While Elon Musk is not intertwined with the Trump administration anymore, with his DOGE days over, he is still pushing many political causes, including a crusade against what he deems “transgender ideology.” That has extended into a new campaign against Netflix, where in a few dozen tweets over the last 48 hours, he has urged his 227 million followers to cancel the service.
Musk, who has a transgender daughter, has repeatedly been tweeting “Cancel Netflix” while retweeting large right-wing accounts like LibsofTikTok and Benny Johnson, who have been spearheading this. The accusation is that Netflix is “indoctrinating” kids with ideology, in addition to other claims.
At least three specific shows were cited in referencing trans issues over the course of the tirade:
- The Baby-Sitter’s Club – There’s a scene where there’s pushback about misgendering a child in a hospital
- Dead End: Paranormal Park – A series that has a trans main character.
- CoComelon – There’s a segment where gay dads allegedly try to “raise their child transgender.”
The Baby-Sitters Club
Netflix
Of note, two of these shows were canceled years ago. The Baby-Sitter’s Club, despite 100% scores from critics, was canceled in 2021. Dead End: Paranormal Park ended in 2022. Cocomelon is still on, obviously, but it’s a show with 13 seasons spanning 28 full hours of content. And there’s a lot of reading into the scene cited in any case (the child is simply choosing whether to wear different kinds of clothes during a playtime dance).
Those who have instigated this have claimed the campaign has gone “viral,” with screenshots of users posting that they’ve canceled Netflix. There’s no indication yet this has made a noticable impact on the service yet, but it is of note that the first man to have a $500 billion net worth as of this week is waging a public war against the largest streaming service on the planet.
There are, of course, thousands of shows and hundreds of thousands of hours of content on Netflix. There are plenty of trans storylines across loads of movies and shows, but these three were pulled as “targeting” kids. Those behind the campaign have also raised charges claiming Netflix “discriminates against white people,” showing various charts and graphs.
Dead-End: Paranormal Park
Netflix
Transgender issues were a frequent flashpoint of the last election, and while there are roughly a thousand other controversial policies being implemented in the Trump administration, a frequent target has been gender-affirming care for the underage, restricting access to those tools and procedures.
Netflix has not issued a statement on any of this and again, two of these shows aren’t even on the air anymore. It stands to reason this may be the “thing of the week” that people want to yell about, but Elon picking up the charge makes it more high-profile than it would be otherwise.
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