Fox News explains why Mr. Rogers was an "evil, evil man"

That sounds more like personal property than private property. Residential buildings are not the means of production.

10 Likes

I fucking love you for that gif. Absolutely zero fucks given by mr. Rodgers.

The only thing that could make that better is if someone gave that gif the pixel sunglasses thug life meme treatment, with him smoking a joint and snoop dog audio overlay

2 Likes

My 3yo daughter and I just got home from Drag Queen Story Time at the library, where the themes were similar to Fred’s (read the book Neither if you haven’t already) If the Fox News jokers can’t even handle kids gettimg positove life lessons from Fred Rogers, they’re really not going to survive this next generation.

26 Likes

What happened to this country that we’ve gotten to the point where a huge number of people believe Nazis are heroes but Mr. Rogers is a corrupting monster? These people HAVE to know they’re evil, right? If they’ve ever heard a single story, myth or fable, seen a movie, read a book, gone to school, met a single kind person in their entire lives or had even a fleeting moment of appreciation for beauty or culture, they must realize they’re complete fucking villains and what they’re doing is horrible. You don’t grow up as a human being without SOME sense of right and wrong, even just from social osmosis. I’d expect this kind of twisted, hideous worldview from someone who was raised as a child soldier or abused from birth until the age of 18 without ever once leaving their house, not from fairly well-off Americans living relatively normal lives. Seriously, is there some kind of environmental factor at play here? Why is this considered normal??

28 Likes

Mr. Rogers would have despised the current administration and all who kiss the ring of the coward-in-chief.

6 Likes

Ron Howard told me no, they aren’t.

3 Likes

Has anyone said “late stage capitalism” yet?

Because late stage capitalism.

Seriously, America has a real problem with the worth of human life.

11 Likes

But somehow he’d be able to disapprove without saying a single mean word.

16 Likes

There’s a story behind that. It was part of a song he was singing to some kids, that went through all the different fingers. He wasn’t trying to flip anyone the bird.

10 Likes

“This bunch of kids”
Mr. Rogers went on the air in the fucking '60s and ended in the early '80s, guys. Those “kids” are in their 40s and 50s. (Or, when that clip was originally aired, in their 30s and 40s.) Christ, what assholes.

Also total fucking morons. It’s a magical combination.

Oh man, ten whole years ago! It was a different era! Everyone was a total fucking moron and soulless asshole back then!

I have stuff in my refrigerator that is more than 10 years old.

29 Likes

I’m sure they do, and that they’re just fine with it.

8 Likes

I hope Mr. Trump gets on a postage stamp – I hope I can buy some soon.

6 Likes

(Joining this refrigerator one upmanship)

My refrigerator is more than ten years old.

9 Likes

That was my thinking- Mr Rogers’ Neighbourhood was almost over when the Participation Trophy Culture properly kicked in. If he’s to blame, then why did that idiocy start in the late ‘80’s and not 15 years earlier?

2 Likes

Fascism. That’s it. Mr. Rogers was bad because he taught the inversion of proper Fascist values, which include, “You have no inherent worth. Your only worth is assigned you by your betters as the reward of obedience and usefulness.to them.”

16 Likes

OK, now I’ve finally watched the video. I think Rob oversells the “mirth” counter-angle. Yeah, there’s a person or two arguing the point, but when the question is posed most of them are cracking up- because they think it’s laughable on it’s face. I dunno, I see a bunch of people having fun with the shit sandwich they were handed. “Hmmm, study says Mr. Rogers blah blah blah, sounds ridiculous but it’s our job so have fun”. I see it as more a “can you believe someone actually says this?” kind of laugh.

It’s also interesting that I think they are panning Mr. Rogers by basically strawmanning-by-misinterpretation; to my recollection Mr. Rogers never said you were especially talented or smart or deserving of anything in particular, at least as far as I recall. I don’t recall him imparting a sense of entitlement; it was more that you are an individual and thus special. So I’m not sure they should be getting so much hate- it’s not that they think Mr. Rogers is evil, they disagree with values that Mr. Rogers didn’t actually seem to advocate.

And a nice little feminist moment stuck incongruously near the end- study shows women don’t “gossip” more than men, it’s just when men do it they call it “information sharing”.

Then the last woman notes that being told you’re special means more when it comes from someone you know than someone on TV. Which sounds right to me.

I do think that a combination of both contradictory messages (you are very special as an individual, and that you are not special at all, billions of people can do everything you can do so you better hustle your ass) is helpful. It takes a lot of confidence as an individual to head out into the world thinking you are going to do anything. Finding out you’re not actually special can be jarring- but it’s more jarring if you were raised without a sense of self and love and confidence.

3 Likes

Yes, FoxNews spends a lot of time hating on what used to be (and I’d say still is) the Christian core of the US, mainstream Methobapterians, Quakers, Mennonites, and progressive Catholics & Episcopalians. Because Mr. Rogers is a very sincere Presbyterian youth minister, he collects FoxNews hate.

Sadly, with large amounts of FoxNews help, evangelical authoritarian groups have gotten away with speaking “for all Christians” and, no, they aren’t and they don’t. One of the issues is that, like Mr. Rogers, Protestants and progressive Catholics tend to be, doh, nice and so they give the Evangelicals a chance and show the other cheek. Evangelical Christians tend strongly toward authoritarian rule but old school Protestants, Episcopalians, and so on have long, strong traditions of democratic rule within their church. In part, FoxNews dislike of these groups is anti-democratic, they don’t like them because decisions are made church-by-church, congregation by congregation, assembly by assembly, and not in a top-down fashion, as is usually the fashion in evangelical groups. All of the old school Christians group, even the most traditionally conservative, spoke out (however quietly) and voted against and took active positions against torture during the Bush era. And yet . . . Fox News (or for that matter most other media) covered Christians against torture in the most minimal possible fashion, in part, because evangelicals got tons of ink speaking out as Christians for torture. Would Mr. Rodgers accept torture? I don’t think so. Therefore, Fox hates him.

11 Likes

I always found it funny how conservatives confuse the word special to mean better.

5 Likes

I know someone who disagrees…

7 Likes

The point I would make about Mr. Rogers is that he didn’t think all people were equal in all things. Mr. Rogers loved to celebrate people who excelled in all kinds of things - singing and sports and cooking and building and dance.

He was the opposite of the world of Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron. He wanted every kid to have the chance to be great. He just wanted kids to know that being a great nurse or truck driver or teacher was something special, and it was important to be open to all of the possibilities that life presented, and recognize all of the different ways people could be special.

32 Likes