The first Paw Patrol movie is about a corrupt and incompetent mayor who accumulates too much power, wrongfully imprisons dogs, and must be stopped, for the good of the public. At least, that's how it's presented at first glance.
But if you peel back the layers, it's really about the elected leader in a two-party system, from the cat party, being overthrown by the dog party (note that all first responders seem to be from the same political party), for daring to put the dogs in obedience school (that is, requiring first responders to actually abide by the rules of their society). Worst part is that the mayor isn't even mayor of the same town - the dogs go to the next city over to overthrow that political leader, akin to some kind of cold war era foreign-orchestrated coup.
The underlying issue is that Medium enshittified basically overnight, as soon as it had inertia. Went from 'text is cheap, put your stuff here!' to 'how dare anyone expect our servers to work for free, here's a gigantic fat image instead of the kilobyte of content.'
Good thing I've been avoiding medium since its inception. At the start, it was edgy "influencer" types who didn't want to pay for hosting, and now it's edgy "influencer" types who obsess over copyright.
Real life ones go to heaven, they don't get to really choose to be tools for cops or understand the ramifications of their actions. Paw patrol dogs though go to hell.
My kid started watching another talking vehicle show. The garbage trucks name? Stinky. Bulldozer? Dirty. And the Firetruck? Brave. There's a bunch of anthropomorphized propaganda shows out.
The lack of classism and bigotry in SpongeBob is always an appreciated. Really, all of its lessons were well thought out, between respecting yourself, respecting your friends, and learning to exploit the sexuality of the proletariat for money. Way ahead of its time.
It's been a beat since I watched... but Isn't Crabs the owner and Squidward the cashier/supervisor? That's how I perceived it and squidward doesn't give a fuck about anything except his clarinet and relaxing.
There's this cognitive dissonance that we don't need to police things made for children because no one would be so evil as to manipulate a child, but also we're constantly worrying about random people manipulating our children. Like.... Why don't we turn that scrutiny towards the corporations obviously manipulating our children for their own gain? Why isn't advertising to children banned as a form of brainwashing??
That's Chase, the police dog. But be careful of Klaus, the secret police dog. He's also a German Shepard, but there's a heavy emphasis on the German part.
SNEED FOR FREE SNEED FANCY GERMAN CAR SEETHE SUCK SNEED'S FUCK SNEED'S COPE SUCK FANCY GERMAN CAR JANNY SNEED'S SEETHE JANNY CITY SLICKER SEETHE FUCK COPE CHUCK'S FUCK FEED I CAN'T FEED GUCCI LOAFERS DILATE SNEED PARK AVENUE MANICURE PARK AVENUE MANICURE CITY SLICKER SEED SUCK DILATE CHUCK'S FEED SEETHE CHUCK'S FLOYD PARK AVENUE MANICURE FOR FREE I CAN'T JANNY CLEAN IT UP SEED ON LEMMY PARK AVENUE MANICURE HOT POCKETS I CAN'T PARK AVENUE MANICURE
SNEED FEED SEED FANCY GERMAN CAR PARK AVENUE MANICURE FOR FREE SUCK ON LEMMY ON LEMMY SNEED JANNIES SNEED GUCCI LOAFERS SEETHE SEETHE SEETHE FEED JANNY GUCCI LOAFERS JANNY CHUCK'S I CAN'T AND JANNY FEED SNEED ON LEMMY FUCK I CAN'T FUCK SEETHE PARK AVENUE MANICURE SUCK CITY SLICKER PARK AVENUE MANICURE CHUCK'S HOT POCKETS PARK AVENUE MANICURE COPE SNEED'S DILATE CLEAN IT UP CHUCK ON LEMMY FOR FREE HOT POCKETS CLEAN IT UP FANCY GERMAN CAR AND SEED
GUCCI LOAFERS SEED FOR FREE HOT POCKETS GUCCI LOAFERS ON LEMMY SUCK SEETHE PARK AVENUE MANICURE SNEED'S SNEED SNEED SNEED HOT POCKETS FLOYD FANCY GERMAN CAR CHUCK'S SUCK CHUCK'S SNEED'S GUCCI LOAFERS FEED JANNY SNEED'S SEETHE AND JANNY FEED FOR FREE FANCY GERMAN CAR GUCCI LOAFERS JANNIES JANNY I CAN'T JANNY I CAN'T AND AND JANNY DILATE SEETHE CITY SLICKER SNEED FEED FANCY GERMAN CAR SEETHE JANNY FEED CITY SLICKER FEED
SEETHE CHUCK'S JANNIES SEETHE SEED DILATE FEED CITY SLICKER SNEED JANNY CHUCK'S CLEAN IT UP SEETHE SUCK FUCK HOT POCKETS GUCCI LOAFERS CITY SLICKER CITY SLICKER SEETHE CHUCK CITY SLICKER GUCCI LOAFERS FLOYD I CAN'T SNEED'S ON LEMMY HOT POCKETS FANCY GERMAN CAR CHUCK'S SUCK GUCCI LOAFERS FEED CHUCK'S CHUCK JANNIES SEETHE SUCK HOT POCKETS SUCK CHUCK'S HOT POCKETS SEETHE CHUCK PARK AVENUE MANICURE AND FOR FREE CLEAN IT UP DILATE FEED
ON LEMMY PARK AVENUE MANICURE FUCK HOT POCKETS SNEED'S FLOYD I CAN'T FOR FREE CHUCK SUCK ON LEMMY FOR FREE FLOYD SEED I CAN'T AND GUCCI LOAFERS JANNY SEETHE CHUCK'S GUCCI LOAFERS SEETHE FANCY GERMAN CAR CHUCK'S PARK AVENUE MANICURE ON LEMMY JANNY FEED SEED I CAN'T SUCK FANCY GERMAN CAR FEED FOR FREE DILATE CHUCK'S COPE CHUCK'S SUCK SUCK GUCCI LOAFERS AND AND AND CITY SLICKER GUCCI LOAFERS SUCK SNEED FOR FREE SEETHE
Do people (on Tumblr) think paw patrol is intentional propaganda? I would think it's much more likely that they just made a show with cute dogs with jobs that kids understand. Actually, does propaganda need to be intentional?
I believe the prevailing opinion is that it is subtly intentional but has more impact than intended because it is a reflection of the indoctrination of the writers, but I may be mistaken.
It may be created to intentionally teach children not to fear police and to obey the rules of society. Which sounds good on paper but can be really problematic.
It's not just Paw Patrol. It's every cop show that has messages of the cops always being on the side of "good". There are many many many articles and academic papers about "copaganda" that explain it better than I can.
I definitely agree with you in the broad strokes here, and was mostly looking at the definition of propaganda and seeing how easily a message can be subverted through relatively normal and innocent seeming mechanisms.
Edit: somehow I thought this was a reply to my comment.
I think it's more in the line of no public services is totally fine, the city hands over police, firefighting and other services to this kid and his dogs. The mayor is barely competent to do her job without the kid's assistance. Which may also include racial stereotypes as she's black. Look at the show, there is no services. Every crisis is solved by a genius 10 year old and his bunch of dogs. Why do we need public services if everythung can be done by... Child labour?
There's definitely racial stereotypes; mayor Humdinger, a blonde haired blue eyed white man, spends all of his time trying to to appropriate Adventure Bay's resources and stake claim to its governance. My dude even seized the means of government over a metropolis and proceeded to speedrun bad governance. The only way they could have leaned harder into the white stereotype is by putting him in socks and sandals and having him remind people that he's 1/32nd native american and has black friends.
Not that I'm complaining, mind you. Anyway, it's not exactly like Paw Patrol are bashing fash when they stop Humdinger, they're just keeping control over Adventure Bay's resources rather than ceding them to his. It's Saturday morning nationalism.
So it shows the elected officials as being corrupt to the point of having broken the process, and the answer to the evil mayor is the authoritative police. How often are corporations the bad guys?
I am still convinced the show takes place after WW3. Most of the 18-50 year old adults are gone. (The movies don’t count, ridiculous fan fiction) There is a spare population and not a lot of kids, and the ones we do see are being raised by their grandparent, are running a dog grooming business, and Ryder.
Ryder’s parents were likely involved in the dog augmentation weapons program at CalTech with a massive grant from Lockheed. Since his parents are dead, he took over the remains of the program after the war and started the Paw Patrol.
Also Mayor Humdinger is not a real mayor. Foggy Bottom was annihilated and he is the only one left, so he took charge. The derivative kitty augmentation was housed there, and they are all that is left. Why he keeps coming to adventure bay, dude is really lonely.
I love pointing out problematic behavior in cop shows.
Those DAMN DEFENDANTS claiming they didn't do it when the good cops JUST KNOW they're guilty. The DAMN JUDGES always wanting EVIDENCE instead of just taking the cops at their word the alleged criminal dumped the drugs in the river.
How DARE they insist cops DO THEIR JOB. what's next, asking them to PUT THEIR LIVES AT RISK?
Usually it's more subtle like "they're complaining about being asked to do their jobs correctly, and these are the people we're supposed to be cheering for?" or "they fabricated evidence of one crime because they dropped the ball with another crime, and they're the good guys? If you say so..."
Some people might say I'm ruining a show, but come on... The show was already ruined. I'm just adjusting the picture so your rose tinted glasses get the right colors.
What about when suspects or perps use a "loophole" to escape justice and then you find out that loophole was the accused weren't read their rights or was abused during an interrogation and had no access to a lawyer. Like the cops didn't do basic police work correctly but it's the suspect who did something wrong. Remember that the rights read to a person under arrest are actual constitutional rights that each American is entitled to and which the police must abide.
In one of the episodes, the towns police force (two cops) has a real or precived grievance, and decided to work to rule on protest.
By the third act they've discovered that work to rule is more work than they've been doing, the grievance is dropped, and nothing has changed for the next episode.
Mysteries do a lot better than procedurals, because being wrong is intrinsic to the format. The cops on Midsummer are still The Good Guys™ and always get the right person eventually, because a whodunit with no clear answer would be a different genre, but there's ample screen time for a lot of people who are understandably not fond of them.
