Part One: Robert Baden-Powell: Founder Of The Boy Scouts | BEHIND THE BASTARDS

As a member of that small city's worth of young boys, I thought y'all should know that the class action suit for this shit is going well. Money doesn't fix trauma, but a multibillion dollar settlement really helps shut the acceptance window on this bullshit.

I love how these episode fall into 1 of 3 categories: 1. Guy you've never heard of who invented the entire modern world. 2. Guy you know barely anything about who was so cartoonishly evil you're both surprised and relieved you didn't know more. 3. Cult leaders who are almost, but never quite, as amazing as L. Ron Hubbard.

I always had conflicted feelings about the boy scouts. I'm a trans man who was in girl scouts and I had a very mixed experience there. The troop I was in did more camping than any other in my service unit, and if that hadn't been the case, I probably would have dropped out, because my experience was otherwise being outside the clique and bullied by the troop leader's daughter. I was solely interested in the hands-on skills and spending time in nature. I was aware of what kind of stuff the boy scouts did and I wished I could have done that stuff. Whittling, archery, swimming, more frequent camping - it would have been exactly what I wanted. But at the same time, I always got a weird vibe from the boy scouts. Girl scouts is more secular and doesn't tend to take the pledges and ceremony as seriously. It's certainly more rigid than most children's clubs, but not like the boy scouts. I was agnostic and anti-authority and I think I would have felt smothered by the rigidity and religiosity of the boy scouts. But I do still kind of wish I'd been able to be a boy scout. I've heard vague things about other similar sorts of clubs for children, like adventure scouts, and maybe that's a better option for the kids who can join it. Though I don't know if they have any skeletons in their closet, so I could be wrong about that. I think there can be something special about experiencing comradery with others of your gender, though maybe that's the man-over-30 in me. But it can also be healthy to make friends with people different from you and a lot of men could use more genuine friendships with women. And I think every kid can use something that teaches them life skills and has some structure to it, but doesn't try to turn you into a good little soldier of god.

It's weird. I'm in the same camp as Robert; boyscouts all but introduced me to d&d/magic the gathering, gave me love of camping and hiking...it was great. The friendships I made there literally saved my life (bad home life). Knowing how bad that organization has been for others is....hard, you know?

When my ex was 8 years old he went to Boy Scout camp. While there his baby sister had to be put in the hospital and was not expected to live. His father, an ex golden glove champion, decided he better go get my ex. He drove to the camp…meanwhile before he arrived, the boys were getting ready for bed. The Scout master told the boys,”we’re going to play tickle.” He grabbed my ex who just had on his underwear as the rest of the children. He threw a couple of ropes over the rafter beams and tied my ex by the thumbs, as he hung in the air. The rest of the kids were traumatized as they covered themselves under the covers screaming and crying. It was at that moment that my ex’s father walked in. Needless to say, he knocked the Scout master out. My ex remembers two men coming to his house from the corporate office. Because he was so young, he had to leave the room so he doesn’t know what the discussion was about. His parents never told him. That took place in the US in the 1950’s.

1:02:30 "watching the little boys as they dance, jump, and jiggle" this is definitely getting clipped by the tankies 😂

Some of these quotes, its like you want to say "Do you not hear yourself? do you not hear how that sounds?" Like david cross's character in arrested development

Weird because I was attacked for being demonic by the troop leader and shunned by the rest of the troop for playing D&D. It's why I eventually left once I realized I was an atheist and the abuse would only worsen.

The geometry priest casts circle of healing

Robert's "19th century Brit" voice sounds like the Star Trek TNG Mark Twain performance, but much younger. 😂

I was bullied by the scoutmasters son, culminating in being held down and whipped with a piece of tire by his son and older brothers without any repercussions for them, and I so I left the boyscouts (If I remember correctly, the response was "boys will be boys")

Two things: One - I grew up in Seton Village, just south of Santa Fe NM. Fun! Two - you should do Yukio Mishima at some point. There’s a lot of cross over to Baden Powell.

I was in the BSA, and for every practical woodsy skill I learned, I also learned a new homophobic, sexist, or racist slur. But as far as I know, there was no sexual abuse in the troop I was in, so I guess I had a "relatively good" experience?

I've been wheezing uncontrollably at "there goes my fucking saturday" for like an hour. My fucking sides.

Trying to sell popcorn was the most traumatic thing I did in Boy Scouts.

You know it's going to be a good one when the titular bastard has a double-barrel surname and came from the landed gentry

I'm so ready for pt. 2, i wanna see if you mention my troop! we had a young, popular, local elected official as an assistant Scoutmaster while I was involved (who became an ASM immediately after his 21st birthday, having achieved almost every rank and badge possible in BSA and Venture Patrol (which goes to 21)) who turned out to have molested like 1/3 of the troop for years (as well as kids at his catholic church where he volunteered as well sooooo)

I grew up doing all that Scout-y stuff so I waited until I was 18 and got paid to do the tame versions thereof in the Army. It was pretty cool because it was camping with real tents, the marches were all .... wearing shoes ... there was plenty to eat, and we got to shoot machine guns and throw hand grenades. It was pretty awesome.

Hearing the Scout's Law unlocked feelings I haven't had for more than a decade. Other than consequences of the dumbass decisions I made as a child, I had a good time with the BSA. It was a lot of fun to go to all the various places around where I lived, go do activities related and unrelated to nature, and have a group of friends outside of school. I think what really helped is that most of most the parents of my troop were also involved so it was hard for an abuser to get involved and made sure we did fun stuff for everyone.

To quote Paul F Tompkins from last episode, "Oof"