Hello, I have been searching the source of this fable, some American author suggested it was Aesop, #181 in Perry's index, but it's not. ( the donkey and the mule is another story). I found the earliest quote in French from June 2021, [tsuvadra.blog], so a little earlier than in English, and also the June 21 story donkey character is originally a cockroach. but I hit a wall before that.

*How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?'

'Four.'

'And if the party says that it is not four but five -- then how many?'

'Four.'

The word ended in a gasp of pain. The needle of the dial had shot up to fifty-five...

.....

Orwell saw where the kind of cr@p in this nasty little invented-fable leads and he explained it pretty clearly in part3, chapter 2 of 1984.

Colors are objective, not subjective. They correspond to distinct wavelengths of light: they can be measured and confirmed absolutely without any denial being possible as long as you stay within the bounds of objective reality.

The Tiger being punished and silenced for objecting to the Donkey falsely claiming that green is blue is exactly what our wannabe corporate overlords want to be able to do to us, should we contest the 'reality' that they decide to present us with. This is almost certainly why this story is being pushed at this moment in time and is all over the dumber sections of social media. Note also that the Tiger is an apex predator and quite capable of destroying the Donkey and probably the Lion, but instead it meekly submits and accepts its unfair treatment in the face a few platitudes and some hokey philosophizing from the Lion - likewise the population could easily squash false propagandists and remove the lying elites they serve if they have the will to, which is what this story is really about. Promoting this servile attitude in the face of injustice is no accident.

Karl Rove's "We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality..." were the opening shots in a war on the world's population based on moving them away from objective reality and that is now being taken to the next level. I've looked and don't find any references before July 2021 for this story so it is a recent construct and not ancient wisdom or philosophy. It may appear cute and innocent at first glance, but it is anything but.

Ironically, saw this on fb posted by my religious friends. Clearly a believer can use this in their favour when discussing things with non-believers.

The lion should of just ate the donkey. In real life that is what would have really happened.

On the other hand, silence is consent. I would argue to consider what is at stake before engaging in an argument. In this case, I would think the color of the grass is of no consequence, so silence to keep the peace makes sense.

However, if the question were, "Is this person a witch in need of execution?" That should be a different situation entirely.

Qui tacet consentit.

This applies to all progressive members here who are ranting at, blaming and fussing at Republicans day and day out. We opine, behave, issue verdicts on religious, conservatives like we know better and are holier than thou but we cannot win elections hands down, cannot pass bills even when in majority, cannot prosecute criminal legislators for violent attack on Jan 6th in a country where we don't think twice about arresting, convicting, imprisoning or killing black Americans for just minor traffic violations or small marijuana.

We have the power but instead of holding our own weak leaders' feet to the fire we are ranting why the enemy kicked our ass? That does not sound smart, does it?

Yes, don’t argue with fools, let the authorities deal with it….
Which begs the question “why isn’t it illegal to spread/promote bad health cures?”

Then I remembered, big pharma does it daily….

Wow what a coincidence!! Turns out a lot of Trumpanzees were conceived via Donkeys mating with chimpanzees!!

This might be where the use of the word "ass" came to mean "idiot".

I was thinking about the story of the Donkey and the Ogre.

I think the point is more not to argue with fools and waste time and energy on them.

However, fanaticism is something which should be countered. You shouldn't try to couter the fanatics directly, but rather try to teach reason to their prospective converts first before the fanaticism can take hold on a large scale.

The importance of education isn't just learning facts, so much as it is learning how to think an analyze for oneself (critical thinking skills). That is our best defense against fanatics.

Isn't Kentucky the blue grass state?

I think that the Holocaust proved that we should never stay silent in the face of ignorance, especially when that ignorance is destroying people. We should be screaming about kids in cages, force sterilizations, voter suppression, the big lie, insurrection, the death of democracy, institutional racism and fake covid cures, to name a few examples.