I've (thankfully) never encountered a reference to helicopter genders IRL, however I can't seem to escape the fucking "they're putting litter boxes in classrooms!!" myth. It's such an utterly absurd, inane, asinine idea yet I've seen real people, who are seemingly functional adults, actually believe this.

Even if you buy into the conspiracy theories and think that the education system is some globalist socialist catgirl plot, do you think teenagers equipped with cell phones and social media wouldn't meme the shit out of the classroom litterbox? And yet, we still haven't seen a single picture proving this has ever happened anywhere. That doesn't stop people from believing it though, and somehow using it as an excuse to delegitimize and attack trans people.

I don't think I've ever met or heard of anyone literally claiming that kids are identifying as helicopters. The "I identify as an attack helicopter" thing was originally used as an absurdist critique of gender identity, not as a serious claim, if I remember correctly.

Edit: Also, there was a pretty good sci-fi short story that took the idea seriously.

My friend tried to convince me that a coworker of his pulled a kid out of school because a classmate identified as a cat and all the kids were asked to communciate with the child in meows. I dropped everything and stared at him for a while. Eventually asked, “do you believe that story” and he back tracked a bit.

I mentioned the way that “kids are identifying as cat gendered” can be the cry of the antitrans movement but friend changed the subject shortly after.

Any chance to question, inquire, redefine these kinds of stories, try to take ‘em on. Especially with the people you care about that could use help seeing the other side.

If someone were to go about wearing a helicopter costume, hanging out with other helicopters, in short if their lived experience were such that they could reasonably say they identified as a helicopter, then I'd have no problem with it.

The world needs more weird people and less authoritarian followers.

Unfortunately most people claiming to identify as attack helicopters are actually self identifying as cunts.

Had somebody tell me about schools keeping litterboxes for furries, and I just looked at them and asked "Does that really sound like something that's actually happening, or does it sound like something someone said as a joke?"

They insisted that it actually happened, and I was like, "I don't believe that. I'm surprised you believed it."

It wasn't the most thorough debunking I could have come up with, but I was proud of myself that I actually called them out on it, instead of giving them a high eyebrow smile-and-nod.

I hear that they have been telling people that school bathrooms now have litter boxes for the kids that identify as cats, something that is completely absurd, and yet for some reason people believe that

The venn diagram of people who claim kids are identifying as attack helicopters or believing that schools have litter boxes for kids to use the restroom in, and people who fall for Nigerian Prince scams is just a circle.

TBH I'm more concerned with helicopter parents than I am about helicopter kids.

The veracity of the claim is not the point. It's like the groomers claim or if we go old enough, blood libel and the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion

It's a justification for outrage and violence and requires a willingness to believe without healthy skepticism.

Deceptions like this work only because its intended audience wants to believe it, especially when alternative, fact-based explainations are complex and uncomfortable.

I see no problem people identifying themselves as helicopters or mouse, whatever. How on earth would it impact me? It’s a free country, so to say. Where I would have problem is if the law of the land would require to call them so. It should be my choice.

I saw a group of kids dressed as cats in the mall a couple months back. Tails and all.

When I was a kid we sometimes ran around with our arms outstretched, imitating airplanes. Yet, even as a dumb kid, I knew I was not under some asinine belief that I was actually becoming an airplane. Playing "helicopters" and imitating what they see around them is what kids do. It is not the same thing as identifying as if you were that thing. We have to stop this insane and perverted usage of kids' behaviors to justify bigotry against others.