I have a general feeling that they’re bad (the org, not the individual children lmao) but am fuzzy on the details of why. It’s generally agreed among leftists that it’s child labor right? And that they love teaching little kids that capitalism = cool and good. I’ve got a niece in girl scouts and I’d just like some more concrete examples and reasons not to support them so that my family understands that I’m not just being cheap… although yeah ok I admit it the shrinkflation over the years is one of the reasons I don’t give them money, fine.
Or uuuuuh if you think they’re good actually then explain for the class pls. Make me feel bad about buying knockoff treats for a third of the price and then not donating the difference. 🍪
mewling little hitlerites trying to hock junk cookies and corrupt the fitness regime of my maoist cadre. i chase them off with a broom
spoiler
but the actual thing with scouting orgs beyond whatever weird sales junk they do is that, unironically, “Scout” orgs were established as child paramilitaries to prime kids for patriotism & militarism. the Hitler youth were the nazi version of scouts.
and i extend this criticism to socialist ‘pioneer’ youth too. it was not a good idea to be emulate, even if you removed half the racism
and i extend this criticism to socialist ‘pioneer’ youth too. it was not a good idea to be emulate, even if you removed half the racism
Seems excessive. Were they really that bad?
Boy scouts started after US civil war after Union military commanders had to teach city people how to do basic things with a firearm and living outside. Some rich asshat decided that the city people were too soft and needed a club to teach the next generation how to be “men”.
Oh I’m not denying that the BSA (and related orgs) are thorough crap. But the idea of giving kids a chance to join some group to learn a bunch of things and have some fun in the wilderness isn’t inherently a shit concept
If you can find alternatives that don’t feed into the whitewashing of the genocide of indigenous Americans I’d go with that. It’s fine for kids to have a nice org that is nice to them (scope it out to verify that first) and has them do outdoor activities so I’m not saying to just write them off entirely but it’s something to think about.
In my neck of the woods there are independent orgs that still do camping and outdoor skills and art and so on but actively incorporate indigenous Americans and cultural practices and history into it and I think that’s a much better way to go. As a contrast, scouting tends to feed into the path where being an “outdoorsman” means replicating the white settler experience, or at least a mythologized version of it.
This thread unlocked another core memory of nobody knowing or understanding I was neurodivergent. I had to quit girl scouts because I couldn’t stop having such bad anxiety to the point of crying meltdowns just from “normal” things like camping and trying to make fires. Huh…
Was also quite a humiliating experience because I could tell the adults and the other girls just thought I was being a whimp, dramatic, a brat, etc. I’d be terrified of random things like bugs or hot things or sleeping in a tent and they’d just be like really? :| why are you like this
Which made me feel like a piece of shit because I couldn’t control it of course
Girl Scouts is an MLM scheme built on child labor.
I get the child labor part but can you give details or post something that explains how it’s set up like an MLM?
Why are we searching for a reason to be mad about Girl Scouts? Don’t we have enough problems?
It’s the no fun zone, but “fun” has been crossed out on the sign and “overpriced cookies” has been written over it in off brand marker.
Anyways I got some new perspectives I didn’t have before so I’m happy.
