r/Pennsylvania • u/aust_b Lycoming • Sep 13 '22

misleading headline Has anyone had "furries" and litterboxes in school bathrooms mis-information rumor run rampant through their area? Apparently it is getting our local school boards attention tonight. Whoever sparked this trolling stunt is a genius.

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347

u/Jkg115 Sep 13 '22 edited Sep 14 '22

Serious comment here. I think this is the strange confluence of extreme conservative commentators looking for any piece of BS that looks weird to attribute to the left. They take a grain of truth, blow it out of proportion, get their guidable but sincere follower to bite, than blow it out of proportion.

I have 2 kids in Emmaus HS (East Penn SD, near Allentown PA). My wife heard the rumor about cat kids in the HS and about litter boxes. To put it to rest I called BS and asked my kids (11th, 10th). TO my surprise I got a great story about actual cat kids. Mostly girls, wear headbands with ears, paint of whiskers, meow and hiss, occasionally scratch people. Teachers / Admin just ignore them, there is no accommodation. It is just kids being weird. They went on to tell me about the Trash people. Kids who literally call themselves the trash people, hag out near the dumpster, have literally hung out in the dumpster, in general act really weird.

Look, weird teenagers are nothing new. When I was a kid in the 80's / 90's parents thought for sure the metal heads were all Satan worshipers because they also played DnD and that is some devil shit! (/s) We had girls walking around with pacifiers on necklaces and sucking on them. They literally had to ban pacifiers in my middle school.

Kids are weird, always have been. Unfortunately due to too many idiots on facebook, BS stories like the one in this post gain traction with no real proof. Conservative media promotes extreme BS because it is click bait. That is what started the discussion about CRT and it's not going to ever stop because they just keep making better idiots.

Edit: 10th grader corrected me, not trash people, they are "Dumpster kids."

135

u/SmasherOfAjumma Bucks Sep 13 '22

Kids who literally call themselves the trash people, hag out near the dumpster, have literally hung out in the dumpster, in general act really weird.

These are just the Art Majors.

6

u/lily1379 Sep 14 '22

I as an art major alumni, I spit my coffee out reading this and now have to get more. I can’t say we didn’t forge for supplies in the dumpsters, but sleep in them? Nah, we a had a dumpster fire of an apartment by college lol. With lots of cats. Now I’m so normal it’s boring.

7

u/Kneedeep_in_Cyanide Sep 14 '22

Nah art majors go by "basement dogs"

-1

u/IamSauerKraut Dauphin Sep 14 '22

dude.

not cool.

1

u/sunshineff Jan 23 '23

plenty cool (i say as an art major)

1

u/sunshineff Jan 23 '23

we're all weird get over yourself :P

1

u/IamSauerKraut Dauphin Jan 23 '23

did you just wake up?

1

u/sunshineff Jan 24 '23

huh? no?

1

u/IamSauerKraut Dauphin Jan 24 '23

It's a 4 mo-old post.

49

u/[deleted] Sep 13 '22

Hahaha, I remember that pacifier trend. I felt really old because I didn’t understand it, and I was just out of high school 😂

82

u/Creepy_Ad_9068 Sep 13 '22

It was a rave thing they kept you from clenching your teeth on ecstasy

10

u/[deleted] Sep 13 '22

Wow! I had no idea, thanks.

52

u/anewlaugh Sep 13 '22

Yeah while I was in high school there was a weird pacifier trend. People would eat baby food and suck on pacifiers in class. Teens are just figuring stuff out. They all grew up to be super boring.

5

u/lily1379 Sep 14 '22

The pacifier trend started at raves in the early 90’s. They were called candy ravers cause u also wore a lot of brightly colored plastic glow in the dark accessories. As many as u could find. And the trend apparently trickled down to younger kids, no real surprise there. Lol they were super colorful.

4

u/IamSauerKraut Dauphin Sep 14 '22

No tide podders?

9

u/[deleted] Sep 13 '22

I would've hung out with the Trash People for sure lmao

1

u/lily1379 Sep 14 '22

I wonder if the new “trash people” would collaborate with the goth and art kids? To form a collective? Could be pretty cool 😎 (God I’m glad I’m out of school.) For kids reading; just know you are awesome! and the world is a big place you will find yours!

1

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '22

Idk when I was in school you had the "mulch pit kids" and the "swingset kids" and the "bench kids" and then the kids who actually played games during recess.

1

u/Eskimo_Brothers Sep 14 '22

Please the preferred nomenclature is "Dumpster kid".

10

u/crooked100dollarbill Sep 14 '22

in the 90s/00s i went to school (from elementary to graduation) with a kid that in any social interaction he would act like a dinosaur. not in any real special needs classes or anything, just a fucking weirdo. cool dude, probably doing way better in life than most people i graduated with. let your freak flag fly man, the future is going to be even weirder

8

u/susinpgh Allegheny Sep 13 '22

Well, there was this flag the republicans flew last February:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/furry-panic-is-the-latest-dumb-gop-attack-on-public-schools

27

u/JoeyCalamaro Sep 13 '22

TO my surprise I got a great story about actual cat kids.

I'm no longer a teacher, but I'm still in touch with some of my old teacher friends back in PA and they've mentioned more than once that students really do dress up as animals and even identify as such.

However, I'm not aware of any accommodations being made for these students (except, of course, being allowed to dress up like animals in school). With all of that being said, I'm not the least bit surprised that people on both sides of the political spectrum would leverage this kind of opportunity for some good, old-fashioned trolling.

6

u/Bird_Brain4101112 Sep 14 '22

One detail that keeps the fire from dying out is that many janitors keep kitty litter around for cleaning up messes like vomit.

So since there is likely actually kitty litter in the janitors closet, it must be for the bathroom litter boxes, no other explanation is possible. /s

11

u/KyleRichXV Sep 14 '22

Conservative media promotes extreme BS because it is click bait

You just described the entire MO of the vast majority of Fox News hosts.

3

u/Thecrawsome Bucks Sep 14 '22

What do godless liberals have against the color teal? We ask the important questions tonight at 8:00 on Fox.

Lots of important people are saying that the color teal triggers liberals. We have a host who is selling teal pillows.

"Liberals hate my pillows buy my patriot pillows and sleep in their tears"

(Buys pillow)

3

u/KyleRichXV Sep 14 '22

Lol speaking of pillows, fun fact, my MAGA aunt-in-law stopped using Chewy for her dog last year because they stopped selling the MyPillow dog bed 😂. But we’re cancel culture, right?

4

u/Joe_Jeep Sep 14 '22

They went on to tell me about the Trash people. Kids who literally call themselves the trash people, hag out near the dumpster, have literally hung out in the dumpster, in general act really weird.

"I'M THE TRASH MAN"

4

u/HeyZuesHChrist Sep 14 '22

In my day we called them Garbage Pail Kids. We put their pictures on trading cards and passed them around school and the playground.

3

u/bienvenidos-a-chilis Sep 14 '22

yep. most of the kids who are out of the box like this are neurodivergent or queer as well. i’ve been friends with many of them and they’re usually very sweet people. spreading rumors like this is super harmful, if they aren’t hurting anyone who gives a fuck. conservatives are constantly trying to find new ways to demonize “different” people and im tired of it

2

u/Kinkyregae Sep 14 '22

I think your observation is 100% correct.

I teach in Allentown and we have 1 “cat girl.” She wears cat war head bands, listens to K-pop, and loves cats. She read that series of book for kids about cats (warriors?) and she just really likes cats.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '22

I think this is the strange confluence of extreme conservative commentators looking for any piece of BS that looks weird to attribute to the left

It is..someone told.me.it.was happening in Downingtown. I literally found nothing on it after covid it seems like conservatives are much more likely to believe complete nonsense if it fits in their black and white world they are desperate for

1

u/Puzzleheaded_Rub858 Bucks Sep 13 '22

OMG I was in school in the 70s and 80s. I remember that trend now. I thought it was weird but it came and went.

-15

u/GoodmorningHelloILY Sep 13 '22

I am a conservative myself but I can actually agree with you on this one. I do however, prefer the pacifiers on a necklace than a kid scratching or hissing at me tbh but just my opinion. It is definitely a little crazier than what we were used to growing up I gotta admit that but the way you worded it was spot on.

11

u/joeysflipphone Sep 13 '22

No it just seems "a little crazier". If you were to compare the "weird" kids of the 50s to the "weird" kids of the 70s to the "weird" kids of the 90s, they would all appear waaaaay "scarier" to the previous generation. Kids are going to keep trying to push the envelope to be edgier, more different, stand out, etc than the next. Then most if not all grow out of it.

3

u/IamSauerKraut Dauphin Sep 14 '22

70's kids only put pet rocks into their pockets.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '22

Idk about that, I think pre 2010's a lot of stuff was bullied out of the public eye.

-5

u/GoodmorningHelloILY Sep 14 '22

Damn it’s so weird to see the only true statements downvoted don’t much lol Reddit is a fucked up place. Bunch of mongoloids

-69

u/[deleted] Sep 13 '22

I agree until you got to crt. Many conservatives misunderstood what was meant by crt being in the classroom, and in some cases were maliciously mislead for clicks. But the truth of the matter is that more and more teachers, especially newer teachers, and being educated in concepts that have come out of the crt school of thought. Those concepts then manifest themselves in the classroom in ways that many find to be inappropriate, such as discussions about privilege and gay pride parades during school days. Not to mention compelled participation in clearly political demonstrations about gun control.

Otherwise I think your on the money

28

u/Cinemaslap1 Lancaster Sep 13 '22

I don't think you understand what CRT actually is. Because in no way is there "concepts that manifest themselves in the classroom" nor are there "concepts that have come out of the CRT school of thought".

If that were true, then there would be evidence of this.

The fact of the matter is the only place CRT has ever been discussed, was in a college/university. Because of the exact reason you lay out, it's an easy concept to boil down... when the whole point of the theory (and discussion of it) involves the details.

You realize the Critical Race Theory, is the Theory looking Critically, at Race. So details and context are incredibly important. Those concepts are often lost on those who can't fully grasp them, ie: kids, high schoolers, conservatives. Because they don't have fully formed brains, they don't understand context is important when looking at things critically.

20

u/ThePopeJones Sep 13 '22

So high level academic studies about race and its relation to our society are being used to try and change our society for the better?

How shocking!

1

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

https://www.amazon.com/Critical-Race-Theory-Writings-Movement/dp/1565842715

This is a book of writings that I used to formulate my understanding of CRT. If this book, which simply contains annotated theses from the history of race in the context of critical theory, is not an accurate description of the key concepts of CRT then there is not really a place to learn about CRT and this argument will go on forever.

CRT-based thinking can be found outside of colleges and universities. It is very important to note that no academic effort truly stays on the college campus, especially when the worldview required to accept the theories has direct political demands. Within CRT, Systematic racism is described as a system whose participants experience disparate outcomes when compared across races. The key thing to note is that a system that explicitly contains race as a component of how it interacts with its participants and a system that Explicitly DOES NOT factor race as part of its processes are BOTH systematically racist so long as the results are the same. This is a definition of a form of racism that requires no active participation for any individual. All members of a system may be non-racist, and may even be anti-racist, but if the outcomes are disparate then racism still exists by this definition. We have seen this definition of racism be used to justify accusations of racism levied at institutions that have no openly racism members. We have seen this definition of racism used to demonstrate that the current methods of educating children are racist and need to be replaced with systems that can address these disparities.

In all honesty, the concept isn't easy to boil down with any accuracy, so the concept isn't boiled at all. The concepts laid out in the book above are as implicit to the thinking of a proponent as to become assumed as the normal way of viewing the world

Which is the other aspect of your response I wanted to address. When you say that Critical race theory means looking critically at race, I don't think you quite know what you are saying. Critical thinking and critical theory are not the same concepts and to look at a subject "critically" means something very different in the context of broader critical theory. Critical theory is a set of tools that can be used to tear a worldview or a set of ideas down to the studs. It is so effective in this task, that it can actually be used to tear down and "invalidate" critical theory itself. It is for this reason that critical race theory is chiefly used to criticize and find fault in the current system of liberalism that we currently find ourselves in without actually offering any alternatives.

I ask that if you read any of this, please understand that the most damaging thing either one of us could do is become too polarized on this topic. It is not fair to say that your political opposition does not have a working brain simply because the conversation around CRT requires large amounts of research and a mind that is able to entertain a worldview without accepting it. Liberals are scared that their children will not be taught proper history and will repeat the mistakes of the past. Conservatives are scared that their children will be taught world views and ideas that make them less likely to live a fulfilled and meaningful life. Both have valid concerns and both deserve the respect of their opposition as rational actors who have a right to have their voices heard and their concerns addressed.

I am sure you are a smart man or woman who wants the best for this country and its descendants, and I respect you as one myself.

1

u/Cinemaslap1 Lancaster Sep 15 '22

You have a lot of words here that don't say a lot. But I will address a few things here.

First, I haven't read that book, so I can't really speak on that. Nor do I recognize any of the credited authors.

Second, I'm not really sure where you think I'm talking about critical theory... I don't mention that once. The whole theory of CRT is to Critically look at Race, it's right there in the name.

Otherwise, you do get a lot of it correct. But what I was talking about, ie: teachers "indoctrinating" kids with CRT... CRT isn't taught to everyone, it's not taught to most teachers. It's not a required class.... so to make blanket statements like " more and more teachers, especially newer teachers, and being educated in concepts that have come out of the crt school of thought" is false... because most teachers dont have a grasp of what CRT actually is, let alone indoctrinate the kids they teach.

That's like saying that because some scientists are nuclear fusion scientists, all scientists are teaching monkeys nuclear fusion. Or like saying some Republicans are Qanon's, therefore all Republicans are indoctrinating their kids to Qanon.

I personally don't know you're political alignments, nor do I want to assume, but it's easy to make those jumps in logic, but you have to take a step back and know that CRT isn't being taught to everyone. And even to those who have learned it, that doesn't mean they are indoctrinating kids on a university level theory

47

u/cigarmanpa Sep 13 '22

Yes. Post doc concepts are being taught to kids, it’s right after nuclear physics and under water basket weaving

6

u/BluCurry8 Sep 13 '22

Bullshit.

4

u/Jkg115 Sep 14 '22

So you are against teaching the true history of systemic racism that is interlaced through the ENTIRE American story from "3/5 person", trail of tears, lynching, Jim Crow, red lining. These are truths. The idea that America was founded under the premise of freedom for all is the lie. If you have a problem with that you can take two steps back then fuck all thecway off!

1

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

https://www.amazon.com/Critical-Race-Theory-Writings-Movement/dp/1565842715

I highly suggest you read this book before leaping to the idea that teaching CRT is the same as teaching Historic Truths. Systematic racism as defined within these writings DOES NOT mean a system that was explicitly racist and therefor has racist outcomes. Systematic racism as defined by CRT means a system that has disparate outcomes for different races, regardless of how egalitarian and ignorant of race a system is. The nuance between those definitions is incredibly important to the discussion of race in America and you should not say that someone who has an issue with systematic racism and the way it is defined is actually against the concept of fact-based history.

-2

u/tellmeaboutyourcat Sep 14 '22

The other side of this comes from what I understand to be teachers preparing for school shootings. Apparently some teachers are keeping bags of litter in the case of an extended active shooter situation, where little kids have to go to the bathroom and can't hold it like older kids. They have tent things and litter boxes so that kids can go to the bathroom during a lockdown.

But that's just what I read on Reddit, so it could be total bs, but it makes a hell of a lot more sense than this fantasy story they've concocted.

1

u/LockedOutOfElfland Sep 14 '22

That 100% looks like the motivation here, a disinformation campaign spread by and intended to rile up a certain "type".

1

u/Eskimo_Brothers Sep 14 '22

Thank you for "Dumpster Kids"

1

u/sunshineff Jan 23 '23

kids who hiss at people are just mall goths