Cultural Critique in Animation

In this controversial episode, we dive deep into the surprising and unsettling connections between the beloved children's show 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' and right-wing extremist ideologies. We discuss themes of racial segregation, colonialism, monarchy, and anti-communism portrayed in the show. By analyzing specific episodes and character dynamics, we reveal how My Little Pony potentially indoctrinates viewers with far-right beliefs. Buckle up for this eye-opening and provocative exploration that challenges everything you thought you knew about this seemingly innocent show.

Malcolm Collins: [00:00:00] Hello Simone. I'm excited to be with you today. A lot of people find it pretty humorous that the, my Little Pony fandom was one of the predecessors to the modern online right culture.

And a lot of people look at this show superficially and even in the early days it had a lot of right wing fans, right? And they're like, but how? I wanna turn this around on you. How can anyone watch the My Little Pony Show and not feeling that it's a show that explicitly adv advocates for racism, racial segregation, or at least what leftists would call racism, not what Rightists would call racism.

Monarch colonialism Jack. And, and anti-communism. That communism is evil. As, as well as anti technological progress. Progress. So we're gonna go into all of these. The, [00:01:00] the My Little Pony Show and its political themeing. Is far to the right of a thinker like Munches Moog. I I, I might even argue that my Little 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? It makes me uncomfortable. But it built an entire generation of right wing extremists by incepting them through a kid's show. Like, no, Simone, like you might think I'm exaggerating. We're gonna go over one episode here where the villain, and this is like a core, big, bad villain of the show, and this is a two part arc, so it's like a big show.

Simone Collins: Okay.

Malcolm Collins: Everybody has like their inborn proficiencies, which are represented by their cutie marks, the things they are naturally good at.

Simone Collins: Yeah. This is the little, the little like logo that ends up on Yeah. That, that says I am uniquely good at x sort of a [00:02:00] task. Yeah. And she, it's kind of like, I don't know, with Hogwarts, like you, you don't find out what house you're in or what your special skill is until you are, you're older, so,

Malcolm Collins: right.

But it is, it is clearly like genetic in this world, for example. It's mentioned that in one part they're talking about like what apple jacks. Sister, little sister is gonna have, and they go, well, it's probably gonna be something to do with apples. 'cause in our family it's always something to do with apples.

And she removes them all and replaces them with an equal sign. Literally like, you know, the one the progressives use in like pro-gay pro protests and stuff like that. And then they all march around the town in what is clearly supposed to be communist style marches.

Speaker: In, in Our Town work as a team. You can have a nightmare if you never dream.

Speaker 2: I'm sorry, I'm just having a hard time understanding. Different talents lead to different opinions, which lead to bitterness and [00:03:00] misery.

Malcolm Collins: And so we'll get into that in a second.

But. I wanna start less than that. So let's look at how does it handle colonialism, right? Surely this, like, I'm gonna read you this episode. You're gonna be like, how did somebody write this? And then how is this conceivably approved? Okay. So the conflict arises between settler ponies of Appalachia a joke on the applejacks who are a country seamed pony being an Appalachian.

But anyway plant an apple orchard. On the Buffalo's, traditional stampeding grounds without their permission. Now the buffalo are a different species that dress up like Native Americans. Oh my gosh. Okay. Clearly making it clear that in the My Little Pony universe species as well as the different cath of ponies are allegories for race blocking a path central to their heritage.

The buffalo. [00:04:00] Led by Chief Thunder Hooves demands the tree's removal, viewing the land as sacred. We have a long and winding stampede trail that we run upon for many generations. The ponies refuse citing the investment in the land for food and survival. The resolution comes mid battle. Mid battle. So you may say, how do these ponies battle the the Indians?

So they, they, they battle them by throwing apple pies at their faces. So they bring apple pies as as weapons. Okay, so keep in mind in this allegory, apple pies are weapons, okay? Industrially produced weapons, the resolution comes mid battle. After Chief Thunder, Hove tastes an apple pie. Thrown at him as a weapon and proposes a deal where the ponies keep the orchard, but uproot some trees to create a clear path for the buffalo stampede.

In exchange, the buffalo receive a share of the apple pies, so they [00:05:00] trade the allegory for guns, industrially produced guns to the colonized people. It. Without making any like major concessions in terms of their industrialization plans. It's basically saying, oh, you people who are being colonized, you'll change your mind about this.

When you understand all of the great things you'll get from industrialization, like guns. There isn't really another way, and this isn't done as like a shaky compromise or something like this. Effing pinky pie does a whole song about how great this is.

So for viewers who don't know the show, the pony, the country themed pony that you're about to see talk is the world's avatar of honesty. Like she is a, a magically chosen pony once for generation, for being like the most honest a pony could possibly [00:06:00] be, and she defends colonization.

Speaker 5: They busted their ropes here and now they're supposed to bust their ropes again. Just 'cause some buffalo won't stampede someplace else.

The buffalo had it first. The settler is needed to live. Come on Apple.

Malcolm Collins: Can you like just Simone, you writer's room, they're like, let's handle colonization.

Okay. They didn't have to make an episode about colonization. They didn't have to make an episode where they dressed up a different species like Native Americans.

Simone Collins: No,

Malcolm Collins: they didn't have to make them. Childish and stampede pointlessly from one place to another. They did not. They, they did not. But they set all this up clearly.

'cause they're like, let's do a, a, a a colonizer episode. And the point of the episode could have been, we're not so different or something. No. They literally made the key conflict of the episode, the settlers taking their ancestral land and they literally made the resolution to that being [00:07:00] everybody wants the fruits of civilization.

Just compromise on your tradition.

Simone Collins (2): I mean, aren't, aren't the writers of this progressive though, what's going on? I do not

Malcolm Collins: know what, no, you will progressively see you go down this. I don't think they are. I think they may be like secretly like super racist. Keep in mind, this isn't like we, we regularly see in the show, or is this

Simone Collins (2): just the, the like progressive to racist horseshoe where when you remove the technical aesthetics of our reality.

You see their true philosophy just come through and how they actually feel about everything, which actually is, yeah, eventually everyone

Malcolm Collins: will be the urban monoculture, eventually racist

Simone Collins (2): and imperialist. In classist. I mean, in the end, the urban monoculture is all those things. It's the most imperialist.

It's the most classist. It's the most, it's not as

Malcolm Collins: racist. No. This, this show, and we'll get into themes, it has that are. Anti-urban [00:08:00] monoculture in the extreme.

Simone Collins (2): Oh, okay. So that's off my theory, I guess. Although they do hate themselves though, so maybe

Malcolm Collins: not. I, yeah, this isn't the only time, you know, we see other instances because there are other species and ponies and we see this world like the ponies begin.

Apparently they various. Races of ponies used to fight with each other. And then they came together in sort of a class-based social structure based on their race, which we'll get to in a second. And they, they then fought off because one of the classes, the Pegasus became the military branch. Initially, so clearly they were fighting an outside force.

So we see other species that are on like the fringes of the equestrian world, and, and clearly we see how they're pushed back and we see that they are treated with racism within pony society. So like a zebra lives in the woods outside of the main town called Pony V Kora oh yeah, the first interaction with her.

Isn't she like the sort of witch doctory one. Oh yeah. No, it's super [00:09:00] racist the way she's depicted, right? She's a rich doctor who speaks in rhymes, who is clearly supposed to be allegorical for black people like Africans specifically. So anyway, she and, and, and tribalistic Africans 'cause she's her tribalistic.

Yeah. Even after they learn, oh, she's not that bad. They don't like welcome her into the town until like the 22nd season of this show. She still lives in a shack in the woods. Okay? She is friends with like the literal princess of this land, okay? Because one of the main characters becomes a princess, and the princess can't even requisition her a house.

She still has to live in a wooden shack outside of town. But no, that is what is needed to maintain the friendship of harmony, so,

Simone Collins: wow.

Malcolm Collins: At the heart of the society [00:10:00] show you have three categories of ponies. Okay. And, and, and they're clearly allegorical for racial differences.

Simone Collins (2): Oh, right, right. There's, there's unicorns that have the horn.

There's unicorns

Malcolm Collins: who can use

Simone Collins: magic. Pegasis, Pegasus Pega aside, they can slide. Yes. And then there's. And then there's earth ponies. Earth ies, earth ponies. They just, they don't have anything that they just, they, they're not a Pega

Malcolm Collins: unicorn. Well, I mean, it, it said when they're talked about that they have a special connection to the land.

Sure. Except we are seen through multiple scenes that this is. Cat, categorically not true. So they say they have a special connection to the animals and land, and yet which of the ponies can talk to animals? Only the fricking Pegasus. Yeah. Is the Pegasus. It's the only pony we know that can talk to animals that's

Simone Collins (2): clever or shy for those wonders.

Malcolm Collins: And then we learn in the, second, see like the, the reboot of the show. Earth's ponies are said to get magic for the first time, and it is plant-based magic. But it is, it is stated that they didn't [00:11:00] have this form of magic before, which implies that they didn't have some special connection to plants.

Moreover, when their cutie marks are switched, sorry. I am, I am getting feisty about this. When the cutie marks are switched. Apple Jack's cutie. Mark is switched with pinky pie's, cutie Mark, who is also an earths pony who tries to take over the farm and is unable to run it and everything is dying. So even as an earths pony, it's shown that it is not because apple jack is an earths pony, that she is good at this.

It's because apple Jack is Apple jack, that she's good at this. When another earth's pony attempts to take over the farm, she is unable to do it. So, you might be like, oh, so there's, there's one class of ponies. Without any special skills, right? How is society maintained? If that's the case, and the answer is segregation, and we'll get to how this is done, but what you will notice is outside of the main town that the show takes place in most of the cities are segregated by ethnic group.

EEG by species was the Pegasus. Living mostly in Clarksdale [00:12:00] you could see, well the other species can't live in Clarksdale, except we know that's not true because Twilight gives the rest a spell so that they can walk on the cloud of clouds dale. So that could happen to other ponies. And then we see canter lot.

The main city is predominantly this would be like the capital where the aristocrats and wealthy and academics live is predominantly just unicorns. Very, very few other ponies are there. Mm-hmm. And so, yeah, it is, it is a, a, a class segregated society. But more than being class segregated, it is almost as if the earth ponies.

Are genetically modified to be something of an underclass in that they are uniquely eager to please and affable. Oh, and this seems to be a genetically inherited trait within them. In the song about the character's flaws, we see applejack, the earth's pony. Literally serve as a footstool for rarity the unicorn.

I can be a drama queen, a bit stuck [00:13:00] up. It's true, and I can be too eager to please.

Malcolm Collins: We, we see the two primary earth ponies characteristics being that they really want to, like, the, a pinky pie really wants to make people laugh and make people happy. And, rarity sorry. Not rarity. Apple

Speaker 4: jack.

Malcolm Collins: Apple jack overwhelmingly wants to please people and is seen as very, very eager to please.

We do see earth's ponies without this trait like filthy wi rich. But they are definitely the minority in earth's pony society. Whereas with, in unicorn society, the majority seem to be. Arrogant and intellectual. And within Pegasus society, they appear to be very athletic, militaristic, and competitive.

Simone Collins (2): Yeah. Well, though flutter shy is not, Hmm.

Malcolm Collins: No, of course there, there, there are you know, outliers within this, this system. But basically what this show argues more broadly is you should take jobs and live in places that are aligned or coherent with your [00:14:00] ethnic abilities and, and, and talents. Yeah.

If you are born a Pegasus, you know, you should live among other Pegasus. But you know, if your, if your talents are needed in another town like an earth pony town like to maintain the weather within that town because you wouldn't need a Pegasus to maintain the weather within every earth pony town.

You can go to that town and help them with the tasks that you are uniquely suited for. You know. If you are a Asian, you know, you should go be a doctor in a majority white settlement because they're just not gonna be able to handle that task on their own. Mm-hmm. If you're a Jew, you should go be a banker in a majority white settlement 'cause they're just not gonna be able to handle that on their own.

And you know, if, if, if you're an earth's pony, if you look at like the way things are produced in this world, the earth's ponies manage this sort of underclass of ponies. It's very obsequious essentially manages the production of everything other than luxury goods. The, the Pegasus take on the job of military and controlling the weather, which.

You know, obviously they can [00:15:00] use this to get the earth's ponies to do whatever they want because the Earth's ponies can't grow anything without them. And the unicorns seem to almost as a favor to the earth ponies segregate themselves. And this is what's really interesting is it is the show portrays segregation as beneficial to the underclasses.

Specifically. Equestrian, geography and economy reinforced the defacto segregation implying the racist race-based divisions lead to smoother operation than forced multiculturalism. If professions were integrated, then resentment would brew. Why hire an earth coney baker when a unicorn could levitate ingredients faster, the economy works because the racists, quote unquote, know their place.

Echoing arguments that racial hegemity in vocations reduces friction and boosts productivity. That I find to be kind of cool because it could shy away from this, right? Like it could not touch the [00:16:00] fact that unicorns can do basically anything earth's ponies can do, but better than earth's ponies, right?

But no, the show goes into this extremely hardcore there's an episode called super. Speedy Cider squeezy 6,000 where the Flimm Fram brothers, a group of two unicorns create a machine that uses magic to automatically both pick and press cider.

Speaker 7: Let's bang and show these Thirsty World Electrical. Right here in this evening, loing Cider Press Wooding Gus of the very machine.

Malcolm Collins: Meaning that they could create a near infinite amount and increase cider production significantly.

It's the spinning

Simone Collins (2): Jenny of Equestria. It

Malcolm Collins: is. But it's framed as this very negative thing, right? The Applejack family, they're like, well, we'll you, we'll take 75% of the product profits as they should, because they're basically removing all of the yearly work of the Apple family. I [00:17:00] mean, the Apple family keeps 25%, but they'll be able to produce more and faster and expand their land, right?

But the Apple family's having none of this. They're like, no, progress is bad. Industrial progress is bad. Why would this world be so anti industrial progress? Well, it's because if unicorns could just come out and do this, and a note here, you might be thinking. Is the machine defective in some way? Does it poison the cider in some way?

Does it? No. The machine is shown to completely do everything they promise it can do. It doesn't break and start making mistakes until to keep up, because they do a competition where they're like, well, whoever is better you doing this on your own or us running the machine that's who wins the, the rights to sell to apple, this town.

Okay. Yeah. And, applejack, basically cheating, just works really hard in a way that is obviously unsustainable and against the spirit of the competition. And so the brothers remove the limiter, the thing that's supposed to maintain the, the [00:18:00] quote on

Simone Collins (2): the maximum

Malcolm Collins: quality of the oh of the cider.

Okay. And it ends up including parts like bad apples. It ends up including and stems it ends up including and everything like that. Which. Again, that now they end up being framed as like very bad because of this, but I'd actually point out. Applejack broke the spirit of the competition more than they did.

The point of the competition was to find out which way in a sustainable fashion was a better way to do this. You know, that's the point of competing one thing against another thing. If you work so hard that you die at the end, like that famous case where the guy competed against the steam engine, you haven't shown that humans are better.

You, you've shown that pushing yourself to your absolute limit. Second, they technically won the competition. The competition was about how much you could produce, not about the quality of what was produced. True on, on two fronts. Applejack cheated within this competition. But what is shown from this is that the, the segregation of this world, you know, unicorns not interfering in [00:19:00] the tasks of earth ponies, even though they can do them much better and at a much higher capacity.

Is a good thing. The unicorn self-segregating to the, you know, if you, if you look at the unicorn character that this show, we know one is very academic from the twilight. But if you, if you, if if twilight's engaging with like any other intellectual in the show, they're almost always a unicorn. The other is, is very high, high society high status producing cultural goods.

Rarity, who owns a, a dress shop. And when she's engaging with other high society ponies, they are often unicorns. So the unicorns, it's, it's basically like we let. This group that is naturally better than us control the wealth predominantly and the status roles and the you know, noble titles.

And in exchange they don't take the few jobs where we are still able to compete in any meaningful way. [00:20:00] Yeah. So it's more than just the standard argument of you know, yes there are racial differences. Yes. Some people won't conform to those differences like flutter shy. But broadly speaking, you should lean into your differences and self-segregate.

And society will run. Do, do you see how, right, like the, this isn't me reading something that's not intended into the show. Like, I

Simone Collins (2): mean, but the friends, I mean, this is my Little pony friendship is magic and the friends are from different groups. There's two Pegasus, two earth ponies, no, two unicorns and yeah, two earth ponies.

So you

Malcolm Collins: go, yeah, there's two, there's two of each. But yeah, they all fall into their group's Racial stereotypes. The, the, except for fluter, shy flus, the only one who doesn't fit her group's Esno stereotype as, as established by the show. And note, the show treats this as. Is having a group with [00:21:00] a bunch of different races, all friends with each other this is, this is shown as being the not normal thing within this world.

I'd also note another thing about the show, very not right wing is the world is very clearly, matriarchal society? Oh yeah.

Simone Collins: No. Yeah. Like super clearly men are 100% accessories.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. Men have virtually no positions of power in this world. There's no male or members of the monarchy. There are no male elected officials that we see.

Mayor. Mayor is a female. The most powerful male I'm familiar with is either, shining whatever his name is. Twilight's brother who ends up marrying into the monarchy but does not appear to become a king or a prince. He's still a royal guard. Very much a woman's fantasy. I get to be queen and married to a royal guard.

He doesn't change status. He still walks around protecting me all tough. And, and the other one I would think of as filthy rich. Just another powerful male who achieved I [00:22:00] guess wealth through mercantilism. But this is, there's a, there's a, a series of fan fictions about this that really made me realize it.

Called my Little Pony Fall Out Equest. Really like the series. It's, it's very good. It, it, it takes place in the fall, equestrian universe, very dark. I love mixing the, the bright bubbs of this with the dystopian of this in a way that highlights how actually dystopian everything was all along. And in it, in one of the vaults, if you know the fallout universe, they run different experiments in the various vaults.

One of the vaults of the experiment is what if we put males in positions of power? Hmm. And one of the characters grew up in this vault and is always making faux paws in the world and just doesn't understand why men should be seen as an underclass. And it really puts this in stark contrast, how much everyone else in pony society.

Assumes that males should be seen as a, as a rightful underclass. Without complaint and, and no, no, nobody complains about this anywhere in the show. If even, even you can be like, well, what about like, the more [00:23:00] con like conservative, even coded parts of this, like the Appalachian coded. Applejack character in her family.

That's very much like a clan based family structure. Which is interesting. I never thought about that. But yeah, they do a very good job of showing Appalachian culture. But anyway no, her family is clearly run by Applejack. The not even the oldest of the siblings. Her big brother, big Mac is basically treated as a, a workhorse.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And doesn't really talk back to, he's almost the,

Simone Collins (2): the lurch of the family.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. Even though he's older and bigger and does more work and the family is, is is very, obviously if you look at like the structure of it, default run by the grandmother. Mm-hmm. If, if not, if not you know, the, the older sister who's, who's still the younger of, of Big Mac so very dystopian in that and I just love that it was like.

They, they just wrote it that way and they were just like, balls out on the table. Yes, women run this world. [00:24:00] Men are basically, their slaves deal with it. The society is okay with this. It works. Oh, and yes, racial groups exist. They live in a segregated society. I'm

Simone Collins (2): trying to, to figure out a way to steal man, this, I mean, I'm wondering if, if they're just trying to look at this from like little girls' perspectives where.

When they're playing with girly dolls, that's the world that everyone lives in. It's everything's run by princesses and most of their dolls are female. So why wouldn't men? I mean, when you, the problem is they had to flush this child's world, this girl's, little girl's world fantasy, world doll world into.

A larger, cohesive body of canon, a universe with different groups and politics.

Malcolm Collins: Well, but hold on. The problem is right, is, is if that was the case, right? Why not have a prince? Like why? 'cause they girls don't have princes

Simone Collins (2): in their fantasies.

Malcolm Collins: They effing do. Simone, I have read enough female romance books.

Little

Simone Collins (2): girls playing with dolls do not.

Malcolm Collins: Okay. [00:25:00] Maybe.

Simone Collins (2): Maybe even my friends who treated Barbies like throwing devices. Didn't have really kinds, well, let's

Malcolm Collins: see if I can convince you further. Right. Okay. So you could say, okay, they have a monarchy because little girls like monarchy. So the, the society is ruled by a class called All Horns which are so in this world, magic is clearly like an allegory for technology.

Like the super spider squeezy 6,000 was made with magic. So. Essentially they're genetically modified, super speed being, or, or, or, or, or, or genetically modified like God, human basically is what they are. They are larger than the other ponies. They live almost forever. They have both wings and a unicorn horn.

And presumably some tie to the. Flows in a weird way. Yes. And, and their, and, and their hair flows in a weird way. And it has shown that you can both be born to this cast if you are born of an aorn as happens with whatever her name is, kid. [00:26:00] And or you can be transformed this way through essentially genetic engineering was in this world because again, magic is allegorical to technology.

Again, I don't know if I. Hate this, you know, maybe society should be ruled because you could modify somebody to be more pro-social, to be more caring. It seems

Simone Collins (2): kind of Aristotelian, doesn't it? This idea of there being some noble leading class that sacrifices a lot in. Is somehow superior in various ways.

It's been a while

Malcolm Collins: since I've read. Well, I mean, clearly you could be born into this class because we've seen like, it's not just that people achieve it. Remember twilight's Niece is born into this class from Candace Candace, Mary Shining Armor oh yeah. And then she has a kid, and the kid is born in aorn, so we know that it's not like based on merit only or something like that.

Yeah. And you could say, well, well, Twilight gets it through merit, but again, she's. A unicorn. And the merit appears to have something to do with magical ability. Although we see in the reboot that I think non unicorns can have this happen to them as well. So yeah, I think it [00:27:00] happened to an earth pony in the reboot.

Oh, haven't watched the reboot. Okay. So potentially it, it could happen. Depends on if you consider reboot. Can it? But, okay. So you could say, well, that's why it's a monarchy. Okay. But the problem is. Is that the show explicitly shows democratic processes on two occasions. One was in the show and one was in the comic books, and in both instances, it's portrayed as a bad way to operate society.

So, oh, in, in, in the town itself. Pip Squeak. A humble working class cult described derogatorily as a transplant from trotting ham by the antagonist mother. His platform focuses on practical improvements like fixing a damaged playground equipment. His campaign managed by the cutie Mark SRS emphasizes positivity, fairness, and community needs.

Diamond Tiara, a wealthy, spoiled Phil Philly from a rich family backed by her elitist mother. Spoiled Rich, a school board member who presses her to win for status reasons. Diamonds tactics are overtly negative and manipulative. She's this black male threatening to expose [00:28:00] classmate secrets, bribery implied through favors, mud slinging and bullying, including belittling her own supporters.

Silver Spoon do, do doing a sing off debate. And at times she is seen as potentially winning. Now, this time within the series PIP Squeak wins. Yeah. But even after he wins, diamond Tiara still uses her money to sabotage by exploiting budget issues to deny his playground products. Oh goodness.

Eventually going back on this, but basically the message of the episode is, rich people manipulate politics to their own ends.

Simone Collins: Well, what, that's a very progressive. Well and conservative

Malcolm Collins: justice well. Well, yes. But keep in mind that typically was in a progressive world, communism is framed as the alternative, which we will point out in, in My Lord pony.

It is very not, it's framed as pure evil, not monarch. In this world, the alternative to the democratic process is monarch. Now, I'll note with the show itself, there is a mayor. Named Mayor. Mayor. [00:29:00] Now, if you only take the show as canon, this to me would mean that there are actually not elections and this is an appointed position because.

I mean, she's named mayor, right? It's, we never see an election in the show. We never see another leader after like two. So you're talking about

Simone Collins (2): the, I mean, it's a, it's a, it's a play on words, right? It's spelled like mayor as in a female horse, right?

Malcolm Collins: Absolutely. But like, she's named the mayor. But anyway

Simone Collins (2): nominative, determinism,

Malcolm Collins: I don't know.

But in, in, in the comic book spinoff, we see that actually this is an elected position. So what happens in the comic books? Well, the incumbent current administrator is, is forced to resign and then has to compete against filthy rich. A very rich pony, well, filthy rich, unlike his daughter who competed in the other election, also used his money this time without.

Doing underhanded tactics, but he's clearly the less competent candidate. So incompetent that he resigns after winning to win.

Simone Collins (2): Oh my gosh.

Malcolm Collins: To win. [00:30:00] And keep in mind, you can be like, well, progressives complain about how money corrupts election cycles, right? I agree. What the alternative isn't typically Monarch, but in here, Monarch is never questioned.

The, the monarchs within this world are never shown as being you know, self-centered or flawed despite the fact that they live in giant palaces that presumably they had other people build to them. There is huge wealth and power disparity between the princesses and the other people in this world, for sure.

Simone Collins: Yeah.

Malcolm Collins: No one is shown, is able to question one of the princesses. The princesses make decisions to go to war unilaterally at multiple points in the show. How to Resolve Wars is handed unilaterally in the show and they are framed as like the perfect philosopher king. Always on the front battle, always trying their best to do right for the people but with astronomical amounts of power.

And I should note here that they're not just framed as [00:31:00] like normal monarchs, right? They're not like Munch Moog. No. This show says not only should you have monarchs, not only should they be genetically modified super beings, but they should be treated as gods. By everyone else in the world, but their hair

Simone Collins: flows in a cool way.

Of course, obviously

Malcolm Collins: they are treated as, I'm not wrong here, they're treated as literal gods in the show.

Simone Collins (2): Yeah.

Malcolm Collins: And Twilight like earns this status and is just to read it as a God afterwards.

Simone Collins (2): Yeah. I mean,

Malcolm Collins: okay, so now we're gonna go to the communist part.

Simone Collins (2): Oh, no.

Malcolm Collins: I, did you ever see this episode? This episode is like shocking.

We should show it to our kids. It's a good episode to teach kids about why communism is evil.

Simone Collins (2): Oh my gosh, I don't think I did a bunch of these episodes. I remember a bunch. I don't though.

Malcolm Collins: So. As we've noted, every pony gets a cutie mark. This is basically the ways that we are genetically different from other people, our inbuilt proficiencies, [00:32:00] and it is shown very much in the show.

Follow your inbuilt proficiency. Don't try to be good at something that you don't have a natural talent for. This is. I'm actually kind of surprised. I don't think that there's a single episode of the show where somebody's like, but should I actually follow my cutie mark? I don't want to live my entire life by what I was interested in as a teenager.

But oh. In the show you, you get your cutie mark and everyone can see it too. It's very much like in star strip troopers when they show everybody's scores on like the board after the Yes. Yes. So everybody knows like, this is what you're doing for the rest of your life, except

Simone Collins (2): you effectively have the score tattooed on your forehead.

Malcolm Collins: And that's effectively what the universe is. Yeah. You, you, the magic decides that you're good at something at a certain age that gets tattooed on you for the rest of your life. And if you go against it, you're just being an idiot and you're gonna fail. 'Cause this is an episode where their kitie marks are switched up and they try things that aren't their talent.

And [00:33:00] they, they, their, their lives are shown as miserable. So I love that. That's so anti-urban monoculture. That is, we are born different with different genetic proficiencies. Lean into what you're good at. People can be different and still be friends. Yeah, that's true. It

Simone Collins: really does run against blank slm.

That's pretty radical.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. Yeah. Just because Pegasus have talents that that and abilities that unicorns don't, or unicorns have talents and abilities that earth's ponies don't, doesn't mean they can't get along and be friends. You know, they, they should only live in a non segregated society when absolutely necessary.

Mm-hmm. You know, just mostly segregate unless you really want to, you know, be different. So anyway. In the cutie map, the main six are summoned by twilight sparkles, magical cutie map to a remote village where ponies live. Under the rule of Starlight glimmer, the villagers have had their cutie marks, unique symbols, representing each pony's innate talents, passions, and often racial traits magically removed and replaced with [00:34:00] identical equal signs.

This enforces a philosophy of absolute equality. No one is allowed to excel or differ in skills, appearance, or abilities. The result is a gray, monotonous. A utopian term dystopia where baking produces bland muffins instead of delicious treats. Denying culinary talent. Construction yields, shoddy houses, suppressing building expertise.

Everyone smiles forcibly, but is secretly miserable, was dissenters locked into reeducation rooms blasting propaganda like. In sameness, there is peace, exceptionalism is a lie.

Speaker 8: In sameness, there is peace. Exceptionalism is a lie. Free yourself from your cutie mark. Choose a quality as your special talent.

Speaker 9: Hey, this is pretty [00:35:00] good.

This door shut tighter than a summer of the piglets and shoot, I can't even make country ISS no more.

Speaker 8: Oh, good morning. I trust you. Had a pleasant night. This way, please. There are some friends who would like to see you

Speaker 10: we have a welcome ceremony for new friends. The whole village joins together to build you your own cottage.

Speaker 9: Not interested.

Malcolm Collins: Now to, to really go against all of this Starlight preaches that differences cause conflict and that true friendship comes from sameness.

But she's a hypocrite. She secretly maintains her own cutie. Mark what? Maintain magic and control. It very Napoleon. This is very much, you know, equality. Some people are more equal than others. It's the progressive

Simone Collins (2): Napoleon, the pig from Animal Farm, not [00:36:00] Napoleon Bonaparte.

Speaker 13: Because we do not separate ourselves, buy more than name., In our time, we dare not compete. Winning

Speaker 14: name only creates the worst

ego filter, conce, you see.

Simone Collins (2): Right? Yeah. This is not something that would naturally emerge from scenarios of a girl playing with a bunch of girly toys.

This is yeah, this is some kind of message. This is clearly an

Malcolm Collins: allegory. For communism and not just communism. Yeah. But the urban monoculture. More specifically denying that humans are born different from each other and with unique traits. I

Simone Collins (2): can't, I can't deny that, my gosh.

Malcolm Collins: Within a context that the character is treated as supremely villainous a a as, as threatening as any evil villain that they see in, in, throughout the entire show.

And I have to say, I always really like. The different [00:37:00] characters reaction to this. Because you see like if I look at the racial coating of the various characters it's pretty clear what it is. The applejack is racially coded as Appalachian like sort of, American redneck Rarity is clearly coded as a wasp. White Anglo-Saxon Protestant.

uh, pinky Pie is very clearly coded as Jewish.

I'm, I'm so surprised, really. She is a comedian with Fluffy hair who is incredibly gregarious and always hosting party. Simone, she's Jewish to the core. We, we often point out that, that Jews are, are far more gregarious than other ethnic groups in terms of the size of the friend network. They keep, you wanna see our episode on this?

You can look at our, why did Jews have Friends episode? Because it's just born out in the data. And come on, the comedian. What, what's a more classically Jewish job than comedian? Then you have, rainbow Dash, the one with rainbow hair that people often think is gay [00:38:00] coated when not at all.

She's very coated as Americana, tomboy. Like, like, very competitive very, like I'm the best, I'm the greatest. I can do better than what anyone else can do. And then you have flutter shy, who I've always taken as coded. Twilight's, obviously just autistic. Who've I've always taken to be coded as either Muslim or Catholic.

Very timid woman.

And what's funny about this is the way that this timid sort of Muslim Catholic coded character when they're all singing about how everyone's better when they're equal and they take away the way that everyone is different is getting really into it. And kind of likes the idea, which I think sort of aligns with the weird Muslim progressive alliance that we've seen.

Or you could say the, the, you know, Catholic majority areas are still dominantly progressive voting. If you look at massives overlap, where Catholic concentrations are in the United States, and progressive voting patterns where, whereas the Jewish coated character is giving her a very angry look.

We donate when you learn to [00:39:00] simplify life.

Malcolm Collins: And, and the Americana coated character, it's like, from the beginning, it's so funny that like, it, it's, it's coded like. The other ponies or some of the ponies might accidentally go along with this or think that this makes sense. And the Americana code is like, this is a joke, right? Like immediately after they do their big song just not having it at all.

Speaker 11: You're kidding. Right? Give up our cutie marks. No way. Rainbow dash.

Malcolm Collins: Like, you guys can't be serious. The, the world would be better if we didn't lean into our, our unique genetic profiles and talents. And I'll note here where you can be like, well, this isn't aligning with the, the ethnic background thing. I mean, it's like, well, not exactly. Most cutie marks are in some way tied to the ethnic coating, IE earth, pony, Pegasus or unicorn of the.

Pony that has [00:40:00] it. For example, twilight's cutie mark could only be had by unicorn 'cause it's tied to magic. Rainbow Dash's cutie mark is tied to flying. It could only be had by a pony of, of her ethnic affiliation. You put a lot of thought into this. Explain to you how My Little Pony brainwashed an entire generation of youth into being, uh uh.

Being okay with ethnic differences and accepting that we can have ethnic differences and still get along with each other. And that you should lean into your ethnic differences and admit them. Otherwise, your life will be horrible and that communism is terrible and evil. And that monarch is clearly better than democracy and that colonialism was actually good and that natives just needed to take some time to learn that, that they actually like this stuff.

And that in, in truth, it is the less privileged ethnic groups like the earth ponies that benefit the most from segregation and segregated. [00:41:00]

Simone Collins (2): Wait, how

Malcolm Collins: well remember the only reason that the Apple family is able to make money with their orchard instead of the unicorns using magic is because the unicorns are essentially not allowed to participate, right?

In industries that produce basic goods like lumber or apples or food production, which seems to be basically by cultural norms within this universe exclusive to the lower cast of earth ponies.

And given way, there is like a military race in this, the Pegasus are said to be specifically the military race. The, there are earth's ponies in the military, but we are seeing when their society is divided out in the Heartwarming Eve episode. That the, the pegasi are explicitly assigned a, a military caste structure.

And the elite groups within the military, like the wonder bolts are all Pegasus exclusive.

Simone Collins (2): [00:42:00] Man. Did you realize this when you were first watching it, or did you just find yourself thinking about it one day? I don't

Malcolm Collins: know when this happened, but I mean, it's something I've, I remember thinking like, this show is great at teaching about ethnic and racial differences and, and getting kids, you know, some people are just born different and that's fine.

I know. And I, I, I did not think about, because I didn. Know about like all the comics and stuff like that. The, the show, would it never criticize the monarchy? I thought that it would have some at some point was in like the 22 seasons it got, there would be some episode where they're like, Hey having a God, a genetically modified God king rule absolutely.

Is maybe not the best way to run a society. Nope, never. And, and I didn't know that they, every time, it never occurred to me until I was actually like going through this with an ai. Every time democracy is brought up, it's framed as corrupted by wealth. The same family boast times, by the way. So that's, that's also interesting.

[00:43:00] I

Simone Collins (2): like the critique because at least it's, it's a little different from others. It's like, listen, democracy, it just doesn't work because wealthy people get involved and ruin it, which is not normally the, the criticism I hear. So that's interesting too.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. Well, and I also find it to be actually a fairly interesting, like they don't just go into like surface level.

It, it's, it's good to lean into your natural born talents. We are born different, but that doesn't mean we can't be friends. And it doesn't mean that sometimes a Pegasus. Can't be an animal person doesn't mean that sometimes, you know, a, an earth's pony can't be a fashionista. It just means that normally they can't or shouldn't try to unless Right.

Averages

Simone Collins: or averages something something. Yeah. Average

Malcolm Collins: or averages. Right. I, I thought that that's what it would stop at, but it doesn't stop at that. It then is like, and actually we should segregate society because if we don't, it's the earth's ponies who are going to suffer the most. Oh my gosh. I actually you know, [00:44:00] e if you, if you look at segregation more broadly, many times it actually is for the benefit of the one that doesn't have an a, an advantage within the field.

So. An example here what is one of the most segregated places of our existing society? Sports. Sports is highly sex segregated. Yeah. Sports is segregated for the benefit of women.

Simone Collins: Absolutely. Yeah.

Malcolm Collins: If, if we were going to. Make sports like more fair, right? Like if you were going to say, let's racially segregate the Olympics.

Right. Who would benefit most from like racially segregating sprinting. Okay. White people would benefit it is the person who is in the back foot. Mm-hmm. Who often benefits from segregation. Segregation. And here and here, what I'm pointing out here is some groups of, of, of, african genetics appear to just be dramatically [00:45:00] faster at short sprinting than, well it's distance

Simone Collins: running too, so, yeah.

Malcolm Collins: Well also, also distance running, but I think they have a bigger advantage in sprinting. I don't remember where the bigger advantage is, but they have a bigger advantage in one or the other. But if, if, if you were to racially segregate that like everyone can be like, how dare you racially segregate that.

Who are you helping? You're helping the whites. And this is often true of racial segregation, which is something that I think is just not talked about in our society. And now people can be like, well, it hasn't been used that way historically. And it's like, well, I mean, it actually has with sex segregation in sports, it has with sex segregation of bathrooms, sex segregation of bathrooms isn't done for the benefit of men.

It's done for the benefit of women.

Simone Collins (2): Nobody, well, you could even argue that. Racial segregation in, for example, the United States did lead to some really prosperous black communities like Tulsa, Oklahoma, right? We, we went to that museum and they talked about how there was this really like affluent, wonderful community and then like [00:46:00] the white people.

Who were just sitting out there like in the cold, poor, getting really resentful, came in like,

Simone Collins: burned it down or something. Burned it down.

Simone Collins (2): Yeah, like destroyed it because the, the more segregated black community was absolutely killing it. They were doing fantastically,

Malcolm Collins: actually, you, you make a point there.

I haven't thought about this and I'm, I may go into an AI 'cause this could make a very interesting other episode. But I do remember that, that the Tulsa community wasn't unique. There were a number of areas in the United States, if you go back to the 1950s where there were known to be extremely wealthy black communities.

Mm-hmm. When contrasted was the neighbor in groups, and I am not familiar with, in modern America, extremely wealthy, segregated black communities. They, they, and I feel like

Simone Collins (2): there are other maybe examples of, we'll say forced segregation like Mormon communities where like within certain Mormon communities, there, there are cycles, like up cycles of wealth because they all kind of feed into each other and collaborate more.

And, and try to buy, to sell to and buy from each other. [00:47:00] Preferentially.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. But I, I, I wonder if that, I mean, that'd be very interesting. It's certainly something we wouldn't learn in school. No. One of the things that we point out in some of our other episodes, and I'll put the graph on screen here 'cause it shocked me when I saw this.

If you look at American Black Wealth from the 1950s to today, and then you adjust it by income level and you contrast it with how much white wealth had raised during this period contrasted with how much white wealth has gone up when you adjust for inflation. Black wealth has gone up almost nothing since the 1950s.

Mm-hmm. Again, contrasting with how much white wealth has gone up. And this is a Wall Street Journal graph here. Now there's different ways you can measure this. This is median household income, I think that can give you different, but like any way you measure it, you see a huge increase in white in a very, very moderate to small increase in, in, and this could be caused by the negative economic effects of desegregation, which I've never thought about or looked into before.

Well, and I was thinking about

Simone Collins (2): the episode that we did on. Ethnic cartels that, that sort of talked about, you know, why are [00:48:00] certain sort of like random ethnic groups in certain areas, they just like own donut businesses or hotels or seven elevens or something like that. And like a big factor then is also.

Ingroup favoring providing very affordable financing, more efficient hiring, because it's really culturally compatible and there's more of an honor system where like, Hey, I am hiring your cousin. You better not screw up because now your whole family's on the line. Like, yeah, there, there are a lot of things that that make me think.

If I think, look at the LDS community, I look at racial or ethnic cartels, and then I look at wealthy and affluent black communities that existed pre. End,

Malcolm Collins: there's actually a secondary positive effect of segregation, which, which comes from these communities, which you're probably not thinking about. So if you look at, you go back to the 1950s or whatever when a black individual or black, black American would become wealthy they would often continue to live within a majority black community.

Mm-hmm. So they would have majority [00:49:00] black culture, but they would also act as a role model. For the other, you know, the black kids growing up in that community and bring wealth to that community. Yeah. Improve it, what black people can achieve. You saw this in, in like Harlem and stuff like this in New York.

It wasn't just like this area. If, if you go today when a black individual becomes wealthy, they just go and move in with a white community. Which means that the wealth that they have now and the positive cultural it, you know, effect that they could have for the community that they were born in is removed from that community in a modern context.

Simone Collins: Yeah.

Simone Collins (2): Which didn't happen. The, the halo effect, that Halo is being moved and is now radiating onto a community that is not primarily black, you're saying.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah, yeah. They're, they're removing whatever somebody becomes successful within their, the, because like in our society, wealthy people aren't segregated.

Poor people is still very much segregated. Like, I, I can go to a Mexican neighborhood or a Filipino neighborhood, or a white neighborhood or a black neighborhood. If it's poor, it's gonna be segregated very [00:50:00] frequently. It is the extremely wealthy communities that are non segregated, and that actually has a really negative effect on non-white communities.

Simone Collins (2): Yeah. Well, I mean, I mean, even poor white communities probably would benefit from,

Malcolm Collins: well, I mean consider, because not every group does this. If you look at Jewish individuals, right? Like if we talk about why, why Jewish exceptionalism, this could be one of the traits that leads to it. When a Jew becomes extremely wealthy, they do not move to live with a majority non-Jewish community.

They stay. Yeah. Well,

Simone Collins (2): like, like with the LDS church yeah, there's, there's self-imposed segregation.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah, when, when like this is often true for Asian communities as well because I was friends with like wealthy you know, Japanese people, they still went to the Japanese cultural events and stuff like that.

I've been friends with wealthy Koreans. They do the same. They, they often. Stay connected in, in terms of where they live and their friend network with the less wealthy members of [00:51:00] their community instead of creating communities that are mono wealth ethnic communities.

Simone Collins (2): Yeah. Hmm. Oh boy.

Malcolm Collins: Oh boy, my Little pony. This is, touches on some spicy taps.

Simone Collins (2): Well, it's so funny because I know what's her name, who did my Little Pony friendship is witchcraft.

Malcolm Collins: Did Sarah, whatever her name is. Anyway, continue on.

Simone Collins (2): Jenny Nicholson. She, Jenny Nicholson. Yeah. She got, she got in so much hot water and wanted to distance herself from the entire community because she dared to make some little sub joke in her, in her plots about, it was a

Malcolm Collins: gypsy community.

Yeah, it was the, the gypsy character and, yeah. Gypsy

Simone Collins (2): magic. No, no, no. She implied. I think that that pinky pie. He probably with the gypsy

Wing. You were right Ion, there's a simple explanation inside Crystal ball.

Simone Collins (2): Yeah. Was a gypsy. And then she caught heat from her urban monoculture followers about it. [00:52:00] And then just kind of wanted to just throw up her hands and distance herself for the, from the entire My Little Pony community.

And here you are highlighting such incredibly more controversial things that just the show unedited, released. Yeah. Like you can't even, yeah, nothing she

Malcolm Collins: did was as controversial as like just a colonialism episode. Yeah. Just we thought white people were bad until we saw them shoot some of us with guns.

Then they realized they have things we want.

Simone Collins (2): Just Wow. That, that was enlightening. Not sure what I think of it yet, but,

Malcolm Collins: well, you could be like, okay. Even though they were using the apple pies as a weapon, they weren't really an allegory for guns. They were just an allegory for like. Some sort of food that, I mean, yeah, they treated

Simone Collins (2): beads and clothing too.

No, no, no. They, they,

Malcolm Collins: what they could say is like, look, it's a food that white people make that Native Americans just couldn't get enough of so much that they abandoned their [00:53:00] ancestral tradition.

Simone Collins: Oh God. Oh

Malcolm Collins: no. Is it an allegory for alcohol? Like, come on guys. Okay. Yeah. Anyway, I'll, I'll go to the next episode.

I love you the spicy episode rights, spicy episode spicier than you expected. One of our,

Simone Collins (2): yeah, for, for those who can like, push through and, and get past the fact that they, they have to come to terms with a reality that they're going to listen to. A podcast episode on My Little Pony friendship is magic.

Yeah. The little girl show. Yeah. The little girl

Malcolm Collins: Show. All about how monarchy is good. And we should live in a racially segregated society.

Simone Collins (2): Yeah. If, if they, if they, you know, can get past that and actually listen to it.

Malcolm Collins: See,

Simone Collins (2): we'll see. But I love you too gorgeous. I'm

Malcolm Collins: So how did the comments do in today's video?

Simone Collins: I just saw one comment that

Simone Collins (2): said that I wouldn't pass a tour test, which. It's actually [00:54:00] super true because every time I have to do the one of those, are you not a computer?

Things? I have to do it like five times. I don't pass.

Malcolm Collins: But they say Simone wouldn't pass the Turing test.

Simone Collins (2): Yeah.

Malcolm Collins: What was the like

Simone Collins (2): I regularly it make teen pregnancy great again. I don't know when that came up. I don't think I mentioned the fact that I like pathologically fail. The CAPCHA tests.

Did

you do every time those calls?

I'm like,

Simone Collins: captions.

Simone Collins (2): Yeah. I can't. I can't do it. I think chat. BT recently passed one, so that's embarrassing. But more on topic today. I'm wondering if you remember what you said to me on our first date. When we were making out on the floor of the Four Seasons Hotel,

Simone Collins: no, I

Simone Collins (2): wasn't, which was so crazy to me because of course I'd never kissed anyone, one other person before you.

And here I am, first date making out with a basic [00:55:00] stranger. And then what do you say to me? Would you like to come to my house? I have a jacuzzi bathtub. Mm-hmm. And we can watch My Little Pony.

Malcolm Collins: And I'm like,

Speaker 4: yeah,

Malcolm Collins: how you get a nerd to, you were clearly fishing for nerd culture stuff back. I I

Simone Collins (2): clearly was.

Yeah. It was, it was, it was obvious that they, my, my whole profile was keyword stuffed for online nerd references. So yes, 100%. But then, do you know, today's also a very special anniversary. No, but it is it is the 11 year or maybe 12 year anniversary of the day you proposed to me on Reddit with commissioned art, and there was a deed on my Little Pony.

Commission. There, there was, yes. You sent it to, we have been

Malcolm Collins: involved in the Brony community for a long time, where

Simone Collins (2): you made [00:56:00] custom my little pony characters for each of us with your pony character balancing a diamond ring on his head, bowing down so I could see it. This in my pony form. Of course, you've got a little wifi signal on your pony butt, and I've got a little check mark on mine.

I remember your, my little pony name was net set. Yeah, I don't remember what mine was. Crystal Cog. I remember that. Crystal Cog. So

Malcolm Collins: those were the days, Malcolm, those were crazy, crazy period in internet history. Yeah.

Simone Collins (2): Thank you for your ferry. Romantic proposaling. I've actually seen a number of,

Malcolm Collins: Well, yeah.

What, what was it? What magazine was it? That early magazine that said it was one of the top 10 romantic moments of the year.

Simone Collins (2): Oh yeah, it was

Malcolm Collins: some

Simone Collins (2): like

Malcolm Collins: online. It was like the main one. It was like the Daily Dot, wasn't it The Daily dot? No, no, no, no. It wasn't, it was bigger than the Daily Dot. It started with like a b or something.

We actually went to their offices at one point in Manhattan. And it's [00:57:00] like irrelevant now, but for a while. It like dominated internet culture. Yeah.

Simone Collins (2): Time flies.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. And now all the blogs are dead, so it, it doesn't matter anymore. Isn't that crazy? It wasn't, was it Buzzfeed? Buzzfeed, yeah.

Simone Collins (2): It was Buzzfeed.

Oh my gosh. I, yes, now, now I remember that. Yeah. It was, it was not in the first big roundup of, of coverage of that.

Malcolm Collins: No, no. At the end of the year when they were ranking romantic events that had happened that year. And yeah, so that was the progressives back then didn't know about us. But

Simone Collins (2): Well, no, they did.

I'm sure you know, both. People of all political spectrum saw your Reddit posts saying, I'm gonna propose to my wife with this art and with these advice animals. And they're like, okay,

Malcolm Collins: let's watch this fail. And they'll, this is Reddit was like, way more politically neutral. And because back then, you know, I, I hung out on like.

Tumblr in action and fat people hate and stuff like that. And there's this article like detailing my Reddit post somewhere. I can't remember. I think it's a Yahoo article. Trying to be like, [00:58:00] and he laughed at a fat person 'cause they had to go to a zoo to get an mri. And I'm like, and I still laugh at that fat person.

Simone Collins (2): Funny to think about having to show up at the zoo to get your MRI. It's still, it's still good. Oh my God. Oh my god. I mean, I would laugh. I would laugh. So I mean it myself, if I were that

Malcolm Collins: right. Here we go.

Speaker 3: What game are you guys playing? Um, just nothing.

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