[djklanac]

The first and only occurrence I’ve heard of this claim was Rogan’s podcast. The article lumps him in with other claimants. But it doesn’t actually demonstrate that his anecdote is fabricated. How does this portion of the article make it past the editor? It’s entirely possible that his story is completely made up. It is also possible that it’s not made up. Tabloid journalists make conjectures. Real journalists substantiate their claims. We deserve better reporting.

[derstander]

> But it doesn’t actually demonstrate that his anecdote is fabricated. How does this portion of the article make it past the editor? It’s entirely possible that his story is completely made up. It is also possible that it’s not made up.

It seems to me that, if such a claim is made, that it’s much easier for the people making the claim to back up their claim with evidence. In this case, if one is claiming that a school is putting in litter boxes for children who identify as cats, then provide evidence. For example: what school, specifically? Sorry, saying a “friend’s wife” is insufficient.

How would you even demonstrate that the anecdote is fabricated? Isn’t that like proving a negative? Wouldn’t one, for example, need to do an exhaustive search of every school to disprove it? Or, identify all of Joe Rogan’s friends who are married with wives working in schools and contact those schools.

I’m somewhat partial to the line of thinking wherein if you make a claim (particularly one that’s unexpected), that it’s your responsibility for providing evidence to support your claim.

[autoexec]

> But it doesn’t actually demonstrate that his anecdote is fabricated.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitchens%27s_razor says that neither journalists or anyone else needs to bother disproving that schools aren't filled with litter boxes for students if no one has any evidence at all suggesting that they are.

Scouring every last school in the country over every totally unfounded and ridiculous claim would be a massive waste of time and resources. If someone wants to claim that the litter boxes exist they can "put up or shut up". The burden of proof is theirs to meet, not anyone else's.

[eesmith]

The substantiated claim is "There is no evidence that any school has deployed litter boxes for students to use because they identify as cats."

The Rogan example was "a litter box was installed in a[n unnamed school that his friend’s wife worked at". That's subject to all the usual third-hand hearsay cautions. It is not substantiated.

The claims I know about are from reading https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-fake-furry-s...

] So far there has not been a single factual foundation for any of these stories. Nor, for that matter, do the stories get it right when it comes to Furry culture and behavior.

It points out there's also a Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litter_boxes_in_schools .

[alimw]

"Rogan did not name the school, and his publicist did not respond to a request for comment."

[duxup]

“Possible” doesn’t sound like any kind of proof to me.