• Evkob@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • Crampon@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

    • Carnelian@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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

      • RojoSanIchiban@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

    • Holzkohlen@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      and think that the education system is some globalist socialist catgirl plot

      I want to believe

    • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      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

      • Bonehead@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        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.

        • blindsight@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          Wikipedia has a source for the “lockdown kitty litter” concept mentioned above:

          The only known official instance of cat litter being placed in school classrooms for potential use by students was in the late 2010s by the Jefferson County Public School District in Colorado, where the 1999 Columbine High School massacre took place. Some teachers were given “go buckets” that contained cat litter to be used as a toilet in an emergency lockdown situation, such as during a school shooting.[4][43][44]

          Weird, but I suppose it’s sensible. Better than having kids pee themselves in an extended lockdown.