How Suicidal Themes in Cartoons and Games Affect Children

Through children games and television, the government is manipulation our kids. The internet is what keeps us all connected, allowing us to communicate at any time of day with anyone. We get our news, our weather, and even our groceries online. You can now unlock your front door with just click of a button on the mobile app from anywhere at any time. We're so quick to trust the internet, and we think nothing of it. We create viruses on our computers because you don't think before we click, we think 'it'll be fine.' Why have we become so naïve to everything? We don't think about what our children see on tv or what games they're playing with their friends. Children are getting their hands on smartphones earlier than ever before. 'The average age for a child getting their first smartphone is now 10.3 years' (Donovan). Unless parents have parental controls set up on their children smartphones, who knows what they could be seeing or hearing. Because of this, the government is able to manipulate our children into thinking whatever they want.

Suicidal Subliminal Messages Can be Seen in Children Shows.

Subliminal messages can be picked out of almost any children show you watch. We all know Spongebob Squarepants was filled with 'adult-humor' jokes like when SpongeBob tells gray, his snail, to 'not drop the soap,' or Mr.Crab's 'Panty Raid.' We're all familiar with those type of jokes, especially when it's coming from Spongebob Squarepants, but I'm thinking of something a little dark. It can be seen from old Disney shows made for children that many of the characters commit suicide. Shane Dawson, a popular conspiracy theorist, discussed this topic in one of his latest videos. Dawson discusses how children shows, even Spongebob Squarepants, have suicidal scenes in it. For example, in SpongeBob Squarepants, Squidward tries to hang himself and stick his head in the oven during an episode where he's depressed (Dawson). There are many other incidents in the show where suicidal hints or messages can be seen.

But it's not just Spongebob Squarepants that seems to have this trend. In a Loony Toons episode from 1949, titled 'Bear Feet,' a bear is sitting on his bed crying, when all of a sudden, he jumps up saying 'Well there's still one way out!' (Dawson). The bear then runs off a cliff, yelling, 'I'm going to my free at last!' (Dawson). Scenes like this seem to be glorifying suicide, making it seems like it's funny and okay. In the old Disney shows like Donald Duck, Woody Wood Pecker, and Mickey Mouse, a lot of the character joke around with guns, even shooting themselves in the head for comedic effect. Several of the episodes even end with the characters shooting themselves in the head as the final scene. This connects to Plato's Republic because what if the government is trying to plant the idea that suicide is an option in our minds? The Allegory of the Cave, written by Plato, it talks about the people above us, like the government, making us believe what they want and giving us a false reality. What is if the government wants people to think suicide to be an option?

Why is the Government is Trying to Make Suicide Seem like an Option?

There could be many reasons as to why these suicidal messages are being put in children television shows. Most of the children probably watching these shows are mostly 6 and under (an estimate), which is the best time to imprint on children. 'Children are at their best around the age of five, according to a survey' (Roberts). If children are told from a young age that suicide is okay, then this could be why many teens and adults are depressed now. In Dawson's video, he also brings this reason up, saying, 'They could be doing this as a way a population control, or a way to keep us in a weak, depressed, and fearful state because a weakened society is easier to control.' Maybe they're doing this to make sure people keep buying anti-depressant medication? 'The global antidepressants market is estimated to grow to approximately USD 13.4 billion by 2020' (Research and Markets). The government is profiting off the depressed society, which could have been their plan all along.

How Does the Game Life's Darker Meaning Effect Children?

Think about the game Life, we all played it when we were children and the point of it was to beat your opponents and makes the most money and get famous. The more money you make, the better your life is in the game. Dawson discusses the darker meaning behind this game, saying 'In the original version of Life in 1860, that was created by Milton Bradley it literally had suicide as an option on the board.' I think the government planted these games in kids hands to teach kids that if you don't succeed and make a lot of money, they know the suicide is always an option. Those kids that grew up watching those old Disney shows (my generation and the one above me) were the kids playing the game of Life, which is probably why we're all depressed. We glorify rich, wealthy people in our society, so if we don't reach those standards, we know in the back of our heads that suicide is always an option. The game Life was another way for the government to manipulate children into thinking that suicide is okay, which connects back to Plato's Republic. In this case, the game Life would be the shadows, the person making the shadows in the government, and we're the people chained to the cave.

What Other Dark Subliminal Messages are Put in our Children Games?

As children, we were involved with many of these hidden-message games that I will be discussing, and we didn't even know it. Do you remember playing London Bridge when you were a kid? Well, it was actually a song about a bridge collapsing. The Ojea Board, a game made for kids that allowed them to talk to ghosts. Ring Around the Rosy, a song about people dying from the Black Plague, and if you were infected, red circles would start to appear on the skin (Evans). Dawson even discusses what could be the worst children's game of all; Hang Man. Hang Man teaches children that in order for the man to not be hung to death, they needed to uncover what the hidden word was on the board without using up all the man's body parts. The scariest part of the game Hang Man is that it was an actual game played back in the 19th century. Veronica Walsingham, an editor at Ranker.com, explains the origins of Hang Man, saying, 'Occasionally, a criminal had the opportunity to play Rite of Words and Life, in which the executioner would pick a word and if the criminal guessed said word through choosing letters — which is exactly where hangman derives. Solving the word before the blanks were filled would spare the guessing criminal's life. Not solving the word would seal the victim's fate.' The gruesome game is still currently played in elementary schools, which is the prime time to get kids in a fearful state about life. You might be thinking, what is the ultimate goal of all of this? Like I said earlier, a weaker society is easier to control. In order for citizens to vote during the elections, they need to fear something. The only way for people to have unity is through tragedy (Dawson).

We see rich, fame, body expectations, and it all seems unattainable. Dawson puts it best when he says, 'A society that is peaceful is not a society that can be controlled. So what do you do to make sure chaos and fear continues? Make sure to show children just how scary the world is from a very early age.' Everything is a lie and we've been manipulated since we were toddlers to fear the real world, to crush under the pressure of life and commit suicide. This all makes me wonder how long the people in the cave have been chained up.