconductor electronics world is a contradiction, one that she just ... awkwardly pretends that she wasn't opposed to me going into engineering. She expects me to be stupid, but I'm not. Like, she recognizes that my issue has an endocrinological element, just not the one she thinks. She insists I take megadoses of one hormone, when I tell her that my HRT regimen has been great for my mental health and that my bloodwork shows I am in good shape she's all "worried" anyway, what do the doctors and therapists know? She frets about the high s...e rate of trans people, saying that after hormones and surgery the rate goes up to the dreaded figure. She can't accept that the figure is for pre-transition people who are seeking those things but have limitations and/or they are not supported by others around them. She expects me to be miserable and lonely *because* I have transitioned, but I'm not. I don't make sense to her, because she can't let her assumptions down long enough to see me and hear me. She insists that I be true to myself, and with beaming pride so luminous it's making her speakerphone glow like a night light, I tell her that I AM true to myself and I've never been happier. Like that scene in the book, it's like, yeah, you go you Elephant, tell off that interloper insisting you're a bird! You know what's up with yourself! But like, iunno, it's all backwards when conservatives talk about these things because they need queer people to be miserable and alone so that oppression forces them into compliance with cishet norms or death. It's like, she's this walking, sloshing dissonance-reservoir that can't reconcile my happiness and relative success with being a godless, transgender, "other" that the AM radio cranks and Fox News blowhards have screeched about since forever. I'm supposed to be something and I'm not fitting, and I kind of love how that's sort of cracking her snowglobe-view of the world, and I tentatively hope for a breakthrough. But for now, she's swallowed so much of her own simpleton dogma that she literally expects trans people to be miserable, lonely, isolated just by existing in contrast to "their true selves", not understanding that it is not embracing their truths that lead them to misery and discomfort. It's the oppression that delays coming out, and like I told my Mom, she was among the last to know because she wouldn't open her eyes or ears to me as a child, and wasn't doing it as I'm an adult, what was ever the point in letting her know earlier instead of dead last? It's funny, it's only when cis people figure that transitioning is going away from one's true self that some cis people finally grasp the dimensions of discomfort in gender dysphoria, and thinking that's what trans people are signing up FOR! Like, I wish they thought about that more. Like, specifically the discomfort of comitting to an ill-fitting gender for oneself, and how maybe, just maybe someone might actually be more nimble to break out of that nonsense in spite of peer pressure than being peer pressured into supreme discomforts. She cannot comprehend that *before* could be miserable. It's all upside-down. Who would take hormones to become uncomfortable? Why? Her bits about impressing friends doesn't make sense because like, who am I going to impress? What kudos or credibility would make sense if it make me literally suicidal from dysphoria? I just wish she would think some of what I'm telling her through.... like, if I'm happier, then I'm not miserable. And if I reported that before was miserable, like, maybe I fucking was? But more seriously, she seems disappointed and agog that society has not come crashing down on me, forcing me back into the closet and into her comfortable framework. She wants society to bully, mock, belittle, and invalidate me on her behalf, and in her quibbling cowardice she can't quite bring herself to express these things herself. She's probably going to disown me by way of saying she won't, but then writing me out of the will or whatever other little petty, stabby, mean, HOA board, underhanded, goblin moves behind the scenes. Maybe not, though, maybe I am at risk of being too liberal with my assumptions about others based on my previous experiences with them. People do change and can their views can change, so I will keep reaching out as long as there's the slightest bits of even fake nice. I guess I can't quite read real nice from fake nice, so I can either distrust or hope. Maybe my preference for "hope" says something about my politics or something else, but I'd say my Mom and perhaps most conservatives operate from the place of "distrust". I worry that to her, hate crimes are a restorative action. I just wish that I could cut through the spider webs and haze and just lay it to her flat that we don't live in her dream theocracy where I would have been hung and shot already. I wish she'd snap out of the whole "you're not miserable? Whaaaaaaaaat?" dopey phase. Like, plainly state whether or not we can have a working relationship as adults? That was a long rant. I am being true to myself. I hope that if you read through this, that you are true to yourself, too.

[@nicolelyons8690]

I’m glad I read this post-and not only for your incredible writing style. The way you described your mom honestly gave me an epiphany about a few people in my life who react similarly. It’s as though they see reality through a set of blurred glasses and are startled when what they see doesn’t line up with what is.

[@schwarzwolfram7925]

If it makes you any more comfortable: I, a straight, white, blue-eyed, blonde-haired, middle-class, male am fully acknowledging and respecting your position. I'm not capable of _fully_ understanding, but partially is the next best thing; and this shows that bigotry is not a physical trait in any way and all comes down to the mind. The mind is changeable, far more than the outside, and it only needs to be willing to adapt to change. I don't care what sex, gender, race, political/religious affiliation, etc. you are; those don't affect my daily life. I care what you do; and if what you do makes you happy and doesn't create misery for others in the process, why should I worry? My grandparents are a strange case of kindhearted-bigots (that's the best I can describe them in two words). They are extremely nice, but not understanding unless you fit into their very Conservative-Catholic-Christian mindset. They act like an elderly couple that's been teleported from the 40s. I have to remember to be out of their house by 8pm because that's when they watch their EWTN (or something along that abbreviation) nightly newscast; it's the most Conservative-Catholic-Christian you'd ever witness and it pains me to be in the same room so much. It's their only daily source of outside information. They don't interact with people outside their hive. They drive everywhere they go; isolated in their climate-controlled box; no chance of conversing with different minds; no resistance to their ideals. So when they do meet someone (frequently me) who has a different opinion, they feel threatened and just close up. They don't know how to debate; just argue. If they lived in any other developed nation in the world, they couldn't be like this without being hermits. You can find your niches, but the world as a whole has too much variance for everyone and everything to fit they way you think it should. To end of a pondering-point: At one supper at their place, my gramps was going on again about "Oh, kids these days. Why are they like this? What are they trying to accomplish? Why don't they just do things like back then? etc. etc.", I just stood up (done eating anyways) and said "Paps, if everyone you met behaved exactly the way you wanted/expected them too, would there be any point conversing with them?"

[@austinfletchermusic]

I ain't reading all that. I'm happy for you. Or sorry that happened Nevermind, just read all that and cried my eyes out at 12:44 in the morning. Thank you for being so vulnerable in this comment section to us.

[@phryg2035]

[@fordshojoe8080]

​@@schwarzwolfram7925 yes let's go live where tou can't have your own opinions without being shunned by society to the point you can't come out of your house. Yea that's the way to go until we'll until it's one if your thoughts they don't agree with and you have to stay in your house. We've already had a war over this shit and we won we are allowed to think for ourselves.