Is Sesame Street still safe?
James Gottry observes,
If you have kids, or if you ever were a kid, you know about the television show Sesame Street. It’s been around for more than 50 years and it’s been appropriately described as an American institution, with lovable characters, entertaining stories, and unique music. It was the first television show to base its content on educational goals and a curriculum, and for so many children (and their parents), it made learning fun.Indeed, if there’s one street that always felt safe for children, it was Sesame Street. And why not? It features a plethora of friendly puppets, an 8-foot tall yellow bird with no teeth, and a character named Mr. Snuffleupagus. Does any of this sound the least bit alarming? The show teaches concepts such as numbers and letters, and values including kindness, sharing, cooperation, and respect.But now, as culture becomes evermore polarized, and “progressive ideology” becomes increasingly “progressive,” parents need to ask themselves a serious question: Is Sesame Street still a “safe place” for my children?Sesame Street recently announced it will feature Billy Porter on an upcoming episode. Who is Billy Porter? He’s an actor and entertainer, and he’s been described as a “gay icon.” Billy stars in Pose, a television show about New York City’s LGBTQ and gender-nonconforming ballroom culture scene. In 2013, he won a Tony Award for his portrayal of “drag queen” Lola in the Broadway musical Kinky Boots. And last year, he made waves when he donned a black velvet tuxedo gown to the 2019 Oscars.What’s a parent to do?First, acknowledge the obvious. The most effective way to change the course of a nation is to begin with its children. Those who seek to advance a new sexual orthodoxy understand this as well as anyone. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that “drag queen story hour” is sweeping the country. Or that schools are implementing sex indoctrination programs under the guise of “education.” These actions are simply part of the effort to reshape how children view human biology and sexuality.
How Can Bernie Sanders Happen in America?
A number of pundits have recently argued that younger voters, especially those under 30, are less inclined to be bothered when they hear the word “socialism,” since they have no firsthand memory of the Cold War.To some extent, this must be true. Those who weren’t alive during socialism’s cruelest catastrophes — or even its many banal failures — will be less put off by the idea. Then again, if a presidential candidate were praising the excellent public transportation system of the Third Reich or going on about the some alleged benefit to American slavery, they would rightly be chased from the public square forever even though the vast majority of voters have no firsthand knowledge of the Holocaust or slavery. Anti-Semitism and racism haven’t disappeared, and neither has Marx, sadly.“Fascism is remembered as a crime,” John Hayward correctly points out. “Communism is treated like a mistake.” I’d add that capitalism is judged by its few failures and socialism by its few success. Sanders will never praise the “literary literacy programs” of any non-tyranny. But if I’ve learned anything from Twitter — or perhaps, more accurately, if Twitter has solidified any of my existing suspicions— it’s that academia is teeming with hard-left apologists. There are plenty of fantastic historians out there, of course, but many of loudest academics, the ones media often relies on, are either apologists for socialism or socialists themselves.Most educated Americans have not only seen movies depicting the Holocaust, but they’ve seen the horrifying real-life pictures of that genocide. How many of Americans have looked at pictures of the Ukrainian famine? Or the Great Leap Forward? How many Americans have ever even heard of those events?Maoism was responsible for 50 million or more deaths, and Stalinism another 20 or 30 million, but I can’t think of a single important American novel or film depicting those holocausts. Offhand I can recall one American movie that seriously portrayed the inhumanity of collectivism — The Killing Fields, though one hopes there are at least some others I’ve forgotten. That movie is now 36 years old.No, Bernie isn’t Stalin. He claims to be a democratic socialist. I get it. But there’s an array of good reasons no one says, “Hey, let’s give democratic fascism a shot.” There are just as many good reasons not to normalize socialism. At their core, both ideologies are authoritarian. The only difference is that academics and our cultural stewards have whitewashed one of them.
Woman who fled a communist country fears for America's future if socialism prevails
Monalisa Foster didn’t know bananas were supposed to be yellow. The bananas she ate were green.It wasn’t her fault. She grew up in Nicolae Ceaușescu’s communist Romania, where food was scarce and people waited in line for rations. Now, especially with the presidential election coming up, Monalisa worries that the U.S. could be headed down the same path with socialism.She writes a story based on her childhood in the short story Pretending to Sleep. She’s seen and heard things in America that remind her of her childhood in a communist country. And she’s terrified.People who root for Bernie Sanders’ socialism think it’s “the kind of socialism that comes out of your dorm room bong where you sit around stoned thinking that somehow, magically, human nature is going to change and all of a sudden people are going to just give you stuff because you want it.”What they really want is called theft. “They think that socialism is what private charity is. It’s radically different because it’s one thing when I reach into my own pocket to make the world better. It’s quite another when I reach into somebody else’s.” It isn’t just taking care of everybody and having good feelings.There’s no such thing as a free lunch. “Free food means that somebody has to provide it. So now I’ve made a slave out of the farmer and the trucker and the butcher,” Monalisa says. “And free healthcare has made slaves out of the doctors and nurses and the people that make your medicine. Free education says you’ve made slaves out of the teachers. So every time you put free this or free that you are actually taking away somebody else’s freedom because nothing is free.”
The dark side of technology withdrawal
Brad Huddleston observes,
I can’t tell you how many times, after giving a talk, a parent has come up to me and said something like, “You just described my child to a tee.”The only thing I do is give a list of the general symptoms of digital addiction with explanations. Here’s the list:
- anger
- aggression
- anxiety
- depression
- irritability
- attention deficits
- emotional numbness
There are more, but in my experience, these are the most common. I convey to my audiences that most of us experience at least some of these symptoms simply because of our daily stresses. What I’m talking about is an exacerbation of these symptoms brought on by addiction.Anger and aggression are at the top of the list for a reason. These two are the ones I hear about most often, and they can turn horrid. For example, 17-year-old Daniel Petric from Ohio made national news for shooting his parents after they took the violent video game Halo 3 away from him.[i] His mother died, and his father was injured. If you don't think it can get that extreme in your home, think again. Daniel's conviction was in 2009.[ii] Video game technology has and continues to advance at a mind-numbing pace, and the brain clearly cannot handle the ever-growing levels of stimulation.
Hong Kong church stands firm amid chaos
CE Comment: I continue to be amazed at the steadfastness of the Church in Hong Kong. I recently highlighted the impact Christians are having within this troubled region of China in a small group lesson. American Christians need to watch the Christians in Hong Kong to see how a church can stand in the midst of turmoil and cultural upheaval.
HONG KONG (BP) -- Months of unrest and protests have transformed Hong Kong from a hub of global finance to an unpredictable place of upheaval. Butch Tanner, pastor of Kowloon International Baptist Church (KIBC), sees the wear and tear from the last six months in the faces of his congregation."We've been praying for years that Hong Kong would see its brokenness and boy do they ever now," Tanner says, noting that an overwhelming sense of defeatism envelops the city with every new protest."People have lost faith in the government and even the movement. In the middle of this crisis, some people are looking for answers that they've never looked for before," Tanner says. In the mostly Buddhist and Taoist city, more people have asked him questions about his faith in recent months than in the last few years combined. "If we, in the midst of chaos, can show how you stand firm in your faith, then it helps people see Jesus."