Care Bears and the Danger of Weaponized Kindness - The 80's #10

 As kids, we were sold a powerful lie!

The Care Bears were NOT gentle creatures....

Sure, they looked like happy, pastel-furred ambassadors of love that took cues from Mary Poppins and floated down from cotton candy clouds to teach children how to feel feelings properly.

Propaganda! Pure and simple.

Look back on them closely.

Really look... cast your mind back to Saturday mornings in the 80's by the TV, half-eaten bowl of Cap'n Crunch resting in the crook of your crossed legs.

You can see it now, can't you??

Care Bears Were Running a Plushy Authoritarian Regime

Here's proof:

1. Each one had a symbol on it stomach: uniformity is step one.
2. Those symbols evoked feelings: branding is step two.
3. Every life they touched was sorted by emotional function; a rainbow based caste system.

 Logical conclusion? Cult-like regime whose greatest weapon was colour-coded emotional engineering.

Happy? Blue.

Grumpy? Also blue, but angry.

Love? Pastel pink, of course.

And what, pray tell, happened to any bears who didn't test well in focus groups? To this day, we still don't know.

Their finishing move was the Care Bear Stare. Dissenters were blasted with a coordinated, multi-bear belly stream of positivity; corrected by kindness rather than learning from it.

Villains didn't voluntarily change their ways or have some sort of personal growth epiphany.

No, they were beaten into submission with a concentrated beam of emotional manipulation until they either complied or exploded into glittery sparkles.

Consider that for a second:

A world where overwhelming someone with weaponized feelings until they wet themselves in submission is the solution to conflict. Not nuance. Nor talking things out. No conventional boundaries.

Just relentless affirmations screaming "YOU ARE BETTER NOW!"

Emotional Carpet Bombing, Anyone?

We absorbed the fallout as kids. Be nice. Share. Smile.

Anything messy or mildly inconvenient must be suppressed.

Sadness? Redirect.

Anger? Hug-smother.

Any feeling slightly more complex? Fire it into the sun on a beam of radiant cheer.

Does anybody know why they were based in the clouds? 

I'll tell you my theory:

Utopias aren't built in the stratosphere unless you're trying to avoid accountability. Using the clouds in this manner they could drop in, "fix" things their way, and float off before any follow-up questions were asked.

I'm not in any way anti-kindness. But I am anti-forced joy.

Yes, there's a difference. One is human. The other comes with theme music and creeps up on you years later in the shower. Why? 

I don't know.

But take away the glitter apocalypse and we're left with this: kindness without consent is closer to control than it is kindness. Actual empathy allows for bad days and uncomfortable feelings.

Real care and real growth aren't made by being stared into submission by a rainbow clad firing squad.

Sometimes, the bravest thing one can do is admit they're having one monster of a bad day. But don't be fooled...

Somewhere, those stinkin' bears are watching!