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Yakubian Ape's avatar

This is the kind of stuff I want to put on a greatest hits compilation of my favorite esoteric articles titled, "Now! That's what I call Schizo!" Not literally, of course, but you're really tapping into the fundamentals here that a lot of people - myself included, at times - really don't want to admit.

I was never big on Seasame Street, or at least no more so than any other kid, since they're ubiquitous in American culture, but a couple years back on a certain Tibetan Shadow Puppetry Forum's political board, I remember stumbling upon a thread pertaining to Seasame Street and a particular experiment run by the United States government in the 60's which may or may not be about mind control. I don't remember the specifics but the broad strokes was how Seasame Street was well-documented and proud to talk about the cutting edge pediatric psychology used to formulate the "most ideal" way of communicating and "teaching" children, and, of course, if yoj pick at the various individuals who were involved... well, all roads lead to Langely, one way or a other. Mostly through association, but that's suspicious enough.

I actually encountered a prime example myself - and this is what REALLY tipped me off that there's more to this theory than is comfortable. In late 2020, maybe early 2021 Steve Burns of Blue's Clues fame put on his old green shirt and did an address to the internet. It wasn't so much a "wear a mask and get the shot" lecture, just "I'm so proud of who you grew up to be" pablum. Not the worst message in the world, honestly a bit sweet, but it turned so sour so fast because people went NUTS over it. I mean, you had Redditors, man-children, and the extremely socially maladjusted proclaiming this "whole epic chungus 100" to be this great savior and how we all need to love each other in these unorecedented times... unless you didn't get the shot, in which case you could die. The response to his little three minute video was very religious. Given that I've yet to fully outgrow childish things myself, I attended Emerald City Comicon, and, long story short, Steve Burns was doing a Q&A panel. It was billed as a main event and you had to get a seperate ticket from your pass to even enter the room. Well, nothing else was happening at the time so me and my friends snuck in through the back because, at first, we didn't even know it was paid, we were just keeping a low profile because we didn't want to wear masks. The room was about half full, which, for a room as big as the one it was in, was no mean feat. But what really amazed me was, again, the reverence people treated this man with. Lauding him as if he'd discovered the cure for cancer, or something, about how he "changed their life" and "helped them through tough times" and, saddest of all, "you were a parent when mine were too busy for me". It was a lot of very damaged people (some visibly, with the typical aposematic signs), almost worshipping this guy. Many of them were wearing Steve's iconic green shirt or carrying Blue's Clues toys. Me and my friends were snickering about how ridiculous it was - especially when some attempted to sing a song from the show, or, worse, several of the people who attempted to do impressions of the dog - but the stark reality is that it's tragic that so many of these people came from broken families or tough situations and were quite literally conditioned to see this man as a surrogate parent via parasocial conditioning.

And, what's most fascinating of all - Steve Burns told the story of how he was chosen for the role. Apparently, they had "child psychologist" consultants that had written about how children are very easily imprinted on by a television host because, as you said about Grover, they can't tell that Steve the host of Blue's Clues isn't Steve Burns. And, apparently, children responded better to him than any of the other hosts, which even he said was strange because he was a punk rock guy before he became almost defined by the Blues Clues role. That programming - the establishment of a parasocial relationship - runs deep. Look at the way children gravitate towards various YouTube figures like the very questionable Mr.Beast - you see the same thing. Very funny how Mr.Beast - a supposedly self-made creator - has been propped up for almost his entire career by a production company that is basically a shell front for... what for it... Disney! Who also owns... that's right - Seasame Street! Curious, isn't it?

I don't know if Steve Burns or Jim Henson were really concious of what was at play behind them, and what they were being used for. I like to think they weren't, but, at the same time, I feel like it would be very difficult to plead total ignorance, no matter how kind of genial they may seem. Or maybe that's just my own conditioning speaking. Point is, a lot of people will say this is crazy talk, but the people responsible for these shows openly admit to and brag about the mental trickery and psychological manipulation techniques they use. They're just so effective at "teaching", why wouldn't you boast? It's not like they can even comprehend what you did.

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Gary Sharpe's avatar

When they started to use Sesame Street to get kids to pressurise adults into giving them the jab, they showed their true colours [pun intended] and we saw behind the curtain in the Emerald palace at the end of the Yellow brick road.

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