Current Events > Nebraska lawmaker makes false claim about 'furries' and litterboxes in schools

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https://apnews.com/article/nebraska-lincoln-316c87249779706d6d78b58641c4a75e

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) A Nebraska state lawmaker apologized on Monday after he publicly cited a persistent but debunked rumor alleging that schools are placing litter boxes in school bathrooms to accommodate children who self-identify as cats.

Sen. Bruce Bostelman, a conservative Republican, repeated the false claim during a public, televised debate on a bill intended to help school children who have behavioral problems. His comments quickly went viral, with one Twitter video garnering more than 300,000 views as of Monday afternoon, and drew an onslaught of online criticism and ridicule.

Bostelman initially said he was shocked when he heard stories that children were dressing as cats and dogs while at school, with claims that schools were accommodating them with litter boxes.
They meow and they bark and they interact with their teachers in this fashion, Bostelman said during legislative debate. And now schools are wanting to put litter boxes in the schools for these children to use. How is this sanitary?

The rumor has persisted in a private Facebook group, Protect Nebraska Children, and also surfaced last month in an Iowa school district, forcing the superintendent to write to parents that it was simply and emphatically not true.

Bostelman had said that he planned to discuss the issue with the CEO of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. He also alleged that schools were not allowing kids to wear flags, but didnt give specific examples. In 2016, Lincolns public school district briefly asked students not to fly American flags from their vehicles after one flag was pulled from its holder, but school officials later apologized.

The false claim that children who identify as cats are using litter boxes in school bathrooms has spread across the internet since at least December, when a member of the public brought it up at a school board meeting for Midland Public Schools northwest of Detroit.

The claim was debunked by the districts superintendent, who issued a statement that said there had never been litter boxes within MPS schools.

Still, the baseless rumor has spread across the country, and become fuel for political candidates, amid the culture wars and legislative action involving gender identification in schools.

Hours after his remarks, Bostelman backtracked and acknowledged that the story wasnt true. He said he checked into the claims with state Sen. Lynne Walz, a Democrat who leads the Legislatures Education Committee, and confirmed there were no such incidents.

It was just something I felt that if this really was happening, we needed to address it and address it quickly, Bostelman said.

The furor over public school restrooms comes as a growing number of conservative states seek laws to ban transgender students from using bathrooms that match their gender identity.

Must take a special kind of stupid to fall for this

At my school, the litterbox after the football team used the bathroom was an atrocity.

/s

How about we protect children from delusional propaganda-cult parents

We live in an Onion article.

DarkRoast posted...

How about we protect children from delusional propaganda-cult parents

But it's my right to raise my child as I see fit!!

MC_BatCommander posted...

Must take a special kind of stupid to fall for this

Not really, it just takes being a conservative.

how about we teach our journalists to practice journalism and shine the light on exactly why this guy repeated something he read in a private facebook exchange, and refuse to let him talk about anything else until we've fully investigated this--regardless of whether doing so destroys his career?

we need to start making examples of politicians who do this shit.

Sackgurl posted...

how about we teach our journalists to practice journalism and shine the light on exactly why this guy repeated something he read in a private facebook exchange, and refuse to let him talk about anything else until we've fully investigated this--regardless of whether doing so destroys his career?

we need to start making examples of politicians who do this shit.

It won't matter as long as there are sources of information please people can go to that will deliberately avoid talking about it. Fox took fringe alt-reality conspiracy BS mainstream.

I'm so conflicted.

On the one hand, this guy and people like him are super stupid, and they should be disallowed from holding any sort of authoritative positions or running for them.

On the other, furries and the actual things they do are also terrible. So why would I bother to correct anyone who says incorrect things about them?

This is hard.

Lmfao

Ya'll's elementary school didn't have litterboxes?

MC_BatCommander posted...

Must take a special kind of stupid to fall for this

Republicans have this thing they do where they make up ridiculous and unfeasible situations, get mad about it, then rant to others about it and they get angry too which continues the chain. It's not even about being stupid, it's just them and their need to make the world out to be evil and full of sin and seeking to hurt people like them (the Republicans who are predominately white cisgender heterosexual Christians).

gunplagirl posted...

Republicans have this thing they do where they make up ridiculous and unfeasible situations, get mad about it, then rant to others about it and they get angry too which continues the chain. It's not even about being stupid, it's just them and their need to make the world out to be evil and full of sin and seeking to hurt people like them (the Republicans who are predominately white cisgender heterosexual Christians).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_mentality

Republicans being dumb and willfully ignorant? I cant believe it.

Sackgurl posted...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_mentality

Also pointing out that it isn't true will result in them getting mad at you, not at the person who told them the untrue thing.

I heard this person in particular likes to dress up as a tree and other shrubbery.

I'm not saying it's true, but it's worth looking into. Do we really want someone who thinks they are a plant in charge of anything? He demands to be fed only in sunshine and rain water and wants everyone to live off of that.

Concerning. And so I am just asking questions. Makes you think, right?

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


Hurt people? Nah, I haven't heard of them doing that.

I mean, outside of the subsection of them that also happen to be nazis. Even then, they just would hurt people if given the chance.

Funkydog posted...

I heard this person in particular likes to dress up as a tree and other shrubbery.

I'm not saying it's true, but it's worth looking into. Do we really want someone who thinks they are a plant in charge of anything? He demands to be fed only in sunshine and rain water and wants everyone to live off of that.

Concerning. And so I am just asking questions. Makes you think, right?

https://youtu.be/69iB-xy0u4A

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


I remember my uncle making fun of some guy on TV for changing his mind on COVID vaccination timing due to emerging evidence. Said something to the effect of "these so-called experts never seem to have the answers" and I reflexively asked "so you're OK with firm wrong answers instead?"

They want to believe stuff like this because it reinforces their idea of "woke" leftists. They want to think they are at war with sick, godless freaks who are so detached from reality that they would encourage and enable children to go to the bathroom in litter boxes.

If I ever end up working on a show with talking cartoon animals, I'm going to name one of them Nebraska.

Wow, I wonder what else they claim happens in schools that's completely fabricated

jpenny2 posted...

They want to believe stuff like this because it reinforces their idea of "woke" leftists. They want to think they are at war with sick, godless freaks who are so detached from reality that they would encourage and enable children to go to the bathroom in litter boxes.

They can't even allow themselves to think otherwise, or else their actions make them look like absolute cretins.

DarkRoast posted...

Also pointing out that it isn't true will result in them getting mad at you, not at the person who told them the untrue thing.

Yooo....

At my old job, my boss and I ended up getting the same phone, a Galaxy Note 10+. I had Verizon and he had AT&T. The phone wasn't physically capable of using 5G. One day I came into the office...

Boss: Hey CableZL, I've got 5G now! I'm doing some speed tests, but the speeds don't seem to be much better.
Me: ??? How? That phone isn't capable of using 5G.
Boss: I got a software update last night and now it says I have 5G.

Me just knowing that a software update can't give the phone a 5G antenna to use 5G, I was even more confused. I was also confused about why he thought that was a sensible thing because he was one of the managers in IT.

So I went over and looked at his phone and he showed me the symbol on his signal bars. It said 5Ge. 5Ge isn't really a thing. It's a marketing term that AT&T made up and pushed out to phones even if they weren't capable of using 5G.

When I told him that 5Ge wasn't a real thing, he got so mad at me. But he wasn't mad at AT&T. It was weird.

I remember hearing this story for the first time and thinking, who would clean the litter boxes? You're telling me that some surly school janitor, who throws a fit if kids scuff the floor or leave smudges on the mirror, is going to be fine with scooping human waste out of a giant litter box? Anyone who gave the story ten seconds of thought realized just how fake it was.

Sackgurl posted...

how about we teach our journalists to practice journalism and shine the light on exactly why this guy repeated something he read in a private facebook exchange, and refuse to let him talk about anything else until we've fully investigated this--regardless of whether doing so destroys his career?

we need to start making examples of politicians who do this shit.

In all seriousness, I feel like a lot of news (NPR even sometimes, which generally goes deeper) doesn't do this.. ask the next logical follow up question that might put the person on the spot but is important in holding accountability. After RBG's passing I remember a high ranking Republican saying we shouldn't expand the supreme court because RBG didn't believe in it and we also should push forward a nominee (later ACB) despite what RBG wanted because "RBG wasn't thinking clearly". This was on PBS Newshour - and the lady didn't ask "Why should do you believe we should follow her RBG in this one instance and and not in this other?"

Heartomaton posted...

On the other, furries and the actual things they do are also terrible. So why would I bother to correct anyone who says incorrect things about them?

Like what? Do they steal? Kill people? Eat chili without beans? What do they do that's so terrible?

DarkRoast posted...

I remember my uncle making fun of some guy on TV for changing his mind on COVID vaccination timing due to emerging evidence. Said something to the effect of "these so-called experts never seem to have the answers" and I reflexively asked "so you're OK with firm wrong answers instead?"

What did he say?

Ruvan22 posted...

What did he say?

Probably just mumbled something under his breath

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/7/3/AAeEwGAADHT1.jpg
This is the fundamental problem with right wing propaganda networks. The sheer volume of bullshit is so overwhelming and constant that it's impossible to fully counter, and the people who spread it don't actually care if it's true.

But where it's really insidious is that because it's so constant and because there's no actual legal repercussions for it, the volume alone convinces people on the Right that the general message must at least be true, even if the individual stories aren't.

And it doesn't help that there are people like Tucker and Hannity who act as gateway drugs between network news television and fringe right wing misinformation blogs.

DarkRoast posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/7/3/AAeEwGAADHT1.jpg
This is the fundamental problem with right wing propaganda networks. The sheer volume of bullshit is so overwhelming and constant that it's impossible to fully counter, and the people who spread it don't actually care if it's true.

But where it's really insidious is that because it's so constant and because there's no actual legal repercussions for it, the volume alone convinces people on the Right that the general message must at least be true, even if the individual stories aren't.

And it doesn't help that there are people like Tucker and Hannity who act as gateway drugs between network news television and fringe right wing misinformation blogs.

I'd say we saw that in action during Trump's speeches/debates, I remember the fact checking almost broke..

the other problem with the firehosing is that the networks that spread it are always free to access (because they're paid for by wealthy sponsors, and are not in business to make money)

whereas newspapers have mostly been bought up by large corporations who run them for profit, and tend to paywall every piece of content--even their refutations of the lies

Dat_Cracka_Jax posted...

Wow, I wonder what else they claim happens in schools that's completely fabricated

Education

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

It really illustrates how little some people know about what actually goes on at a school.