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School of Friendship and racism


heavens-champion

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10 minutes ago, heavens-champion said:

Some people among the fandom think the School of Friendship is racist because it's founded by ponies. What do you guys think of this line of thinking?

Don't listen to them, they're full of it, just enjoy the show, end of story.

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You might be misunderstanding, but I don't know what you've been reading. I just don't like that Twilight seems to think that ponies need to spread friendship to non-pony species. I feel that has disturbing real-world parallels. 

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38 minutes ago, AlexanderThrond said:

You might be misunderstanding, but I don't know what you've been reading. I just don't like that Twilight seems to think that ponies need to spread friendship to non-pony species. I feel that has disturbing real-world parallels. 

But they’ve been doing it since the map table became a plot device. They spread it to the yaks, the changelings, the dragons, and the griffons in the past few seasons. 

 

I havent watched the the new episodes yet but it seems like the map in the table got a lot bigger. Instead of traveling all over the world to deal with every single friendship problem, Twilight probably thought it would be easier to bring people to a school to learn about friendship and then teach others of their speci3s about it. That’s what I think.

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1 hour ago, GeekySonic said:

Man I'm reading all kinds of weird things on this site today. How in the wide world could that possibly be racist, based on that fact alone? I will never understand some people. 

I know, right? 

 

52 minutes ago, AlexanderThrond said:

You might be misunderstanding, but I don't know what you've been reading. I just don't like that Twilight seems to think that ponies need to spread friendship to non-pony species. I feel that has disturbing real-world parallels. 

Equestria Daily comment sections, mostly. I will refrain from naming names to protect the guilty.

56 minutes ago, Mystic Brush said:

Please tell me that's a joke....

ae1.png

I wish I could.

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24 minutes ago, Twilight Luna said:

But they’ve been doing it since the map table became a plot device. They spread it to the yaks, the changelings, the dragons, and the griffons in the past few seasons. 

 

I havent watched the the new episodes yet but it seems like the map in the table got a lot bigger. Instead of traveling all over the world to deal with every single friendship problem, Twilight probably thought it would be easier to bring people to a school to learn about friendship and then teach others of their speci3s about it. That’s what I think.

Honestly, that's one of the reasons I've never really liked the table. Feel it has some unpleasant unintended implications. 

As for the new episode: that's about the gist of it. 

 

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It's not racism of any kind, the EEA just wanted Twilight to follow the rules the other schools follow.

I think the school is a good idea, as long as the show doesn't change too much, then I'll be good with it.

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1 hour ago, heavens-champion said:

Some people among the fandom think the School of Friendship is racist because it's founded by ponies. What do you guys think of this line of thinking?

The idea that something is racist because it was formed by a certain group is a little strange. Racist attitudes are that, attitudes.

I find that Celestia's comment in the episode was especially interesting - that unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies used to be rather divided, but that gap has obviously since been bridged. To the ponies, this is probably a natural extension of something that already happened to them in the past.

As nice as it would be for there to be faculty of other species, the fact that they're represented by groups that used to be divided shows that there's nothing barring them from entry as teachers, they just haven't embraced the idea enough for them to take that mantle. (It also seems like Spike, who is indeed a dragon, helps out with running the school, too.)

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1 hour ago, heavens-champion said:

Some people among the fandom think the School of Friendship is racist because it's founded by ponies. What do you guys think of this line of thinking?

Who founded it is unimportant.  What's important is how it's run.  It would only be racist (speciest?) is if there were exclusions.

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It's not really racist just because it was founded by ponies. It only becomes that if they barred non-ponies from entering as students or teachers if they apply.

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1 hour ago, AlexanderThrond said:

You might be misunderstanding, but I don't know what you've been reading. I just don't like that Twilight seems to think that ponies need to spread friendship to non-pony species. I feel that has disturbing real-world parallels. 

I know, right? It's like Hitler when he spread German territory into the Third Reich, or when the Crusades began and Warriors of the Cross dispatched in Roman and Celtic lands and held them at sword-point, saying to convert or die. The only difference is that there was no violence (well... a little) and Twilight never created a "Final Solution" of killing all of the Yaks and Sadle Arabians and anypony else who wasn't a pony.

Not racist, but, arguably, very very very... disturbing...

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1 minute ago, CrystalBloodMoon said:

I know, right? It's like Hitler when he spread German territory into the Third Reich, or when the Crusades began and Warriors of the Cross dispatched in Roman and Celtic lands and held them at sword-point, saying to convert or die. The only difference is that there was no violence (well... a little) and Twilight never created a "Final Solution" of killing all of the Yaks and Sadle Arabians and anypony else who wasn't a pony.

Not racist, but, arguably, very very very... disturbing...

I think arguably there are greater differences to it than that. The comparison you're making is making this seem analogous to religious/race-related pursuits - but a better analogy would be to compare it to the spread of technology and supplies to impoverished or deprived areas. It's ultimately beneficial for the societies that are participating in the lessons, and those who deny it are usually doing it out of a sense of pride, rather than an actual disagreement/lack of need of the ideas being presented.

Also, admittance in the School of Friendship is voluntary, and the episodes demonstrate this.

The issue with a lot of the spread of ideas in the real world is that they have detrimental consequences to those the ideas are being spread to, but every single society that has had friendship spread to it has benefited from it.

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23 minutes ago, Wolfhog said:

I think arguably there are greater differences to it than that. The comparison you're making is making this seem analogous to religious/race-related pursuits - but a better analogy would be to compare it to the spread of technology and supplies to impoverished or deprived areas. It's ultimately beneficial for the societies that are participating in the lessons, and those who deny it are usually doing it out of a sense of pride, rather than an actual disagreement/lack of need of the ideas being presented.

Also, admittance in the School of Friendship is voluntary, and the episodes demonstrate this.

The issue with a lot of the spread of ideas in the real world is that they have detrimental consequences to those the ideas are being spread to, but every single society that has had friendship spread to it has benefited from it.

Well maybe they don't see the results as beneficial. The force of ideals is the point I was making. Forcing what you think is right down a person's throat before they hold the wont to explore those philosophies themselves. That's disturbing in my mind. However, that's just my way of seeing it

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I'm honestly not surprised that this would be something that some in the fandom would consider being truthful. I don't know how they came to such a conclusion but I don't see the school in such a manner.

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Just now, CrystalBloodMoon said:

Well maybe they don't see the results as beneficial. The force of ideals is the point I was making. Forcing what you think is right down a person's throat before they hold the wont to explore those philosophies themselves. That's disturbing in my mind. However, that's just my way of seeing it

They don't because of willful ignorance, not because it's not actually beneficial. By comparison, the regimes that you compared it to were not beneficial to those being converted.

You could certainly argue that it's immoral to force something that will benefit a society onto them - citing my example as before, that it's immoral to force them to accept food if they don't want it, or technologies because they'd rather live traditionally. But from my perspective, it's foolhardy to reject something that is demonstrably good for you that will help your society out when it's offered. In this case, friendship and social commune couldn't hurt the already impoverished griffon society any worse than they were already hurting themselves by the time Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash got there. They rejected it out of a nationalistic pride, and admitting as such, I don't think, is even remotely analogous to racism or religious intolerance.

I do think part of the reason these come off as such unfortunate implications is that we haven't seen one society that appears to be managing on its own without pony intervention. (Except the hippogriffs, but even they needed help from the ponies to get out of being trapped undersea.) The idea that friendship is unique to ponies is what makes the analogy so easy to make. If it were something that other societies demonstrated, it'd be easier to see that what the ponies are doing ultimately helps and strengthens the world around them.

Don't forget that part of the reason the ponies are "preaching" this so hard is because the very same issue used to divide them, too. Unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies did not used to live in harmony; they were at odds, and it resulted in their societies nearly falling apart. It was through their unification that they managed to repair their horrible situations.

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