Question for the Collectors/ Read First before Polling!!!!

[TickledPink]

I haven't read the article, and I don't plan to.  It's all a bunch of noise to drum up ratings and anger. Not worth my time!

[SunPony]

I would say...I dislike the article more as a human being than specifically as a mlp fan, if that makes sense?  If it was about something I didn't even watch, like...Paw Patrol, or PJ Masks, it would still be grating to me. 

And Strawberry Swirl's last reply/post is resonating with me quite a bit, about the internet and real life cultures not matching up:

I'm having a hard time finding the words for what I mean. I don't know if I agree that the Internet at large coincides with society, in any one place. There's certain customs, language, social rules, etc that don't really translate well in "real life." You probably can't expect for your parents to understand if you react to their Facebook post with an image or gif. We would know the image in question conveys a particular emotion or state of mind, but to them you may as well have responded with a picture of a pickle jar. And I really hope you wouldn't respond to a post about the loss of a loved one with "Can we get an F in the chat" (Can you imagine? GOD)

I hope that last part was intended to be funny because I literally laughed out loud! 

[KarentheUnicorn]

I believe the newyork times may have also done an article so I don't think it was just foxnews. And the Gutfeld show did a segment where they discussed the movie; that show is on Foxnews. I'd post the link to the episode of the Gutfeld show that discusses the MLP movie but, if that article offends then I'm pretty sure the Gutfeld show would as well.

i'm not particularly offended that it's being discussed or that some people may have a different view/opinion of MLP than I do.

[Taffeta]

It's definitely true that the internet doesn't marry up with real life (although that's a bit different from vocabulary seeping across from one to the other IMO). But they did some studies here on social media and the internet and found that polarising views, racism, sexism, hate speech etc were much more likely to manifest online than in real life situations. I don't know if it's easier to throw hate at people online or if people who hate get together more easily across distance that way, but it's quite a disturbing truth.

I still think that G4 made it unavoidable for ponies to not be a discussion point for the media now. That in itself is the biggest annoyance...but it will probably die down.

I saw the thing Uni mentioned and I saw bits of the NYT article as a result. Frankly I think they're overblowing the undertones in the opposite direction...so yeah. I think that we're just going to have to live with pony being a political discussion topic for some time to come.

We no longer have CNN on our network, sadly, so I am unaware if they've been talking about it too...

[lowpolyzoe]

I saw the nonsense around this article a couple weeks ago and just sighed that some people want to get up in arms at what is essentially a basic non-confrontational message of "why don't we just get along" and unity.

I don't know if I'd even describe it as anti-racist commentary on the US specifically because the current situation regarding racism in the US is very different from what we see in the G5 movie. Outward segregation and xenophobia like what we see in the movie is very different from an integrated society where discrimination and inequities still exist due to historic and present racism built into government systems and structures.

Though when G4 was ending and the last episode has a single line implying AJ and Dash are in a romantic relationship now I seem to remember some people like this also being up in arms about "MLP goes woke!!!!" but I notice they've forgotten all about that. I can't get mad at it. It's just very silly and any people actually up in arms about this will forget about it in about two weeks.

I'm most concerned for the young children of the kinds of people who take these articles seriously the wheel of progress is turning without them and suddenly every little thing that has even the most non-confrontational message of unity is now Banned from their household for being "woke". If the parents of these children want to shelter them from things like that then what *are* they going to be allowed to watch or enjoy or play or read?

[Strawberry Swirl]

I'm most concerned for the young children of the kinds of people who take these articles seriously the wheel of progress is turning without them and suddenly every little thing that has even the most non-confrontational message of unity is now Banned from their household for being "woke". If the parents of these children want to shelter them from things like that then what *are* they going to be allowed to watch or enjoy or play or read?

Yeah, see, we can make fun of paranoid adults who see a talking horse movie and whine about it and that's all fine and dandy but in the end the kids are the ones who suffer the consequences of being sheltered from the outside world. It's something I personally find to be especially heinous, knowing that when they reach adulthood, they're not going to have a single idea of how to navigate a world that they never got to experience until then. The kids will always be the real casualties for our (adults) mess ups.

[Beth3346]

I'm most concerned for the young children of the kinds of people who take these articles seriously the wheel of progress is turning without them and suddenly every little thing that has even the most non-confrontational message of unity is now Banned from their household for being "woke". If the parents of these children want to shelter them from things like that then what *are* they going to be allowed to watch or enjoy or play or read?

Yeah, see, we can make fun of paranoid adults who see a talking horse movie and whine about it and that's all fine and dandy but in the end the kids are the ones who suffer the consequences of being sheltered from the outside world. It's something I personally find to be especially heinous, knowing that when they reach adulthood, they're not going to have a single idea of how to navigate a world that they never got to experience until then. The kids will always be the real casualties for our (adults) mess ups.

yeah these panics about "wokeness" are a lot more dangerous than funny. it's easy to laugh because we can see that there is no reason to panic. but there is something more sinister behind articles like the Fox one when you start seeing stuff like this. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/14/texas-school-holocaust-books-race-southlake

Now it looks like this is just a school administrator misinterpreting the new law in Texas. but the fact that this was ever a discussion is very worrying to me. "What is the opposing view to the Holocaust?" feels similar to "What is the opposing view to being kind to outsiders?"

[Taffeta]

In terms of the pony, though, it's not a lot different from some of the ways parents behaved in the past with toys, even ponies - eg over unicorns, and I remember a massive thing over Harry Potter at one point.

Kids are always subject to the whims or otherwise of those who raise them. Sometimes this is not great.

And society, unfortunately, is fond of setting up bubbles into which people can build up each other's fear levels without ever appreciating that they are not making sense. The only thing is that now, thanks to the internet, there are more places for it to happen and more widely than maybe in the past.

[Leave a Whisper]

I honestly don't see how whining over talking cartoon animals is going to stunt their growth as adults. I don't really consider that sheltering,  just idiots who are building mountains out of mole hills. Sheltering to the point where there adult lives are stunted involves far worse mindsets and targets real life things.

[BlackCurtains]

But it starts with talking cartoon animals. Today, MLP is bad because it's inclusive, tomorrow, you're segregating water fountains or telling people how and where to go to the bathroom. It's all a part of the same mindset.

[Beth3346]

But it starts with talking cartoon animals. Today, MLP is bad because it's inclusive, tomorrow, you're segregating water fountains or telling people how and where to go to the bathroom. It's all a part of the same mindset.

exactly. it starts silly and gets really sinister.

[Leave a Whisper]

But it starts with talking cartoon animals. Today, MLP is bad because it's inclusive, tomorrow, you're segregating water fountains or telling people how and where to go to the bathroom. It's all a part of the same mindset.

Okay, I haven't seen anyone going to segregated water fountains in my lifetime. And certainly not because people throw hissy fits over moralizing cartoons. If a kid learns to be a pearl clutching bigot from their parents, its because of their parents and their own choice to not  want to use their brain. You will also get the kids who learn not to be that way, despite their parents. People have been petty jerks long before mass pop culture media ever existed, and they'll be petty jerks long after.

[BlackCurtains]

I don't think being a bigot is akin to being a "petty jerk"

[Beth3346]

it's more the fact that it's coming from Fox News that makes me feel like it's less silly than it appears. just in the context of the current political climate in the US. when you live in a state where there are people who are still angry over desegregation it feels like a slippery slope.

[Leave a Whisper]

I don't think being a bigot is akin to being a "petty jerk"

Only because I can't call them what I'd really like to call them without getting  banned. But yes, when it comes down to it they are definitely jerks. And if they hate people for a simple  thing that leads to bigotry, then they are most assuredly petty.

Pearl clutching people have always been nitpicking and making mountains out of molehills over everything from books,  to music, to movies for thousands of years and try to get them banned or restricted, so they're petty jerks too.