I've (thankfully) never encountered a reference to helicopter genders IRL, however I can't seem to escape the fucking "they're putting litter boxes in classrooms!!" myth. It's such an utterly absurd, inane, asinine idea yet I've seen real people, who are seemingly functional adults, actually believe this.
Even if you buy into the conspiracy theories and think that the education system is some globalist socialist catgirl plot, do you think teenagers equipped with cell phones and social media wouldn't meme the shit out of the classroom litterbox? And yet, we still haven't seen a single picture proving this has ever happened anywhere. That doesn't stop people from believing it though, and somehow using it as an excuse to delegitimize and attack trans people.
It's a lie spun out from a truth.
There have been issued cat litter to schools. The reason is in case of a lock down due to a school shooting the kids can urinate and defacate somewhere.
It's incredibly sad. The gun nuts believe it's their right to shoot up a school, but they won't allow cat litter to be issued to the class rooms.
They believe it in part because transphobia is itself inherently irrational. They already carry around the hatred for no reason, so it’s not like they’re suddenly going to have standards before they believe whatever story they hear that caters to their outrage
Because they've been taught Jesus will hate them if they're gay, and if they see an attractive person that turns out to be trans, then that means they're gay, and they're going to hell.
...er, not that it's rational, but that's my best attempt at figuring out most of these people.
and think that the education system is some globalist socialist catgirl plot
I want to believe
I completely diffused someone who believed in the litterbox thing by laughing as hard at it as it should be laughed at and pointing out how hard republicans are getting trolled
School officials in a county near me had to put out an official denial about the litterboxes.
I had never heard about litter boxes. Can you elaborate?
There was a very real conversation about putting litter boxes in classrooms as a way to give kids locked in a classroom during a school shooting for hours a way to use bathroom. That got twisted by far-right pundits that kids are identifying as cats and that's why they are putting litter boxes in classrooms. It's just another way to attack people that "identify" as the "wrong gender". It's complete bullshit and anyone with more than 2 brain cells to rub together that can use Google could figure it out, if they weren't completely focused on denigrating anyone outside their strict interpretation of gender.
I don't think I've ever met or heard of anyone literally claiming that kids are identifying as helicopters. The "I identify as an attack helicopter" thing was originally used as an absurdist critique of gender identity, not as a serious claim, if I remember correctly.
Edit: Also, there was a pretty good sci-fi short story that took the idea seriously.
Well, they are claiming it. There is no end to the credulity of journalists who want to publish "both sides" stories about trans rights.
Harrison says he’s seen photos online that purport to show children who have undergone these procedures. “When I saw them circulating on social media—and honestly, it’s hard to avoid them at this point—of these young, beautiful children post-surgery:
What the fuck??? He openly admitted to this? Hard to avoid? What??? So... is anyone investigating Texas state representative Brian Harrison for CSA? Because it appears they should be....
In times of Oppression neutrality only helps the oppressor
My friend tried to convince me that a coworker of his pulled a kid out of school because a classmate identified as a cat and all the kids were asked to communciate with the child in meows. I dropped everything and stared at him for a while. Eventually asked, “do you believe that story” and he back tracked a bit.
I mentioned the way that “kids are identifying as cat gendered” can be the cry of the antitrans movement but friend changed the subject shortly after.
Any chance to question, inquire, redefine these kinds of stories, try to take ‘em on. Especially with the people you care about that could use help seeing the other side.
But seriously.. they are using catboxes in the classroom!!!!
IIRC that was true in one school, but it wasn't to accommodate furries or anything like that -- it was to have an emergency bathroom in the event of a school shooting.
If someone were to go about wearing a helicopter costume, hanging out with other helicopters, in short if their lived experience were such that they could reasonably say they identified as a helicopter, then I'd have no problem with it.
The world needs more weird people and less authoritarian followers.
Unfortunately most people claiming to identify as attack helicopters are actually self identifying as cunts.
Had somebody tell me about schools keeping litterboxes for furries, and I just looked at them and asked "Does that really sound like something that's actually happening, or does it sound like something someone said as a joke?"
They insisted that it actually happened, and I was like, "I don't believe that. I'm surprised you believed it."
It wasn't the most thorough debunking I could have come up with, but I was proud of myself that I actually called them out on it, instead of giving them a high eyebrow smile-and-nod.
In Maine, the GOP was being led by a CONVICTED child molester who was claiming this was happening and had the Republicans rallying behind him. He was invited to speak AT A SCHOOL and had to be forcibly removed after shouting obscenities at kids
I like asking them to name the school. Same thing with their claims that kids are being exposed to gay porn.
We had the litter box rumor at a local military shipyard...
Technically schools are keeping litterboxes in classrooms, but the reason is very different. It's because in the event of a school shooting, kids don't have to leave to go to the bathroom. But if people were talking about that they might start thinking about the real problems, and they can't have that.
Ask yourself if it's something that nearly everyone would be against.
If the answer is yes, then it's probably not true and you should do actual research to see if it is real.
This is probably the best way to deal with someone in these situations. No insults, no arguments, just "I thought you were smarter than that". It might actually make them think about it rather than dismiss you out of hand.
These days, if you say you're English, you get arrested and thrown in jail.
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Obviously it sounds like the kind of thing that is happening.
For example that teacher in Canada who came to school worth enormous fake breasts.
That happened.
I'm still pretty sure she was doing some sort of performative protest against transgender tolerance. Like "Oh, we're going to have to accept trans women? How about if I wear enormous fake boobs and dress in tight clothing? Will you tolerate me then?"
And the school said "Yeah, we support you," and they received bomb threats. This just proves once again who the real enemy is. No children were corrupted by her giant fake boobs, but terrorists threatened to indiscriminately murder children to keep her from being herself.
I hear that they have been telling people that school bathrooms now have litter boxes for the kids that identify as cats, something that is completely absurd, and yet for some reason people believe that
I mean I've met someone who actually identified as a fox... I'm like 95% sure they were just doing a bit, but they were pretty adamant and actually never let on that they were joking, and there was a lot of detail to it... so I actually don't know
But I mean that has nothing to do with being trans but instead the furry subculture, so irrelevant anyway here
The venn diagram of people who claim kids are identifying as attack helicopters or believing that schools have litter boxes for kids to use the restroom in, and people who fall for Nigerian Prince scams is just a circle.
well one school did have litter for students to use, just not for the thing the GOP/the right would ever want to have in the news so they created a nice moral panic around it bending the truth like they are the fucking last air bender bending air.
the litter was there so that in case of a school shooting kids being locked in their classes have somewhere to go so that piss doesn't go all over the place
TBH I'm more concerned with helicopter parents than I am about helicopter kids.
The veracity of the claim is not the point. It's like the groomers claim or if we go old enough, blood libel and the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
It's a justification for outrage and violence and requires a willingness to believe without healthy skepticism.
Deceptions like this work only because its intended audience wants to believe it, especially when alternative, fact-based explainations are complex and uncomfortable.
I see no problem people identifying themselves as helicopters or mouse, whatever. How on earth would it impact me? It’s a free country, so to say. Where I would have problem is if the law of the land would require to call them so. It should be my choice.
Where I would have problem is if the law of the land would require to call them so. It should be my choice.
I don’t disagree and ultimately it’s one of those things that gets fixed with time. But also as someone who lives in the Southeast US and hears on a pretty often occurrence old shits calling black guys just doing their job “boy”, I can understand why folks get upset about using terms to demean others.
I don’t think we should require legally the racist fuckers to not be themselves, but I’m pretty okay with younger people calling out the older fuckers that demean others. So no, no need for legal requirements, I think social shunning and embarrassment good enough.
Yeah. And it's perfectly acceptable to legally require people in government jobs to be respectful -- a teacher who used racist language would also be fired, and rightly so.
I saw a group of kids dressed as cats in the mall a couple months back. Tails and all.
in the 1850s young ladies wore 18-foot-wide dresses and played party games where they'd put candies in a giant bowl of brandy and set it on fire and you had to get the candy out without burning yourself
kids have always done things for the lulz
When I was a kid we sometimes ran around with our arms outstretched, imitating airplanes. Yet, even as a dumb kid, I knew I was not under some asinine belief that I was actually becoming an airplane. Playing "helicopters" and imitating what they see around them is what kids do. It is not the same thing as identifying as if you were that thing. We have to stop this insane and perverted usage of kids' behaviors to justify bigotry against others.
