Let's All Learn from Sesame Street

The following is the transcript of my troop deployment (i.e. ending rant) from episode 57 of my news podcast The Mind Killer. If you like it, please consider subscribing to the podcast

As you’ve probably heard in the background of this and many past episodes, I have a two [now three] year old, which means I’ve been watching lots of Sesame Street. Watching Sesame Street as an adult is kind of weird, because it’s actually a very political show, but you don’t pick up on that as a kid. Originally, Sesame Street was intended to be watched by what were referred to back in the day as “inner city youth,” which is why Sesame Street is kind of run-down, it’s full of bodegas, and most of the time, Elmo and company are finding creative ways to play with trash. The message has always been rather left-wing and focused on the needs of poor kids. More recently, they’ve introduced hispanic muppets, a black muppet, and an autistic muppet.

When other programs do this, it almost always seems pandering and dumb, like they are trying to fulfill a quota or present themselves as some kind of enemies of oppression. But on Sesame Street, it doesn’t come across that way. And I think I’ve put my finger on why: because Sesame Street, as a show, is committed to positivity. 

When Sesame Street does a show about black hair, they don’t focus on all the ways black people have been oppressed or discriminated against because of their hair. They show two muppets with different hair being sad that they can’t do a hair whip together as part of a dance, and explain that it’s fine to be different and do different things. The end with a song called “I love my hair.” The Hispanic muppet regularly teaches the other muppets Spanish words.

I’m autistic, and I really appreciate the portrayal of the autistic muppet. They show her struggling with loud noises and social cues, but the focus is never on how hard it is for her. The focus is on helping the other characters all understand her different needs and how to be a good friend to her. 

Where other shows try to present themselves as enemies of oppression, Sesame Street is the enemy of nobody. And I really wish that other people pushing left-wing messages paid attention and copied that style. People hate wokeness because it’s believers seem to like nothing better than hating on everyone who isn’t completely on board with everything they think. You all heard Eneasz’s troop deployment, so I won’t bother coming up with my own example.

But what if, instead, the Left was focusing on actually uplifting and helping people. Instead of tearing down the privileged, what if the focus was actually on elevating the oppressed? The people at the top of society probably need to be dealt with in a different way, but the bottom 90%? Most of them don’t want to hurt anyone, and if the focus was just on explaining how to be a good friend to people instead of what they’re doing wrong, I think they would listen. 

So let’s all be like Sesame Street and when it comes to social issues, focus on how to do right instead of what everyone is doing wrong.