February 15, 2025

No Edits

For the first time in using AI chatbots over the past two years, I entered a prompt and the system returned a nearly perfect response. I normally waste tons of time correcting or fact-checking the work of AI before surrendering, but on this occasion no edits were required.

The prompt was as follows:

Write a Dr. Seuss story about two world leaders named, Felon One and Felon Two, who have authoritarian tendencies and wish to turn the Gaza Strip into a luxury resort. 

Felon One and Felon Two: A Very Bad Plan
By Dr. Seuss (but not really!)


Felon One and Felon Two were a terrible pair,
With terrible tempers and terrible hair.
They ruled with a fist and a furious frown,
And each wore a shimmering, sinister crown.

One day, as they plotted from towers so tall,
They hatched up a scheme—oh, the worst one of all!
They pointed their fingers, they twiddled their thumbs,
They drummed on their desks, and they twanged on their gums.

“I know what we’ll do!” sneered Felon One.
“A marvelous plan! A wonderful one!”
“We’ll take that land where people have cried,
And sweep all their worries and woes aside!”

“But not with kindness, not with care,
Not with love or thoughts so rare!
We’ll bring in bulldozers, we’ll flatten the street,
We’ll cover it all in soft golden wheat!”

Felon Two clapped with glee and delight,
“But let’s not stop there! Let’s make it bright!
Hotels, casinos, a marvelous spa!
The world’s biggest mall with the world’s biggest draw!”

“We’ll call it New New Neverthemore!
A place where the poor are shown the door!
A five-star dream on a five-star beach!
And no one will ever be out of our reach!”

But down in the streets, in the homes, in the air,
The people had seen, and the people were there.
They heard the machines and the terrible plan,
And up from the rooftops, the shouting began.

“You cannot erase us! You cannot ignore!
We are still here, and we’ve been here before!”
“Our stories are deeper than hotels and sand,
You cannot just take, you don’t own this land!”

Felon One and Felon Two looked down in surprise,
Their kingdom of riches had fear in its eyes.
For power, you see, is a slippery thing,
And it’s not found in crowns or the rule of a king.

The people stood firm, they would not obey,
Their voices like thunder that would not decay.
And soon came the day—oh, the day was so grand!
When Felon One and Felon Two were banned!

They scurried away in a tiny canoe,
Felon One whining, “What shall we do?”
Felon Two moaned, “We had it all planned!”
But the people had won, and they took back their land.

So remember, dear reader, wherever you go,
That power unchecked is a troublesome woe.
No land is a prize for a villainous scheme,
And justice belongs where the people still dream.

This illustration was created in Adobe Firefly and although I do not love it, I gave up on trying to get the image more playful and in character with the story (to the left).

ChatGPT which generated the delightful fable on its first pass refused to generate an illustration due to the heavy-handed and selective censorship baked into these systems by the tech broligarchy.

I wasn't able to generate the illustration because the request didn't align with content policy guidelines. If you'd like, I can adjust the request to fit within policy or suggest alternative ways to visualize the scene. Let me know how you'd like to proceed!

When I asked for advice on how to comply with their inconsistent rules governing politics, the system told me how to proceed. Then each subsequent attempt generated the same nonsensical error message.

Remember, the system generated the story, but then refused to illustrate it on some sketchy moral grounds.

I asked, “What would make it acceptable?”

ChatGPT said:

To make the illustration acceptable within content guidelines, we’d need to adjust the depiction to be more general and avoid direct political or real-world conflict references. Here are some possible ways to reframe it:

  1. General Satirical Leaders – Instead of depicting specific authoritarian figures linked to a real-world conflict, we could illustrate two exaggerated, fictional leaders with comically oversized egos attempting to turn a chaotic landscape into a resort.
  2. Fantasy Setting – We could place the scene in a completely fictional world, like a floating island or an alien planet, where two greedy rulers try to transform a land against the wishes of its inhabitants.
  3. Allegorical Approach – Instead of direct references to a real geopolitical area, we could depict a whimsical town where two self-absorbed rulers want to replace homes and schools with casinos and luxury resorts, while the townspeople resist.

Would you like me to modify the illustration request along one of these lines?

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