Based Camp - My Little Pony's Argument for a Racist Colonialist Monarchy

00:00:00.000 hello simone i'm excited to be with you today a lot of people find it pretty humorous that the

00:00:07.520 my little pony fandom was one of the predecessors to the modern online right culture and a lot of

00:00:16.240 people look at this show superficially and even in the early days it had a lot of right-wing

00:00:22.400 fans right and they're like but how and i want to turn this around on you how can anyone watch the

00:00:31.700 my little pony show and not seeing that it's a show that explicitly advocate advocates for racism

00:00:39.980 racial segregation or at least what leftists would call racism not what rightists would call racism

00:00:44.560 monarchism colonialism and and anti-communism that communism is evil as well as anti-technological

00:00:55.600 progress progress so we're going to go into all of these the my little pony show and its political

00:01:02.460 theming is far to the right of a thinker like munchess mulba i i might even argue that my little

00:01:11.380 pony is far to the right of nick fuentes um wow and so we're gonna go like like it's it's so far right

00:01:20.860 it makes me uncomfortable but it built an entire generation of right-wing extremists by incepting

00:01:31.820 them through a kids show like no someone like you might think i'm exaggerating we're gonna go over one

00:01:37.460 episode here where the villain and this is like a core big bad villain of the show and this is a

00:01:43.120 two-part arc so it's like a big show okay everybody has like their inborn proficiencies which are

00:01:49.500 represented by their cutie marks the things they are naturally good at yeah this is the little the

00:01:54.280 little like logo that ends up on yeah that says i am uniquely good at x sort of a task yeah it's kind of

00:02:01.500 like i don't know with hogwarts like you you don't find out what house you're in or what your special

00:02:05.820 skill is until you're you're older so right but it is it is clearly like genetic in this world

00:02:12.200 for example it's mentioned that in one part they're talking about like what apple jack's sister little

00:02:18.060 sister is going to have and they go well it's probably going to be something to do with apples

00:02:20.720 because in our family it's always something to do with apples and she removes them all and replaces 1.00

00:02:25.060 them with an equal sign literally like you know the one the progressives use in like pro-gay

00:02:30.660 protests and stuff like that and then they all march around the town in what is clearly supposed

00:02:36.660 to be communist style marches

00:02:39.360 i'm sorry i'm just having a hard time understanding different talents lead to different opinions which

00:02:58.220 lead to bitterness and misery and so we'll get into that in a second but i want to start less than

00:03:04.840 that so let's look at how does it handle colonialism right surely this like i'm gonna read you this

00:03:13.520 episode you're gonna be like how did somebody write this and then how is this conceivably approved

00:03:20.900 okay so the conflict arises between settler ponies of appalucia a joke on the apple jacks who are a

00:03:30.380 country scene the pony being an appellation but anyway plant an apple orchard on the buffalo's

00:03:37.740 traditional stampeding grounds without their permission now the buffalo are a different species

00:03:42.260 that dress up like native americans oh my gosh okay clearly making it clear that in the my little pony

00:03:48.400 universe species as well as the different cast of ponies are allegories for race blocking a path 0.96

00:03:56.520 central to their heritage the buffalo led by chief thunder hooves demands the tree's removal viewing

00:04:04.200 the land as sacred we have a long and winding stampede trail that we run upon for many generations

00:04:09.660 the ponies refuse citing the investment in the land for food and survival the resolution comes mid

00:04:15.940 battle mid battle so you may say how did these ponies battle the the indians so they they battle them 0.99

00:04:25.980 by throwing apple pies at their faces so they bring apple pies as as weapons so keep in mind in this

00:04:32.580 allegory apple pies are weapons okay industrially produced weapons the resolution comes mid battle

00:04:40.660 after chief thunder hoof tastes an apple pie thrown at him as a weapon and proposes a deal where the ponies

00:04:47.860 keep the orchard but uproot some trees to create a clear path for the buffalo stampede in exchange the

00:04:53.840 buffalo receive a share of the apple pies so they trade the allegory for guns industrially produced

00:05:03.960 guns to the colonized people 1.00

00:05:06.800 without making any like major concessions in terms of their industrialization plans

00:05:14.100 it's basically saying oh you people who are being colonized you'll change your mind about this

00:05:20.940 when you understand all of the great things you'll get from industrialization like guns

00:05:26.800 there isn't really another way and this isn't done as like a shaky compromise or something like this

00:05:35.780 effing pinky pie does a whole song about how great this is so for viewers who don't know the show

00:05:43.540 the pony the country themed pony that you're about to see talk

00:05:47.040 is the world's avatar of honesty like she is a magically chosen pony once for generation

00:05:55.320 for being like the most honest a pony could possibly be and she defends colonization

00:06:03.380 they busted their rumps here and now they're supposed to bust their rumps again just because

00:06:07.440 some buffalo won't stampede someplace else the buffalo had it first the settler ponies needed to

00:06:13.840 land come on applejack you're being unreasonable can you like just simone you writer's room

00:06:20.100 they're like let's handle colonization okay they didn't have to make an episode about colonization

00:06:26.400 they didn't have to make an episode where they dressed up a different species like native americans

00:06:31.060 no they didn't have to make them childish and stampede pointlessly from one place to another

00:06:37.400 they did not they did not but they set all this up clearly because they're like let's do a a colonizer

00:06:43.540 episode and the point of the episode could have been we're not so different or something no they

00:06:49.840 literally made the key conflict of the episode the settlers taking their ancestral land and they

00:06:56.120 literally made the resolution to that being everybody wants the fruits of civilization

00:07:01.580 just compromise on your tradition

00:07:05.560 i mean aren't aren't the writers of this progressive though

00:07:13.300 what's going on i don't know what no you will progressively see as you go down this i don't

00:07:19.720 think they are i think they may be like secretly like super racist keep in mind this isn't like we

00:07:26.220 we regularly see in the show is this just the the like progressive to racist horseshoe where

00:07:31.920 when you remove the technical aesthetics of our reality you see their true philosophy just come

00:07:41.820 through and how they actually feel about everything which actually is everyone will be the urban

00:07:46.440 monoculture eventually racist and imperialist and classist i mean in the end the urban monoculture is all

00:07:51.580 those things extreme it's the most imperialist it's the most classist it's the most racist no this this

00:07:57.180 show and we'll get into themes it has that are anti-urban monoculture in the extreme oh okay so

00:08:02.220 that's off my theory i guess although they they do hate themselves though so maybe not yeah this isn't

00:08:07.700 the only time you know we see other instances because there are other species than ponies and we see

00:08:13.100 this world like the ponies begin apparently the various races of ponies used to fight with each other

00:08:18.300 and then they came together in sort of a class-based social structure based on their race which we'll

00:08:27.320 get to in a second and they they then fought off because one of the classes the pegasus became the

00:08:32.960 military branch initially so clearly they were fighting an outside force so we see other species that are

00:08:39.500 on like the fringes of the equestrian world and and clearly we see how they're pushed back and we see that

00:08:45.340 they are treated with racism within pony society so like a zebra lives in the woods outside of the

00:08:51.360 main town called ponyville cora oh yeah reaction was there her isn't she like the sort of witch 1.00

00:08:56.960 doctory one oh yeah no it's super racist the way she's depicted right she is a witch doctor who speaks 0.95

00:09:03.260 in rhymes who is clearly supposed to be allegorical for black people like africans specifically so

00:09:09.380 anyway she and and and tribalistic africans because she's very tribalistic even after they learn oh 1.00

00:09:16.600 she's not that bad they don't like welcome her into the town until like the 22nd season of this show

00:09:24.680 she still lives in a shack in the woods okay she is friends with like the literal princess of this land

00:09:33.760 okay because one of the main characters becomes a princess and the princess can't even requisition

00:09:41.040 her a house she still has to live in a wooden shack outside of town but no that is what is needed to 1.00

00:09:50.040 maintain the friendship of harmony so wow at the heart of the society show you have three categories

00:10:02.080 of ponies okay and and they're clearly allegorical for racial differences all right right there's

00:10:09.320 there's unicorns that have the horn there's unicorns who can use magic yes pegasuses who can fly yes and

00:10:17.000 then there's and then there's ponies earth ponies just they don't have anything that they just they're

00:10:23.740 not a peg well i mean it said when they're talked about that they have a special connection to the land

00:10:29.300 sure except we are seen through multiple scenes that this is categorically not true so they say

00:10:36.120 they have a special connection to the animals and land and yet which of the ponies can talk to animals

00:10:41.120 the freaking pegasus yeah it's the pegasus it's the only pony we know that can talk to animals that's

00:10:45.860 okay for those wonders and then we learn in the second season like the the reboot of the show 0.68

00:10:52.000 earth ponies are said to get magic for the first time and it is plant-based magic but it is it is

00:10:58.700 stated that they didn't have this form of magic before which implies that they didn't have some

00:11:03.640 special connection to plants moreover when their cutie marks are switched sorry i am i am getting

00:11:09.080 feisty about this when their cutie marks are switched applejack's cutie mark is switched with

00:11:13.480 pinky pie's cutie mark who is also an earth pony who tries to take over the farm and is unable to run

00:11:19.520 it and everything is dying so even as an earth pony it's shown that it is not because applejack is an

00:11:25.560 earth pony that she is good at this it's because applejack is applejack that she's good at this

00:11:29.120 when another earth pony attempts to take over the farm she is unable to do it so you might be like oh 0.96

00:11:35.500 so there's there's one class of ponies without any special skills right how is society maintained

00:11:42.020 if that's the case and the answer is segregation and we'll get to how this is done but what you will

00:11:47.580 notice is outside of the main town that the show takes place in most of the cities are segregated

00:11:53.060 by ethnic group e.g by species with the pegasus uh living mostly in cloudsdale you can see well the

00:12:00.560 other species can't live in cloudsdale except we know that's not true because twilight gives the rest

00:12:05.520 a spell so that they can walk on the cloud of cloudsdale so that could happen to other ponies and

00:12:10.660 then we see canterlot the main city is predominantly this would be like the capital where the aristocrats and

00:12:16.400 wealthy and academics live is predominantly just unicorns very very few other ponies are there

00:12:23.080 and so yeah it is it is a a class segregated society but more than being class segregated it

00:12:29.800 is almost as if the earth ponies are genetically modified to be something of an underclass in that

00:12:38.780 they are uniquely eager to please and affable and they seem to be a genetically inherited trait within

00:12:45.880 them in the song about the character's flaws we see applejack the earth pony literally serve as a

00:12:53.680 footstool for rarity the unicorn i can be a drama queen a bit stuck up it's true and i can be too eager

00:13:03.400 to please we we see the two primary earth ponies characteristics being that they really want to

00:13:09.060 like the pinky pie really wants to make people laugh and make people happy and rarity sorry not

00:13:14.580 rarity applejack overwhelmingly wants to please people and is seen as very very eager to please

00:13:18.940 we do see earth ponies without this trait like filthy rich but they are definitely the minority in

00:13:24.540 earth pony society whereas within unicorn society the majority seem to be arrogant and intellectual

00:13:32.500 and within pegasus society they appear to be very athletic militaristic and competitive yeah well

00:13:40.260 though fluttershy is not hmm no of course there there there are you know outliers within this this

00:13:49.040 system but basically what this show argues more broadly is you should take jobs and live in places

00:13:56.340 that are aligned or coherent with your ethnic abilities and and and talents yeah if you are

00:14:04.640 born a pegasus you know you should live among other pegasus but you know if your if your talents are

00:14:11.280 needed in another town like an earth pony town like to maintain the weather within that town because you 1.00

00:14:16.580 would need a pegasus to maintain the weather within every earth pony town you can go to that town and 0.80

00:14:20.980 help them with the tasks that you are uniquely suited for you know if if you are a asian you know you

00:14:27.300 should go be a doctor in a majority white settlement because they're just not going to be able to handle 0.98

00:14:31.620 that task on their own if you're a jew you should go be a banker in a majority white settlement because 0.98

00:14:36.620 they're just not going to be able to handle that on their own and you know if you're an earth pony

00:14:41.220 if you look at like the way things are produced in this world the earth ponies manage this sort of 0.82

00:14:47.080 underclass of ponies it's very obsequious essentially manages the production of everything

00:14:52.140 other than luxury goods the the pegasus take on the job of military and controlling the weather which

00:14:58.380 you know obviously they can use this to get the earth ponies to do whatever they want because the

00:15:01.920 earth ponies can't grow anything without them and the unicorns seem to almost as a favor to the earth

00:15:10.640 ponies segregate themselves and this is what's really interesting is it is the show portrays

00:15:16.940 segregation as beneficial to the underclasses specifically equestrian geography and economy

00:15:27.500 reinforce the de facto segregation implying the racist race-based divisions lead to smoother

00:15:32.320 operation than forced multiculturalism if professions were integrated then resentment would brew

00:15:38.560 why hire an earth pony baker when a unicorn could levitate ingredients faster the economy works because 1.00

00:15:44.540 the racists quote-unquote know their place echoing arguments that racial hegemony in vocations reduces

00:15:51.300 friction and boosts productivity that i find to be kind of cool because it could shy away from this right

00:15:57.980 like it could not touch the fact that unicorns can do basically anything earth ponies can do but better

00:16:04.580 than earth ponies right but no the show goes into this extremely hardcore there's an episode called a

00:16:11.240 super speedy cider squeezy 6000 where the flim fram brothers a group of two unicorns

00:16:18.000 create a machine that uses magic to automatically both pick and press cider

00:16:24.480 meaning that they could create a near infinite amount and increase cider production significantly

00:16:42.920 it's the spinning jenny of equestria it is

00:16:45.880 but it's framed as this very negative thing right the applejack family they're like well we'll take 0.50

00:16:53.680 75 of the product profits as they should because they're basically removing all of the yearly work

00:16:58.940 of the apple family i mean the apple family keeps 25 but they'll be able to produce more and faster and

00:17:04.320 expand their land right but the apple family's having none of this they're like no progress is bad

00:17:09.620 industrial progress is bad why would this world be so anti-industrial progress well it's because

00:17:15.600 if unicorns just come out and do this and i note here you might be thinking is the machine defective

00:17:22.520 in some way does it poison the cider in some way does it no the machine is shown to completely do

00:17:28.660 everything they promise it can do it doesn't break and start making mistakes until to keep up because

00:17:35.040 they do a competition where they're like well whoever is better you doing this on your own or us

00:17:39.460 running the machine that's who wins the the rights to sell to apple this town okay yeah and applejack

00:17:46.700 basically cheating just works really hard in a way that is obviously unsustainable and against the

00:17:52.640 spirit of the competition and so the brothers remove the limiter the thing that's supposed to

00:17:58.380 maintain the the maximum quality of the spider and it ends up including parts like bad apples it ends

00:18:06.860 up including and stems it ends up including and everything like that which again that now they're

00:18:13.160 end up being framed as like very bad because of this but i'd actually point out applejack broke the

00:18:19.320 spirit of the competition more than they did the point of the competition was to find out which way in

00:18:22.780 a sustainable fashion was a better way to do this you know that's the point of competing one thing 0.65

00:18:26.780 against another thing if you work so hard that you die at the end like that famous case where the guy

00:18:31.300 competed against the steam engine you haven't shown that humans are better you you've shown that

00:18:35.980 pushing yourself to your absolute limit second they technically won the competition the competition

00:18:41.220 was about how much you could produce not about the quality of what was produced true on on two fronts

00:18:46.960 applejack cheated within this competition but what is shown from this is that the the segregation of this

00:18:57.060 world you know unicorns not interfering in the tasks of earth ponies even though they can do them much

00:19:03.720 better and at a much higher capacity is a good thing the unicorn self-segregating to the you know if

00:19:10.880 you if you look at the unicorn characters at this show we know one is very academic from the twilight

00:19:15.200 but if you if twilight's engaging with like any other intellectual in the show they're almost always a

00:19:20.080 unicorn the other is is very high high society high status producing cultural goods rarity who owns

00:19:27.020 a dress shop and when she's engaging with other high society ponies they are often unicorns so the

00:19:33.280 unicorns it's basically like we let this group that is naturally better than us control the wealth

00:19:44.020 predominantly and the status roles and the you know noble titles and in exchange they don't take

00:19:53.160 the few jobs where we are still able to compete in any meaningful way

00:19:58.220 yeah so it's more than just the standard argument of you know yes there are racial differences yes some

00:20:08.920 people won't conform to those differences like fluttershy but broadly speaking you should lean into your

00:20:15.880 differences and self-segregate and society will run do you see how right like they're this isn't me

00:20:23.700 reading something that's not intended into the show like i mean but the friends i mean this is my little

00:20:30.220 pony friendship is magic and the friends are from different groups there's two pegasuses two earth

00:20:36.660 ponies no two unicorns and yeah two earth ponies so there's two there's two of each but they all fall into

00:20:44.720 their groups racial stereotypes the the except for fluttershy fluttershy is the only one who doesn't

00:20:50.420 fit her groups as no stereotype as as established by the show and note the show treats this as weird

00:20:58.320 as having a group with a bunch of different races all friends with each other this is this is shown as

00:21:03.680 being the not normal thing within this world i'd also note another thing about the show very not

00:21:09.820 right wing is the world is very clearly matriarchal society oh yeah no yeah like super clearly men are 1.00

00:21:19.340 100 accessories yeah men have virtually no positions of power in this world there's no male members of 0.79

00:21:26.880 the monarchy there are no male elected officials that we see mayor mayor is a female the most powerful 0.97

00:21:33.720 male i'm familiar with is either shining whatever his name is twilight's brother who ends up marrying

00:21:41.640 into the monarchy but does not appear to become a king or a prince he's still a royal guard very much

00:21:47.240 a woman's fantasy i get to be queen and married to a royal guard he doesn't change status he still

00:21:53.000 walks around protecting me all tough and and the other one i would think of is filthy rich just another

00:21:58.120 powerful male who achieved i guess wealth through mercantilism but this is there's a there's a

00:22:05.960 series of fan fictions about this that really made me realize it called my little pony fallout equestria

00:22:11.640 really like the series it's very good it takes place in the fallout equestria universe very dark i love

00:22:16.680 mixing the the bright bubbliness of this with the dystopian of this in a way that highlights how

00:22:21.720 actually dystopian everything was all along and in it in one of the vaults if you know the fallout

00:22:26.280 universe they run different experiments in the various vaults one of the vaults of the experiment

00:22:31.320 is what if we put males in positions of power and one of the characters grew up in this vault and is

00:22:36.920 always making faux paws in the world and just doesn't understand why men should be seen as an underclass

00:22:42.520 and it really puts this in stark contrast how much everyone else in pony society assumes that males

00:22:48.760 should be seen as a as a rightful underclass without complaint and and no no nobody complains about

00:22:55.400 this anywhere in the show if even even you can be like well what about like the more can like

00:23:00.760 conservative even coded parts of this like the appellation coded applejack character and her

00:23:06.920 family that's very much like a clan based family structure which is interesting i never thought about

00:23:11.240 that but yeah they do a very good job of showing appellation culture but anyway no her family is 0.77

00:23:16.200 clearly run by applejack the not even the oldest of the siblings her big brother big mac is basically

00:23:23.240 treated as a workhorse oh yeah and doesn't really talk about he's almost the lurch of the family

00:23:32.120 yeah even though he's older and bigger and does more work and the family is is is very obviously if

00:23:38.760 you look at like the structure of a default run by the grandmother uh if not if not you know the the

00:23:44.760 older sister who's still the younger of big mac so very dystopian in that and i just love that it was

00:23:52.280 like they they just wrote it that way and they were just like balls out on the table yes women run this 1.00

00:23:59.080 world men are basically their slaves deal with it the society is okay with this it works oh and yes 1.00

00:24:06.040 racial groups exist they live in a segregated society i'm trying to figure out a way to steel man this i mean

00:24:11.960 i'm wondering if they're just trying to look at this from like little girls perspectives where

00:24:16.520 when they're playing with girly dolls that's the world that everyone lives in it's everything's run

00:24:21.400 by princesses and most of their dolls are female so why wouldn't men i mean when you the problem is

00:24:28.840 they had to flush this child's world this girl's little girl's world fantasy world doll world into 0.75

00:24:34.840 a larger cohesive body of canon a universe with different groups and politics the problem is

00:24:43.480 right is is if that was the case right why not have a prince right like because the girls don't have 1.00

00:24:51.080 princes in their fantasies they effing do simone i have read enough female romance books little girls 0.98

00:24:57.480 playing with dolls do not okay maybe maybe even my friends who treated barbies like throwing devices

00:25:05.960 didn't have really ken dolls let's see if i can convince you further right okay say okay they have

00:25:10.760 a monarchy because little girls like a monarchy so the society is ruled by a class called alicorns 1.00

00:25:17.880 which are so in this world magic is clearly like an allegory for technology like the super spider

00:25:22.920 or with e6000 was made with magic so essentially they're genetically modified super speed being or

00:25:32.520 genetically modified like god human basically is what they are they are larger than the other ponies

00:25:37.640 they live almost forever they have both wings and a unicorn horn and presumably some tie to the

00:25:45.240 flows in a weird way yes and their and their hair flows in a weird way and it's shown that you can

00:25:51.560 both be born to this cast if you are born of an alicorn as happens with whatever her name's his kid

00:26:00.280 or you can be transformed this way through essentially genetic engineering within this

00:26:04.680 world because again magic is allegorical to technology again i don't know if i hate this

00:26:09.560 you know maybe society should be ruled because you could modify somebody to be more pro-social to be

00:26:15.320 more caring it seems kind of aristotelian doesn't it this idea of there being some noble leading

00:26:20.600 class that sacrifices a lot and is somehow superior in various ways it's been a while since i've read

00:26:27.080 i mean clearly you can be born into this class because we've seen like it's not just that people

00:26:31.640 achieve it remember twilight's niece is born into this class from candace candace mary's shining armor

00:26:37.320 oh yeah and she has a kid and the kid is born in alicorn so we know that it's not like based on merit

00:26:43.800 only or something like that yeah and you could say well well twilight gets it through merit but

00:26:49.080 again she's a unicorn and the merit appears to have something to do with magical ability

00:26:54.200 although we see in the reboot that i think non-unicorns can have this happen to them as well

00:26:58.200 so uh i think it happened to an earth pony in the reboot i haven't watched the reboot okay so potentially

00:27:03.160 it could happen depends on if you consider the reboot canon but okay so you could say well that's why it's

00:27:07.080 a monarchy okay the problem is is that the show explicitly shows democratic processes on two

00:27:13.480 occasions one was in the show and one was in the comic books and in both instances it's portrayed as

00:27:20.600 a bad way to operate society so in in in the town itself pipsqueak a humble working-class cult 0.83

00:27:30.200 described derogatorily as a transplant from trottingham by the antagonist mother his platform

00:27:36.600 focuses on practical improvements like fixing a damaged playground equipment his campaign

00:27:41.160 managed by the cutie mark crusaders emphasizes positivity fairness and community needs diamond

00:27:45.560 tiara a wealthy spoiled filly from a rich family backed by her elitist mother spoiled rich a school 1.00

00:27:52.200 board member who presses her to win for status reasons diamond's tactics are overtly negative 0.57

00:27:57.560 and manipulative she's a black male threatening to expose classmates secrets bribery implied through 0.98

00:28:02.360 favors mudslinging and bullying including belittling her own supporters silver 0.97

00:28:06.520 spoon do doing a sing-off debate and at times she is seen as potentially winning now this time

00:28:13.240 within the series pipsqueak wins but even after he wins diamond tiara still uses her money to sabotage 0.90

00:28:21.720 by exploiting budget issues to deny his playground problems goodness eventually going back on this but

00:28:27.080 basically the message of the episode is rich people manipulate politics to their own ends

00:28:34.520 what that's a very progressive well and conservative well well yes but keep in mind that typically was in

00:28:41.000 a progressive world communism is framed as the alternative which we will point out in my little

00:28:45.880 pony it is very not it's framed as pure evil not monarchism in this world the alternative to the democratic

00:28:53.000 process is monarchism now i'll note within the show itself there is a mayor named mayor mayor now if you

00:29:00.600 only take the show as canon this to me would mean that there are actually not elections and this is

00:29:06.280 an appointed position because i mean she's named mayor right it's we never see an election in the 1.00

00:29:12.920 show we never see another leader after you're talking about the i mean it's a it's a it's a play

00:29:18.120 on words right it's spelled like mayor is in a female horse right absolutely but like she's named the mayor

00:29:24.360 but anyway you have determinism i don't know but in in in the comic book spinoff we see that actually

00:29:31.720 this is an elected position so what happens in the comic books well the incumbent current administrator

00:29:37.720 is is forced to resign and then has to compete against philsey rich a very rich pony well philsey rich

00:29:45.880 unlike his daughter who competed in the other election also uses money this time without doing

00:29:51.560 underhanded tactics but he's clearly the less competent candidate so incompetent that he resigns

00:29:55.800 after winning to win oh my gosh to win and keep in mind you could be like well progressives complain

00:30:02.200 about how money corrupts election cycles right i agree but the alternative isn't typically monarchism

00:30:10.040 but in here monarchism is never questioned the the monarchs within this world are never shown as being

00:30:19.240 you know self-centered or flawed despite the fact that they live in giant palaces that presumably

00:30:25.880 they had other people build to them there is huge wealth and power disparity between the princesses and 1.00

00:30:31.480 the other people in this world for sure yeah no one is shown is able to question one of the princesses

00:30:37.640 the princesses make decisions to go to war unilaterally at multiple points in the show how to resolve wars is 1.00

00:30:44.680 handed unilaterally in the show and they are framed as like the perfect philosopher kings always on the

00:30:50.600 front battle always trying their best to do right for the people but with astronomical amounts of

00:30:56.840 power and i should note here that they're not just framed as like normal monarchs right

00:31:02.120 they're not like munchess mulberg no this show says not only should you have monarchs not only should they be

00:31:07.640 genetically modified super beings but they should be treated as gods by everyone else in the world

00:31:13.800 but their hair flows in a cool way of course obviously they are treated as i'm not wrong here

00:31:19.480 they're treated as literal gods in the show yeah and twilight like earns this status and is just

00:31:27.000 to read it as a god afterwards yeah i mean

00:31:30.600 okay so now we're gonna go to the communist part oh no i did you ever see this episode this episode

00:31:39.640 is like shocking we should show it to our kids it's a good episode to teach kids about why communism is

00:31:43.880 evil oh my gosh i don't think i did a bunch of these episodes i remember a bunch i don't though

00:31:50.120 so as we've noted everypony gets a cutie mark this is basically the ways that we are genetically

00:31:56.440 different from other people are inbuilt proficiencies and it is shown very much in the

00:32:01.400 show follow your inbuilt proficiency don't try to be good at something that you don't have a natural

00:32:06.920 talent for this is i'm actually kind of surprised i don't think that there's a single episode of the

00:32:13.320 show where somebody's like but should i actually follow my cutie mark i don't want to live my entire

00:32:19.960 life by what i was interested in as a teenager but oh in the show you get your cutie mark and

00:32:25.640 everyone can see it too it's very much like in starship troopers when they show everybody's

00:32:31.080 scores on like the board yes yeah so everybody knows like this is what you're doing for the rest

00:32:36.840 of your life except you effectively have the score tattooed on your forehead

00:32:42.840 and that's effectively what the universe is yeah the magic decides that you're good at something at a

00:32:48.600 certain age that gets tattooed on you for the rest of your life and if you go against it you're just 0.91

00:32:53.640 being an idiot and you're gonna fail because this is an episode where their cutie marks are switched 0.99

00:32:57.320 up and they try things that aren't their talent and they they their lives are shown as miserable 1.00

00:33:02.600 so i love that that's so anti-urban monoculture that is we are born different with different genetic

00:33:08.920 proficiencies lean into what you're good at people can be different and still be friends yeah that's true

00:33:14.920 it really does run against blank slate ism that's pretty radical yeah look just because pegasus have

00:33:20.840 talents that that and abilities that unicorns don't or unicorns have talents and abilities that

00:33:26.120 earth's ponies don't doesn't mean they can't get along and be friends it's just you know they they

00:33:32.200 should only live in a non-segregated society when absolutely necessary um you know just mostly

00:33:38.440 segregate unless you really want to you know be different so anyway in the cutie map the main six

00:33:45.080 are summoned by twilight sparkles magical cutie map to a remote village where ponies live under the

00:33:49.720 rule of starlight glimmer the villagers have had their cutie marks unique symbols representing each

00:33:55.080 pony's innate talents passions and often racial traits magically removed and replaced with identical

00:34:00.360 equal signs this enforces a philosophy of absolute equality no one is allowed to excel or differ in

00:34:07.400 skills appearance or abilities the result is a gray monotonous uh utopian term dystopia where baking

00:34:15.080 produces bland muffins instead of delicious treats denying culinary talent construction yields shoddy

00:34:21.080 houses suppressing building expertise everyone smiles forcibly but is secretly miserable with dissenters

00:34:27.640 locked into re-education rooms blasting propaganda like in sameness there is peace exceptionalism is a lie

00:34:37.400 in sameness there is peace exceptionalism is a lie free yourself from your cutie mark

00:34:49.880 choose a quality as your special talent

00:34:57.080 hey this is pretty good

00:34:58.520 this door shut tighter than a summer of uh piglets and shoot i can't even make countryisms no more good morning 0.86

00:35:14.760 i trust you had a pleasant night this way please there are some friends who would like to see you

00:35:22.280 we have a welcome ceremony for new friends the whole village joins together to build you your own

00:35:32.440 cottage not interested now to to really go against all of this starlight preaches that differences cause 0.98

00:35:39.560 conflict and that true friendship comes from sataness but she's a hypocrite she secretly maintains her own 1.00

00:35:45.000 cutie mark what maintain magic and control 0.97

00:35:50.360 very napoleon this is very much you know equality some people are more equal than others it's the

00:35:56.120 progressive and the pig from animal farm not napoleon bonaparte because we do not separate ourselves by

00:36:05.960 more than men right yeah this is not something that would naturally emerge from scenarios of a girl 0.99

00:36:25.000 playing with a bunch of girly toys this is yeah this is this is something very clearly an allegory for

00:36:30.440 for communism and not just communism monoculture more specifically denying that humans are born

00:36:37.240 different from each other and with unique traits i can't deny that my gosh within a context that the

00:36:44.360 character is treated as supremely villainous as as threatening as any evil villain that they see in in

00:36:53.960 throughout the entire show and i have to say i always really like the different characters reaction

00:37:01.480 to this because you see like if i look at the racial coding of the various characters it's pretty

00:37:07.080 clear what it is the applejack is racially coded as appellation like sort of american redneck rarity

00:37:14.520 is clearly coded as a wasp white anglo-saxon protestant uh pinky pie is very clearly coded as jewish

00:37:21.640 i'm so surprised she is a comedian with fluffy hair who is incredibly gregarious and always hosting 1.00

00:37:32.680 parties simone she's jewish to the core we often point out that jews are far more gregarious than

00:37:40.280 other ethnic groups in terms of the size of the friend networks they keep you want to see our episode

00:37:44.120 on this you can look at our why did jews have friends episode because it's just born out in the data

00:37:48.280 and come on the comedian what's a more classically jewish job than comedian then you have rainbow dash 0.52

00:37:56.280 the one with rainbow hair that people often think is gay coded when not at all she's very coded as 0.81

00:38:03.320 americana tomboy like like very competitive very like i'm the best i'm the greatest i can do better than

00:38:10.280 what anyone else can do and then you have fluttershy who i've always taken as coded twilight's obviously just

00:38:16.360 autistic who i've always taken to be coded as either muslim or catholic very timid woman and what's

00:38:22.840 funny about this is the way that this timid sort of muslim catholic coded character when they're all 1.00

00:38:28.200 thinking about how everyone's better when they're equal and they take away the way that everyone is

00:38:31.080 different is getting really into it and kind of likes the idea which i think sort of aligns with

00:38:36.760 the weird muslim progressive alliance that we've seen or you could say the the you know catholic majority

00:38:42.360 areas are still dominantly progressive voting if you look at massive overlap where catholic

00:38:46.920 concentrations are in the united states and progressive voting patterns whereas the jewish 0.82

00:38:52.280 coded character is giving her a very angry look we don't complicate when you learn to simplify 1.00

00:39:01.880 and and the americana coded character is like from the beginning it's so funny that like

00:39:07.320 it it's it's coded like the other ponies or some of the ponies might accidentally go along with this

00:39:14.280 or think that this makes sense and the americana coded is like this is a joke right like immediately

00:39:19.320 after they do their big song just not having it at all

00:39:22.920 you're kidding right give up our cutie marks no way rainbow dash like you guys can't be serious

00:39:36.680 the world would be better if we didn't lean into our our uh unique genetic profiles and talents

00:39:43.720 and i'll note here where you can be like well this isn't aligning with the the ethnic background thing

00:39:48.680 i mean it's like well not exactly most cutie marks are in some way tied to the ethnic coding

00:39:54.280 i.e earth pony pegasus or unicorn of the uh pony that has it for example twilight's cutie mark could

00:40:02.920 only be had by a unicorn because it's tied to magic rainbow dash's cutie mark is tied to flying it could

00:40:07.400 only be had by a pony of of her ethnic affiliation

00:40:11.400 explain to you how my little pony brainwashed an entire generation of youth into being uh uh

00:40:25.000 being okay with ethnic differences and accepting that we can have ethnic differences and still get

00:40:30.280 along with each other and that you should lean into your ethnic differences and admit them otherwise 0.73

00:40:34.440 your life will be horrible and that communism is terrible and evil and that monarchism is clearly

00:40:39.480 better than democracy and that colonialism was actually good and that natives just needed to 0.97

00:40:45.880 take some time to learn that they actually like this stuff and that in in truth it is the less

00:40:53.640 privileged ethnic groups like the earth ponies that benefit the most from segregation and segregated

00:41:00.040 wait how well remember the only reason that the apple family is able to make money with their

00:41:05.640 orchard instead of the unicorns using magic is because the unicorns are essentially not allowed to

00:41:10.360 participate in industries that produce basic goods like lumber or apples or food production which seems to

00:41:18.680 be basically by cultural norms within this universe exclusive to the lower cast of earth ponies

00:41:25.240 i can't wait there is like a military race in this the pegasus are said to be specifically

00:41:34.120 the military race there are earth ponies in the military but we are seeing when their society is

00:41:40.520 divided out in the hearth-swarming eve episode that the the pegasi are explicitly assigned a military

00:41:48.440 caste structure and the elite groups within the military like the wonderbolts are all pegasus exclusive

00:41:55.240 man did you realize this when you were first watching it or did you just find yourself thinking

00:42:05.240 about it one day i don't know when this i mean it's something i remember thinking like this show is

00:42:11.240 great at teaching about ethnic and racial differences um and and getting kids just you know

00:42:17.960 some people are just born different and that's fine and i i i did not think about because i didn't

00:42:24.600 know about like all the comics and stuff like that the show would it never criticize the monarchy i

00:42:29.720 thought that it would have some at some point was in like the 22 seasons it got there would be some

00:42:35.480 episode where they're like hey having a god a genetically modified god king rule absolutely

00:42:41.400 is maybe not the best way to run a society nope never and and i didn't know that they every time

00:42:47.560 it never occurred to me until i was actually like going through this with an ai every time democracy is

00:42:51.800 brought up it's framed as corrupted by wealth the same family both times by the way so that's that's

00:42:58.920 also interesting i like the critique because at least it's it's a little different from others it's

00:43:03.960 like listen democracy day it just doesn't work because wealthy people get involved and ruin it which

00:43:09.080 is not normally the criticism i hear so that's interesting too yeah well i also find it to be actually a

00:43:15.560 fairly interesting like they don't just go into like surface level it's it's good to lean into your

00:43:23.240 natural born talents we are born different but that doesn't mean we can't be friends and it doesn't

00:43:27.800 mean that sometimes a pegasus can't be an animal person doesn't mean that sometimes you know an earth

00:43:35.000 pony can't be a fashionista it just means that normally they can't or shouldn't try to unless right

00:43:41.080 averages are averages something something yeah averages right i i thought that that's what it

00:43:46.600 would stop at but it doesn't stop at that it then is like and actually we should segregate society

00:43:52.520 because if we don't it's the earth ponies who are going to suffer the most oh my gosh i actually you

00:43:59.080 know if you if you look at segregation more broadly many times it actually is for the benefit

00:44:08.440 of the one that doesn't have an a an advantage within the field so an example here what is one

00:44:17.800 of the most segregated places of our existing society sports sports is highly sex segregated

00:44:23.800 sports is segregated for the benefit of women absolutely yeah if we were going to uh make sports 1.00

00:44:32.360 like more fair right like if you were going to say let's racially segregate the olympics right who would

00:44:38.360 benefit most from like racially segregating sprinting okay white people would benefit it is

00:44:45.560 the person who is in the back foot who often benefits from segregation segregation and here and

00:44:52.360 here what i'm pointing out here is some groups of of african genetics appear to just be dramatically

00:44:59.800 faster at a short sprinting than well it's running too so yeah also also distance running but i think they

00:45:06.440 have a bigger advantage in sprinting i don't remember where the bigger advantage is but they

00:45:09.560 have a bigger advantage of one or the other but if if you were to racially segregate that like

00:45:14.360 everyone could be like how dare you racially segregate that who are you helping you're helping

00:45:18.920 the whites and this is often true of racial segregation which is something that i think is just not

00:45:25.320 talked about in our society and now people can be like well it hasn't been used that way historically

00:45:29.720 and it's like well i mean it actually has with sex segregation in sports it has with sex segregation

00:45:36.840 of bathrooms sex segregation of bathrooms isn't done for the benefit of men it's done for the benefit 1.00

00:45:41.480 of women nobody could even argue that racial segregation in for example the united states did 1.00

00:45:49.400 lead to some really prosperous black communities like tulsa oklahoma right we went to that museum and

00:45:55.560 they talked about how there was this really like affluent wonderful community and then like

00:46:00.040 the white people who are just sitting out there like in the cold poor getting really resentful came 0.91

00:46:05.480 and like burned it down burned it down yeah like destroyed it because the the more segregated black 0.98

00:46:11.720 community was absolutely killing it they were doing fantastically actually you you make a point there

00:46:16.280 i haven't thought about this and i'm i may go into an ai because this could make a very interesting

00:46:19.720 other episode but i do remember that that the tulsa community wasn't unique there were a number of

00:46:24.840 areas in the united states if you go back to the 1950s where there were known to be extremely wealthy

00:46:30.600 black communities when contrasted with the neighboring groups and i am not familiar with in modern america

00:46:37.960 extremely wealthy segregated black communities they they well i feel like there are other maybe

00:46:43.320 examples of we'll say forced segregation like mormon communities where like within certain mormon

00:46:50.280 communities there are cycles like up cycles of wealth because they all kind of feed into each

00:46:54.920 other and collaborate more and and try to buy to sell to and buy from each other preferentially yeah

00:47:01.640 but i i i wonder if i mean that'd be very interesting it's certainly something you wouldn't learn in

00:47:06.360 school one of the things that we point out in some of our other episodes and i'll put the graph on

00:47:10.360 screen here because it shocked me when i saw this if you look at american black wealth from the 1950s to

00:47:16.360 today and then you adjust it by income level and you contrast it with how much white wealth that's

00:47:21.880 raised during this period contrasted with how much white wealth has gone up when you adjust for

00:47:26.200 inflation black wealth has gone up almost nothing since the 1950s again contrasted with how much white 0.65

00:47:31.480 wealth has gone up and this is a wall street journal graph here now there's different ways you can

00:47:35.000 measure this this is median household income i think that can give you different but like any way you

00:47:39.560 measure it you see a huge increase in white and a very very moderate to small increase in in and this

00:47:45.560 could be caused by the negative economic effects of desegregation which i've never thought about or

00:47:51.640 looked into before well and i'm also thinking about the episode that we did on ethnic cartels that that

00:47:57.800 sort of talked about you know why are certain sort of like random ethnic groups in certain areas they

00:48:03.080 just like own donut businesses or hotels or 7-elevens or something like that and like a big factor then

00:48:12.120 is also in-group favoring providing very affordable financing more efficient hiring because it's really

00:48:18.920 culturally compatible and there's more of an honor system where like hey i'm hiring your cousin you

00:48:23.400 better not screw up because now your whole family's on the line like yeah there there are a lot of things

00:48:28.200 that make me think if i think look at the lds community i look at racial or ethnic cartels and

00:48:32.920 then i look at wealthy and affluent black communities that existed pre the end of segregation

00:48:38.840 there's actually a secondary positive effect of segregation which which comes from these communities

00:48:44.600 which you're probably not thinking about so if you look at you go back to the 1950s or whatever

00:48:49.560 when a black individual or black american would become wealthy they would often continue to live 0.79

00:48:55.720 within a majority black community so they would have majority black culture but they would also

00:49:02.040 act as a role model for the other you know the black kids growing up in that community and bring

00:49:07.480 wealth to that community yeah you can achieve you saw this in like harlem and stuff like this in new

00:49:12.200 york it wasn't just like the theory if you go today when a black individual becomes wealthy they

00:49:18.280 just go and move in with a white community which means that the wealth that they have now and the positive 0.98

00:49:24.680 cultural you know effect that they could have for the community that they were born in is removed

00:49:29.960 from that community in a modern context yeah which didn't happen the halo effect that halo is being

00:49:36.680 moved and is now radiating onto a community that is not primarily black you're saying yeah yeah they're 1.00

00:49:42.760 they're removing whatever somebody becomes successful within the because like in our society wealthy people

00:49:49.080 aren't segregated poor people is still very much segregated like i go to a mexican neighborhood or

00:49:54.360 a filipino neighborhood or a white neighborhood or a black neighborhood if it's poor it's going to be 0.86

00:49:58.520 segregated very frequently it is the extremely wealthy communities that are non-segregated and that

00:50:04.360 actually has a really negative effect on non-white communities

00:50:08.600 yeah well i mean i mean even poor white communities probably would benefit from well i mean consider

00:50:18.600 because not every group does this if you look at jewish individuals right like we talk about why why

00:50:24.520 jewish exceptionalism could be one of the traits that leads to it when a jew becomes extremely wealthy 0.99

00:50:29.160 they do not move to live with a majority non-jewish community they stay yeah like with the lds church yeah

00:50:36.600 there's there's self-imposed segregation yeah when when like this is often true for asian communities 1.00

00:50:42.680 as well because i was friends was like wealthy you know japanese people they still went to the japanese

00:50:47.560 cultural events and stuff like that i've been friends with wealthy koreans they do the same they

00:50:51.160 often stay connected in terms of where they live and their friend network with the less wealthy members

00:50:59.560 of their community instead of creating communities that are mono wealth ethnic communities

00:51:07.240 yeah hmm oh boy oh boy my little pony this is good touches on some spicy tapings

00:51:17.480 well it's so funny because i don't know what's her name who did my little pony friendship is

00:51:22.440 witchcraft did sarah i don't know whatever anyway continue jenny jenny nicholson yeah she got she got in

00:51:30.520 so much hot water and wanted to distance herself from the entire community because she dared to

00:51:35.720 make some little sub joke in her in her plots about it was a gypsy community yeah it was the 0.99

00:51:40.920 gypsy character yeah gypsy magic no no she implied i think that pinky pie pinky pie with the gypsy 0.78

00:51:46.440 when you're right to devastation there's a simple explanation you're a toy maker's creation trapped

00:51:52.840 inside a crystal ball was a gypsy and then she caught heat from her urban monoculture followers about it 1.00

00:51:59.880 and then just kind of wanted to just throw up her hands and distance herself for the from the entire

00:52:04.920 my little pony community and here you are highlighting such incredibly more controversial

00:52:10.840 things that just the show unedited released yeah like yeah nothing she did was as controversial as like

00:52:19.880 just a colonialism episode yeah we thought white people were bad until we saw them shoot some of us with 1.00

00:52:27.720 guns then they realized they have things we want

00:52:31.560 just wow that that was enlightening not sure what i think of it yet but well you could be like okay

00:52:40.440 even though they were using the apple pies as a weapon they weren't really an allegory for guns they

00:52:44.360 were just an allegory for like some sort of food i mean yeah they treated beads and clothing too

00:52:52.280 what they could say is like look it's a food that white people make that native americans just

00:52:57.480 couldn't get enough of so much that they abandoned their ancestral tradition oh no is it an allegory

00:53:02.680 for alcohol like come on guys yeah anyway i'll go to the next episode i love you the spicy episode

00:53:12.040 right spicy episode spicier than you expected one of our yeah for for those who can like push through

00:53:17.960 and and get past the fact that they they have to come to terms with the reality that they're going to

00:53:24.920 listen to a podcast episode on my little pony friendship is magic the little girl show yeah

00:53:31.480 girl show all about how monarchy is good and we should live in a racially segregated society 0.99

00:53:40.200 yeah if if they if they you know can get past that and actually listen to it we'll see

00:53:46.840 we'll see but i love you too gorgeous um so how did the comments do in today's video

00:53:54.520 i just saw one comment that said that i wouldn't pass a turing test which is actually super true

00:54:00.520 because every time i have to do the one of those are you not a computer things i have to do it like

00:54:06.280 five times i don't pass but i say simone wouldn't pass the turing test yeah

00:54:16.280 i regularly it make teen pregnancy great again i don't know when that came up i don't think i mentioned

00:54:22.680 the fact that i like pathologically fail the captcha tests you do every time i'm like

00:54:31.960 yeah i can't i can't do it i think jack bt recently passed one so that's embarrassing but more on topic

00:54:40.760 today i'm wondering if you remember what you said to me on our first date when we were making out on the

00:54:47.960 floor of the four seasons hotel no which was so crazy to me because of course i'd never kissed

00:54:55.240 anyone but one other person before you and here i am first date making out with this basic stranger

00:55:01.400 and then what do you say to me but would you like to come to my house i have a jacuzzi bathtub and we

00:55:08.520 can watch my little pony i'm like yeah that's how you get a nerd to you were clearly fishing for nerd

00:55:20.840 culture stuff i i clearly was yeah it was it was obvious that they my whole profile was keyword

00:55:26.600 stuffed for online nerd references so yes 100 but then do you know today's also a very special anniversary

00:55:34.760 no but it is it is the 11 year or maybe 12 year anniversary of the day you proposed to me on reddit

00:55:48.280 with commissioned art and there was indeed a my little pony commission there was yes we have been

00:55:56.120 involved in the brony community for a long time where you made custom my little pony characters for each of

00:56:02.200 us with your pony character balancing a diamond ring on his head bowing down so i could see it this

00:56:09.880 in my pony form of course you've got a little wi-fi signal on your pony butt and i've got a little

00:56:16.600 check mark on mine i remember your my little pony name was net set i don't remember what mine was crystal

00:56:24.200 cog i remember that crystal cog so those were the days malcolm those were crazy crazy period in internet

00:56:35.480 history um thank you for your very romantic proposal i've actually seen a number of well yeah what was

00:56:42.520 it what magazine was that that early magazine that said it was one of the top 10 romantic moments of the

00:56:46.360 year oh yeah it was some like online it was like the main one it was like the daily dot wasn't it the

00:56:52.680 daily dot no no no no it wasn't it was bigger than the daily dot it started with like a b or something

00:56:56.920 we actually went to their offices at one point in manhattan but it's like irrelevant now but for a

00:57:01.240 while it like dominated internet culture yeah time flies now all the blogs are dead so it doesn't matter

00:57:10.200 anymore crazy it wasn't was it buzzfeed buzzfeed yeah it was buzzfeed oh my gosh i guess now now i

00:57:19.080 remember that yeah it was it was not in the first big roundup of of coverage of that no no at the end

00:57:24.760 of the year when they were ranking romantic events that had happened that year and yeah so that was

00:57:29.160 the progressives back then didn't know about us but well no they did i'm sure that you know both

00:57:34.840 people of all political spectrums saw your reddit posts saying i'm going to propose to my wife

00:57:39.880 with this art and with these advice animals and they're like okay let's watch this fail and this

00:57:45.160 was like way more politically neutral and because back then you know i i hung out on like tumblr and

00:57:51.960 action and fat people hate and stuff like that and there's this article like detailing my reddit post

00:57:57.160 somewhere i can't remember the yahoo article trying to be like and he laughed at a fat person because

00:58:01.800 they had to go to a zoo to get an mri and i'm like and i still laugh at that fat person i need to think

00:58:08.200 to think about having to show up at the zoo to get your mri and still it's still good

00:58:17.960 i mean i would laugh yeah i would laugh so i mean it myself if i were that all right here we go

00:58:35.480 i don't know what game are you guys playing

00:58:38.760 i don't know what game are you guys playing

Based Camp - August 08, 2025

My Little Pony's Argument for a Racist Colonialist Monarchy

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