My child wanted to watch an animated green lantern series recently so we checked it out. Of course the main character who is the human green lantern is a fighter pilot who does a bunch of sweet fighter pilot flight maneuvers in the opening sequence. I told my child that shows like this often show the military being cool and doing cool stuff, but that in real life what fighter pilots actually do is drop bombs on children. I’m only human, I also enjoy (some) military action movies, but I know it’s cotton candy brain poison too.
I hate how many children’s shows have pro military pro cop propaganda. How do others talk to their kids about it to inoculate them against brainworms? I usually describe the military and the cops as being like a gang of bullies - they do things to make themselves look cool but really they just exist to hurt people and take their shit.
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I told my child that shows like this often show the military being cool and doing cool stuff, but that in real life what fighter pilots actually do is drop bombs on children.
My mom once walked in on me watching Power Rangers, as a kid. I loved Voltron growing up, and Power Rangers was the closest thing I’d seen on American TV since. I’d really gotten into the first few episodes, but my mom didn’t like the show. So she would periodically drop catty remarks. “Don’t those outfits look so fake?” “Does this story even make any sense?” “You know they’re not in high school, right? All those actors are at least 20 years old.”
This ultimately ended up spoiling the show, for me. It did not get me out of my love for cheap cheesy Japanese fighting shows, but it did encourage me to watch shows in my room and avoid my mom at all costs. Not to tell her what I was doing. Growing resentful whenever she asked what I was currently interested in. Being catty in return, whenever I caught her watching her favorite soap opera.
I get that you’re not trying to be mean-spirited. But I’ll warn you that young kids just don’t get the context of any of this. What they do get is that they’re excited to see something and you’re being a downer. Tolerate the silly kiddy bullshit. See if you can get your kid into more left-leaning silly kiddy bullshit (Avatar the Last Airbender, Legend of the Galactic Heroes, etc). But have your eye towards fun and keep your kid’s confidence. Don’t spoil your relationship to score a few cheap points.
I usually describe the military and the cops as being like a gang of bullies - they do things to make themselves look cool but really they just exist to hurt people and take their shit.
I know lots of parents often bemoan giving their kids “The Talk”, because it really does bring down the curtain on childhood. Nobody wants to have to live with the burden of an armed gang looking for an opportunity to attack you, with the full approval of your neighbors and friends. Don’t rush this if you don’t have to. Don’t inflict anxiety any sooner than you half to.
Which isn’t to say you picked a bad time to drop the hammer. But know that what you’re doing IS going to cause your kid to have anxiety when they see the police. And in a school with lots of cops, that’s a heavy burden for a kid to bare.
Kids are not as tough as you. Be gentle when you can.
Thank you for the thoughtful response. I think there is a difference between belittling like your mom did and warning though. We have age appropriate conversations about colonialism, racism, LGBT issues, veganism already so I’m not sure that this is so dramatically different in tone. The big difference to me is that the military and the cops are massively and explicitly promoted in children’s media while the other things I listed are either not mentioned at all or are described in a generally positive (if lib) way. I’d like this to be more like a “safe sex” conversation.
Even Bluey has an episode where the moral is, “If you have symptoms of ADHD, consider joining the army.”
My kid’s still too young to talk in much depth, but my intention is to curate as much copaganda as I can out of their media diet while still fulfilling most of their media requests, and to treat “the cop talk” the same way I intend to treat sexuality: answer questions frankly and concisely when they come up. They’ll ask for more details if they’re wondering, and the rest probably won’t be relevant to them yet.
I wanted to be a fighter pilot when I was a kid, but that didn’t survive me seeing how the military swindles soldiers, much less learning about the Korean War etc.
I’m trying to think of kids shows that don’t have either the token friendly cop or cop episodes where cops talk about how great they are and I’m drawing a blank. At least for mainstream American kids shows.
This probably only works for little kids (under age 8-9 or so) and if you live in the US, but I limit TV pretty much to just PBS Kids. Virtually no copaganda, definitely no military worship, and there’s enough variety that there’s always some shows my kids are excited to watch so it’s not like I’m forcing them to eat their veggies or anything .
I always watched PBS as a kid. Even though I was raised in a very religious community, stuff like Little Bear and Arthur were pretty good.
Though I do still think most of those had at some point a “good cop” character
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Everyone knows the army is where people with differences are tolerated and celebrated and there is a culture of body positivity and rainbows and sunshine!
Yeah I was gonna see even Bluey has a bootlicking episode.
Reagan abolishing the Fairness Doctrine, even as flawed and questionably motivated as it was, paved the way for some very serious and long-lasting propaganda victories for chuds for decades afterward.
While not the most direct recipient of the abolishment, childrens’ entertainment nonetheless became increasingly driven by an unprecedented desire to sell toys based off of what was on the screen, often with crude propaganda built right in.
The most glaring example of that was the 1980s GI Joe cartoon with the tattered vestiges of the old broadcast norms delivered by way of those memeable PSAs after each show.
I really enjoyed that cartoon as a kid and it took decades to look back and realize what I had internalized and accepted in the propaganda in an unexamined way regarding the US military, its purpose, and its goals across the planet.
At least we got parodies like this from people that realized what was shoveled into their brains when they were kids.
I would talk about it outside of when they are enjoying it, if that makes sense?
Could frame it about how “sometimes it can be hard to tell fact from fiction when it involves a subject we don’t know anything about, I just want you to be informed, it is alright to enjoy things but we have to be vigilant when it comes to media portraying things we don’t know stuff about”
And maybe also share some times you believed things that weren’t true because of media/fiction. Modeling growth is important.
Seconding this comment
Only real way is to carefully curate all consumed media.
I remember growing up with iCarly in the early 2010s and there was this one episode with Michelle Obama thanking our troops, and Carly’s dad being an air force colonel or some shit lmao. Jessie had the same daughter-father veteran shit going on, even had a whole episode on a military base
Just direct them to some properly patriotic cartoons
the hedgehog and the tiger should be broadcast on every frequency every time some western media propaganda outlet whines about dprk performing a missile test
Squirrel and Hedgehog is forbidden here because of the fox. And the wolf.
Adventure time has a episode where they talk about how laws are made up by the rich to keep them rich. It’s p cool
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do you think fighter jets drop candy on kids for halloween or something?
Lol yup. That’s me.
it’s either that or you’re one of those freaks who knows full well what the military exists to do and loves it
Yup thats it. Your views of the world are flawless.
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