Seeing through all the noise » « Mary Schweitzer and the mysterious dinosaur soft tissue

But that looks awesome!

Superman is being a good guy again. Apparently, in the latest issue, he intervenes to stop a white nationalist shooter from killing immigrants.

And then he collars the wanna-be murderer and shames him. Superman is a real Social Justice Warrior!
Or maybe just an everyday decent human being with magic powers.

Yes! That looks like a good story with a good message.

Except…I got that story from Breitbart. They think it’s deplorable. Apparently, preventing the murder of innocents is un-American and socialism.

In an act of Super socialism, once police arrive, our Social Justice Supes orders them to protect the illegal aliens to make sure they are “safe and cared for.”

This latest episode should not surprise anyone.

DC Comics long ago declared that Superman is no longer American. Where once the hero touted the ideals of “truth, justice, and the American way,” like a good leftist, Superman is now a “citizen of the world.”

In a story from 2011, Superman proclaimed that he could no longer be an American citizen because “the world’s too small, too connected” to work just with the U.S.A.

So a true hero would defend American capitalistic values only, and if a few brown people get gunned down, that’s just the price of doing business? I simply do not understand how these people could look at that simple fantasy story and think Superman should be supporting the Nazi. Except maybe if you’re a Nazi.

Seeing through all the noise » « Mary Schweitzer and the mysterious dinosaur soft tissue

Comments

  2. alkisvonidas says

    In an act of Super socialism, once police arrive, our Social Justice Supes orders them to protect the illegal aliens to make sure they are “safe and cared for.”

    But, Superman IS an illegal alien! What did they expect?

  4. What a Maroon, living up to the 'nym says

    He’s a dreamer. And allowing him to stay just encouraged other aliens such as General Zod.

  6. Firestarter says

    Imagine if you had the power of Superman, able to fly around the planet at nearly light speed, and all you did was help America (and made sure to check the victims IDs to ensure they are citizens before you helped them). It’d make you a monster.

    Of course, imagine being even more powerful – say – all powerful, and sitting back and watching evil happen and innocents suffer. There’d be no greater monster.

  7. says

    The Bratbart crowd might want to do some reading up on the history of Superman. They’d probably be appalled at some of his earliest adventures.

  9. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @Jado:

    if you’re in the gang, chances are you won’t be targeted by the gang.

    That’s pretty truthy, but the reality is much more complex. After all, if you are not in the gang, chances are you won’t be targeted by the gang, at least not for serious violence (being targeted by threatening language directed indiscriminately at groups of outsiders, or even all outsiders, is of could almost guaranteed but also largely without direct impact). While it’s maybe true that odds are better than 50% you won’t be targeted for certain violence (like murder) by your fellow gang members, other violence, including hazing rituals that can at times be quite severe violence, is dramatically likely to target members of the same gang as the perpetrators. Depending on the type of violence and the particular culture in which the gang is situated, you may be at much higher than 50% risk of certain types of violence from your fellow gang members after you join a gang, even after you have already passed through initiation rituals.

    Moreover, the threat to the non-gang public is dramatically smaller than the threat to other gangmembers.

    In one study frequently cited in criminology, 900+ Chicago-area murders were categorized as gang-related by virtue of having a gang-related perpetrator. The victims were then categorized, with 75% being members of a gang other than the perpetrator, 14% not being gang-affiliated, and 11% being members of the same gang as the perpetrator. (The study is Street Gangs and Crime: Patterns and Trends in Chicago by C R Block; A Christakos; A Jacob; & R Przybylski.) Since there are far more people involved in gangs generally than involved an any specific gang, the 75% to 11% comparison likely indicates that when considering murders perpetrated by any particular gang, any individual member of another gang is less likely to be targeted by the gang under study than any individual member of the studied gang itself.

    So joining a gang increases your chances of being a target of gang violence initiated by any gang, but the increase in likelihood that you’ll be targeted by members of the gang you join is a larger increase then the increases in likelihood that you’ll be targeted by members of other gangs.

    For a better discussion of all this than I could possibly even attempt to make here, you could try looking up:

    Hipp, J. R., Tita, G. E., & Boggess, L. N. (2009). Intergroup and intragroup violence: is violent crime an expression of group conflict or social disorganization?*. Criminology, 47(2), 521-564.

  10. bryanfeir says

    In a story from 2011, Superman proclaimed that he could no longer be an American citizen because “the world’s too small, too connected” to work just with the U.S.A.

    Of course, that would also have been after Lex Luthor got himself elected President of the U.S.A. and actively tried to both destroy and discredit Superman while in office, so one might understand some unwillingness to potentially be in a position like that again.

  11. screechymonkey says

    timgueguen @7:

    The Bratbart crowd might want to do some reading up on the history of Superman. They’d probably be appalled at some of his earliest adventures.

    Yep. As I recall, one of his earliest adventures was going after war profiteers and businessmen.

    Captain America, too. There’s a misconception among some conservatives that Steve Rogers must be one of them because he’s old-fashioned and patriotic, but from the beginning Steve was a New Deal liberal. And throughout his career, he’s never allowed his loyalty to the American ideal to stop him from criticizing America as it is.

  12. microraptor says

    Captain America, too. There’s a misconception among some conservatives that Steve Rogers must be one of them because he’s old-fashioned and patriotic, but from the beginning Steve was a New Deal liberal.

    Too bad the writers for the Ultimate universe never got that memo and turned that version of Captain America into a jingoistic combination of 1940s stereotypes and neocon dooshbaggery.

  14. says

    From the piece I linked to @ #13:

    But Siegel and Shuster’s superhero character, while couched in childlike innocence, was a radical strike back against what Rabbi Bruce Warshal calls “the worst period of anti-Semitism in our [American Jewish] history.” The relatively lax immigration policy of the early 20th century gave way to rabid nativism in the 1920s. The Ku Klux Klan resurged and saw early 20th century Jews as principal agitators in the spread of Communism, unionism, and miscegenation. Klan participation was particularly bad even in northern states like the Ohio. In 1923 and 1925 over 70,000 klansmen attended two Klan rallies, known as konklaves, at Buckeye Lake.

    It was no small source of satisfaction for Siegel and Shuster later when the Superman radio serial became instrumental in mocking the Klan’s activities….

    Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were ten years old when Senator Ellison DuRant Smith gave his famous “Shut The Door” speech on immigration in the lead up to the passage of the 1924 Immigration Act. The Senator claimed passing the act would allow the U.S. to “assimilate what we have, and let us breed pure American citizens and develop our own American resources.” The immigration act not only lowered the number of immigrants allowed into the U.S., it also barred immigration from any country whose citizens were deemed “non-white.” Had the act passed earlier, it would have prevented millions of southern and eastern European immigrants from coming to America, including the Siegels and Shusters. It’s passage in the 1920s would trap millions in an increasingly hostile Europe, on the eve of a frenzy of anti-Semitic genocide.

    That is why, for 74 years Superman’s primary nemesis has not been another alien or superhero, but megalomaniacal xenophobic billionaire Lex Luthor. On multiple occasions, Luther has reiterated Senator Smith’s language, engaged in murderous, racially motivated vigilantism, and generally promoted the Nazi ideal of übermensch….

    Although revealing any link to Judaism would have doomed the Superman franchise, several early stories focus on Superman fighting Nazis and proudly declaring himself a “non-Aryan” as he socked Adolph Hitler on the jaw. The comics led propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels to accuse Superman of being a Jew, and at least one vicious 1940 editorial in the SS newspaper Das schwarze Korps was titled “Jerry Siegel Attacks!”

  15. says

    The conclusion:

    In a way, Senator Smith and Lex Luthor were perversely right. Not about immigration. All but in the fevered dreams of power mad politicians and their deluded followers is a world without immigration possible. People move. Smith and Luther were right in that using anti-immigrant rhetoric is a time-tested means of hiding the bigoted fears of small minded people, desperately fighting to mask their mediocrity and maintain authority in the face of an overwhelming and incomprehensible force. Smith is interred at St. Luke’s Cemetery in Lee County South Carolina. All interested parties are hereby invited to dance on his grave.

    By slow means, the Jewish sensibilities of two boys from Ohio illustrated the movement of an entire country. The Jews who migrated to the United States have assimilated into its society, as have their creations. Superman isn’t just the Last Son of Krypton—he’s an American icon.

  16. gijoel says

    Is it me, or does the alt-right look more and more like a Stalinist clique? There’s this pathetic need to denounce everything that doesn’t slide into their world view.

  17. kome says

    Superman is getting back to his roots. He once fought the KKK in the 1940s. Fighting racism is part of who he is, from almost the very beginning.

  18. Ichthyic says

    Always remember – if you’re in the gang, chances are you won’t be targeted by the gang.

    You know, I used to think that too. But having lived with someone now for 8 years who used to work profiling gamgs in NZ?

    nope. In fact, the people most likely to receive physical violence from a gang… are the members of that gang.

  19. Ichthyic says

    ...revealing any link to Judaism would have doomed the Superman franchise

    need say no more that as a commentary on America.

  21. mickll says

    In a story from 2011, Superman proclaimed that he could no longer be an American citizen because “the world’s too small, too connected” to work just with the U.S.A.

    Well if supes was real, he’d be a DREAMer and the alt right would be demanding his deportation as he’s not only an illegal immigrant, he’s inherently stronger and faster than natural born Anglo-Americans.

  22. ck, the Irate Lump says

    Probably could’ve used Superman in this incident: Nashville Porsche driver shoots homeless man in row. A woman shot a homeless man in the abdomen after an argument about loud music. She was just firing warning shots because she felt threatened, and she closed her eyes while firing, according to her father, so I guess that’s supposed to justify it. Sadly, I expect that justice will not be served in this matter despite her other two run-ins with the law with assault charges (one of which is still pending).

  23. rietpluim says

    I simply do not understand how these people could look at that simple fantasy story and think Superman should be supporting the Nazi.

    I’ve never thought I’d say this, but… maybe we should stop trying to make sense of these people.

  25. birgerjohansson says

    When you mentioned stalinist cliques and nazis, I recalled this, about Trump’s middle Eastern friend;
    “Saudi crown prince tries to consolidate power with string of arrests” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/14/saudi-crown-prince-consolidate-power-arrests-clerics-mohammed-bin-salman
    He wants total loyalty, aka the fuhrerprinzip (and like so many salafists, he will be an anti-semite).
    [My kind of superheroes would be like those in “The Authority”, where the Midnighher and Apollo cheerfully kick dictator’s asses alsongside corporate villains.]

  27. mhenrici says

    How is anyone still surprised that Superman is a liberal?
    He’s an undocumented refugee.
    He works at a newspaper (the liberal, mainstream media!)
    He’s against the death penalty.
    His arch-nemesis is an egocentric, follicly-challenged, billionaire who slaps his name on everything he touches, and then ran for president (and won)

  28. bryanfeir says

    @mhenrici:
    But unlike the current egocentric, follicly-challenged billionaire who ran for president (and won), Lex Luthor was actually competent when he didn’t let his obsessions run away with him.

  29. Walter Solomon says

    Too bad the writers for the Ultimate universe never got that memo and turned that version of Captain America into a jingoistic combination of 1940s stereotypes and neocon dooshbaggery.

    They also likely believe Cap was created by Stan Lee instead of the more talented, late Jack Kirby.

  30. Gregory Greenwood says

    bryanfeir @ 27 and 28;

    That is Trump in a nutshell – he would be Lex Luthor come to life if only he wasn’t such a total idiot and had a single drop of competency somewhere in his body…

  31. Gregory Greenwood says

    It is typical of the Alt Right to be offended by a depiction of an iconic popular culture symbol of heroism and moral integrity… demonstrating those values.

    This image really hits home for them. Not only is a super powered undocumented migrant protecting other migrants from being gunned down by a trigger happy xenophobic fascist ‘all American patriot’, but he destroys said racist idiot’s gun. Doesn’t just confiscate it or take the bullets out, but destroys it, and you know how many of the far right are gun-fondlers, and how gun-fondlers feel about their firearms (I swear most of them would save their guns from a house fire ahead of their children). Liberals funnelling migrants into ‘Merica while taking away the good ‘ole boys’ guns – it is vision of Armageddon to your average Brietbart fan, two of their own personal version of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the remaining two being tax increases to pay for essential infrastructure of public services, and women receiving proper reproductive healthcare. If Superman had gone on to advocate for progressive taxation policies and protect a planned parenthood clinic from violent anti-choicers, then the Alt Right would probably be doing their best Chicken Little impressions right now, gazing fearfully upwards, expecting the sky to fall.