A new study finds that college students can relieve stress through the simple act of petting a cat. It’s not exactly a revolutionary discovery — lots of studies have found that pets can relax people, which is part of the reason we let them live in our houses in the first place and why there are programs to bring dogs to campuses to help students chill out. Now maybe cats will be included in such programs, too.
Well, not if the folks on Fox News’s “Outnumbered” have anything to say about it. In one of the strangest and meanest segments of any television “news” show ever, the assorted panelists used the study as an excuse to attack student “snowflakes,” suggesting that they don’t need cats so much as they need a good “slap in the face!”
Say what?
Co-host Emily Compagno set the tone for the discussion with a sarcastic opener.
“College students have it so rough these days,” she began.
From climate anxiety to just the idea of a conservative speaker on campus. It is all so stressful! Well now, thankfully, a new study finds intervention with cats on campuses may help stressed-out students. I guess taxpayers picking up the student loan tab wasn’t enough.
Ba-dum, tish!
It just got worse from there, as the Daily Beast made clear in a story on the strange segment.
“This is another example of how we are raising snowflakes,” Fox News anchor Julie Banderas snarled, suggesting that any student who couldn’t handle the stress of college should “just drop out. … Do us all a favor.”
“I don’t think these kids need cats; I think they need discipline,” Compagno declared. “I think they need a slap in the face!”
No one on the panel took offense at the notion that students should be physically assaulted for wanting to pet a cat.
“These are kids that can’t even listen to a conservative viewpoint,” she continued.
They shout out speakers; they chase them off campus. But a cat will make everything better. That doesn’t work in the real world!
The hell it doesn’t. Why do you think Americans own 96 million pet cats?
The discussion rambled on with another of the panelists whose name I don’t know suggesting that giving students a dog or a cat to pet might distract them from studying — because I guess that is all students ever should be doing. “I don’t need to be coddling [sic] a puppy,” she practically shouted.
I need my Organic Chemistry book. … This is insanity! Give me a cup of coffee and a cookie and a stack of books, and I’m set. I don’t need a puppy in my lap to study for exams.
I’m stuck on the cookie. Aren’t you just coddling yourself with that kind of indulgent luxury?
“But they’re also getting free tuition, too,” Compagno jumped in to say. “The list is endless what these kids — kids! — are getting with our tax dollars.”
“It’s also part of the indoctrination,” Fox News contributor Tammy Bruce added. “They’re being trained… and told effectively by the university, ‘No, you need a puppy. This is what you need!’”.
She went on to tell the heartwarming story of how one day she was walking her dog on Wall Street — apparently, she lives next door — and some students asked to pet it. And so she told them that “instead of hugging my dog, you should go back and study.”
BECAUSE THERE’S NOTHING ELSE STUDENTS SHOULD EVER BE DOING. No coddling, or cuddling!!1!
“Because it’s training for the real world,” she continued. “No one’s going to hand you a puppy in the real world.”
If you go to a shelter they will.
“These kids are the problem,” Fox News contributor David Webb added.
If you need a cat or you need a puppy, you don’t belong in college. … This is the idea of building a society of betas.
Fox News has become the Red Pill subreddit.
We achieve because we are a society of people that look forward to our entrepreneurs that go out and find something. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, all of the innovators, Bill Gates, they founded something in a garage instead of petting a cat!
Well, I don’t know if Gates is a cat petter, but here he is “coddling” a dog.
“They programmed a keyboard,” Webb continued.
They whatted a keyboard?
He went on: “Maybe someone started a manufacturing plant with an idea.”
Uh, in their dorm room? What the hell are you going on about? What does any of this have to do with kitties? Or campuses? What is your damn problem anyway? Half of the panelists seem to have pets themselves, so why are they picking on students for wanting to pet a dog or a cat once in a while?
In addition to being dangerous and unhinged and more than a little bit fascist, Fox News is just plain weird. Imagine getting this worked up over the idea of someone petting a cat.
By the way, no cats were harmed in the writing of this post. Indeed, one cat was petted on five different occasions and lavishly praised three times for bringing me wadded-up kleenexes she takes from the trash. She thinks she’s giving me a great gift, so I indulge her. Because she’s fucking adorable, and the panelists on Fox’s Outnumbered are the opposite of adorable. No petting for them!
Here’s the whole segment. I had to pause several times going through it because I kept getting so annoyed.
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@Alan: I’ll have to get him some sneakers so he can tie his shoes for Britain!
Actually, he’d likely eat the shoes for Britain instead.
This is just another instance of morons screaming hateful nonsense at people who actually get an education and don’t publicly agree with the morons.
It’s also just another instance of reich-wing extremists screaming unhinged nonsense just to distract our attention away from their other unhinged nonsense.
Do they simply hate joy? Small comforts? Companionship? Empathy? Are they just dead skin husks draped over a moral void? Eldritch horrors wearing human suits? Is that what they are?
@Nathan: Uh, yes? I mean, I can’t verify the eldritch horror thing, but the rest of it shows every evidence of being true. Especially the lack of empathy.
The only time they’re happy is when they’re putting other people down. And maybe not even then.
@Alan: Leave it to you to bring two of our discussion topics together in one clip!
These Fox News types are the reason you need a background check to volunteer at an animal shelter.
@
The Stop Sign on the Corner
These Fox News types are the reason you need a background check to volunteer at an animal shelter.
…There are animal shelter black widows? That’s dismaying but unfortunately not surprising—there are people who’ll procure cats and small dogs as pitfighting practice prey, and rodents as live prey for carnivorous pets (the latter being legal in the US, and a whole genre of YouTube blood sport.)
Of course, the Fox News types would no doubt point the finger at those witches and Satanists who’d want to sacrifice them, and those Asians who’d want to eat them.
Speaking of animals…
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S037663572200170X
In summary:
They got people to open containers, some containing dog food, some just boring stuff. The people had to either be good at opening the containers; or incompetent. A bunch of dogs watched them. The dogs were disinterested in null container opening; but female dogs, paid very close attention to who was good at opening dog food; and started hanging round with them. Male dogs just sat around scratching.
There’s probably a Spare Rib article there.
Eastern State Penitentiary in Philly has statues of white cats all over. Why? Because the inmates took care of them and raised a few generations of them. It gave them a purpose.
There are numerous programs that take cats and dogs off death row and out of shelters and give them to inmates to train and bond with. It gives them a purpose, as well.
I’d hardly call these inmates “snowflakes”.
@ Ashley
And some of the training of dogs is highly specialised eg. dogs that can warn an epileptic person that they are going to have a seizure, which gives the person a lot more freedom than they have if they don’t know one is going to hit.
Speaking of animals … we had to say goodbye to one of our kitties on Saturday. We’re both still pretty raw over it, even though the vet reassured me we’d done the right thing.
As our old vet used to say, “You get so dadgummed attached to them.”
@
GSS ex-noob:
There was a small gym space down in the basement next to the laundry room, where she’d take the bat to fly around in the evenings; that’s where I first encountered them.
The ‘I never had this and I turned-out all right!’ argument suits them, as it
Patton Oswalt had a wonderful response to hearing this argument from a parent: ‘No! I didn’t turn-out all right—I tell jokes about my dick on-stage!!’, and if they did have an ounce of inward honesty, I think it likely that the Foxicals could say something analogous.
Speaking of pet adoptions, there’s a current trend in some US cities and towns to set up a Working Cat / Barn Cat program. Basically these programs take cats that would otherwise be put down due to behavioral issues that render them unsuitable for indoor living and adopt them out to warehouses and farmers who need pest control. Win-win for all involved; the humans get their rodent problems under control, and the cats can live with their desired level of human contact.
Two links with basic info from the Indianapolis version of the programs:
https://citybase-cms-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/3e7113bb89984873922671f2ce636cd5.pdf
https://www.indy.gov/activity/working-cats
Your cat sounds adorable. Many pets to her!
Also, frick Fox News. They got no clue of everything ever, do they?
@Victorious Parasol
I’m very sorry for your loss. May he forever frolic around in cat heaven. Hope you are holding up okay.
On the object of court dogs…
It’s currently the sentencing hearing for the guy ho ran over and killed all those people some Christmases ago. That means the surviving victims, and the families of those killed, make their vicim impact statements. That has to be pretty harrowing.
But meet Pepper. She’s on hand to comfort them whilst doing so.
https://www.tmj4.com/news/darrell-brooks-trial/meet-the-support-dog-who-comforted-victims-of-the-waukesha-parade-attack
Pepper must be a lifesaver in that moment, for those people. 🧡 Pepper.