Build-A-Moron

The following video is from Build-A-Bear's website, a teddy bear company. Skip to the 1:00 minute mark:



Now it's bad enough that people have transformed Christmas into a completely secular holiday.

But it's even worse to dilute it into agitprop!

There's plenty more discussion here.

Thanks a bunch to Kfell for this one.

See also - Earth Day Agitprop Versus Me = No Contest.

Book Rec - The Tipping Point

Okay. Since Outliers was sooooo good, I figured I had to check out Malcolm Gladwell's prior work.

The Tipping Point was decent - and only took me 1.5 days to fly through.

You can read the outline on the above link; in a nutshell, it's about fads, trends, and the pathology of *contagion* and what he calls *epidemics*.

For me, the most notable part was his chapter on the birth of Sesame Street. The show's creators, back in the 1960s, used revolutionary techniques to capture the attention of pre-schoolers. While nobody dares bash the *intentions* of Big Bird, Jim Henson, and the gang (ABCs and 123s), it seems to me there was an unintended and possibly more pronounced side effect.

Sesame Street did all of the heavy lifting. They had children watch the shows in laboratory settings where scientists tried to measure what images, formats, and approaches would literally keep their eyes glued to the screen: 3 minute segments were found to be optimal, no adult altercating on-screen, etc. Then, people left the show and applied that know-how to, well, let's just say to shows more concerned with addicted viewers than early literacy.

John Gatto, in his work, mentions a few times that the makers of children's color TV programming knew precisely what they're doing. And he says it with palpable disdain.

Evidence Of The China Bubble Bursting

There's a new cartoon starting next month on Nickelodeon called Ni Hao, Kai-lan!

It's being billed as the Chinese version of Dora the Explorer which is currently the leader in children's diversity propaganda. Of course, the New York Times approves.

This generation's children will have Mandarin words forced on them from the cartoon.

Remember back in the 1980s when the Japanese stock market bubble energized a broad movement to not only learn the Japanese language, but to even adopt their corporate practices? There was also a brief surge in teaching Russian after the Cold War as well. Then of course there's the multi-decade long push of Spanish on unsuspecting students across the land. It all started with the Mexican stock market bubble.

Okay. There was no "Mexican" stock bubble. The Latin-ization of curricula more likely started with the diversity bubble.



As you can see above, Chinese stocks have been fading since my December 31st post. Outside of a small, slightly unsuccessful short of Chinese search engine Baidu this month, I haven't been able to get short any Chinese names. The very fact that I am bearish but not short China bodes poorly for their markets.

The timing of the new cartoon suggests an intermediate top as well.

More Cartoon Brainwashing

Oh, how to describe the television show Dora the Explorer...

Let's just say, that for the past three years, all my friends and family that read the New York Times newspapers have excitedly asked me, "Do your kids watch Dora? I heard it is really good".

Up until three weeks ago, the answer was a "no". I didn't censor Dora out, my son had just never seen the show, nor had I run across it. The show airs on Nick Jr and I guess we never got around to that channel. Who knew there were about six cartoon channels now?

Admittedly, since my son got turned on to Dora, I haven't watched a lick of the show. I don't watch any of these cartoons because I swear they hemorrhage adult brains cells at a high rate.

Alright, now I am getting long-winded. I set out in this post to say one little thing. If you want, go google Dora and you'll see what all the fuss is about. The show has been construed as political correctness run amok. Many people think it pure propaganda to "Mexicanize" America. The commercial success of this show has spawned a spin-off based around her cousin Diego (Go, Diego, Go!). Though he's not technically a little handyman, he tends to hang out at Home Depot looking for odd jobs, only takes cash, is obviously of dubious immigration status, and allegedly undercuts Bob the Builder on price.

What I wanted to mock today was this disclaimer that I noticed on Diego's program.



Yeah the entire gamut is laughable but particularly the bullet point that asserts Go, Diego, Go! "develops listening skills". Couldn't rap music make the same claim?

How about I fart on someone and demand thanks for sharpening their olfactory awareness?

There's a whole lot of brainwashing going on in these programs but it's not just the kids who are targeted; far too many parents believe the propaganda behind the shows - namely that the shows are educational. Kids are learning all the time. If they spent those hours outside playing they'd learn at least as much as from vegetating in front of the TV. Parents are either gullible or in complete denial. Nobody wants to think they are a horrible parent for plopping the kiddies in front of the TV for hours on end. Even if Dora doesn't really teach anything, if nothing else, it mitigates the guilt of parental neglect.

By the way, when I try to turn the television off my son goes ballistic. He gets wrapped up in his shows and addicted like everyone else. By all evidence, his listening skills DO NOT IMPROVE from watching Dora, Diego, or anything else.

That's why I try to keep the television watching to a bare minimum. It's for 6:30 in the morning or when there's absolutely no one available to play with.

I don't worry about my son being brainwashed by the show; he'll be sick of it in a week or two.

Tell the Morons you are teaching your kids about real explorers like Lewis and Clark and Vasco da Gama.