How is kindness a bad thing? I thought that was universally agreed to be a good message to have in a piece of media. I guess the excuse is they don’t want media to have messages at all but like, how would you even have a movie where the hero has no values that they stand for?
Billionaires like Peter Thiel have thought long and hard about why they can’t get everything they want. He has effectively said that his own policies would be so unpopular that nobody would ever vote for them, but that he has found the internet to be an effective tool to sway populations.
So what about us makes the world so good that they can’t fulfil their darkest desires? Social cohesion, knowledge and empathy.
What have himself, Muskrat et all have inundated us with over the last few years is their “antidote” to that: stranger danger, disinformation and “empathy is weakness”. It’s the playbook of the billionaire psychopath and people don’t realise they are dancing to their tune.
Interesting point! I’ve recently started thinking about the core message of Christ. It’s been misused and abused for millennia, but at its core it literally is “treat people like you would want them to treat you”.
But if everyone thought that way, where would the support for war come from? How can we justify monstrous behavior for profit without figuring out ways to make the victims seem like different people than we are? Horrible people who deserve the violence!
People have this ability to take the most constructive, beneficial and altruistic ideas and bend them to create victims and justify violence.
This shit has been happening since the first person used a thunderclap to elicit a sacrifice. The new church is social media, and the new congregation is worldwide.
Matthew 22:36-40 New International Version 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Word
I have a theory of society that is 30-30-30 based around a narcissistic spectrum. 30% of the population at any given time is narcissistic to some extent. They are conceited in their interactions with society.
We live in a time of decline. This is creating stress throughout the population. How people react to this stress shows their true character. The narcissistic leaning people, during these times of stress, look for scapegoats. If we just eliminate these types of people, we can go back to the good times. They are the fascists throughout history. When fascism and mindless violence rises during times of decline, it is due to this latent population, which is always there but only activated by the stress of decline.
The other groups are the 30% who are altruistic and cooperative. They interact with society by seeing what can be built by all and the value of different types of people. They have won the day too throughout history, but a society the averts disaster by coming together and rebuilding is just a society that continued to be successful. They are little noted as they do not bring the great calamities and destruction that get written down in the history books.
The final group are the 30% who are ambivalent. They don’t engage with politics in a meaningful way and have little willpower. They see life as a fate to be endured. Whichever way the wind blows, they will follow, or at least, endure it.
The balance determines which side wins. It is influenced by the power structures of the day, the zeitgeist and the strength of propaganda and the leaders of each side. It’s fairly clear which side is winning now and I don’t see the altruistic side coming to save the day any time soon.
Often times, when altruism does prevail, it is because someone with great courage that is a member of the existing power structure leads their cause. There are no such people at this time. Our power structure has explicitly embraced greed and sociopathy for 50 years now. Everyone who is successful now has been a part of that system and is thoroughly corrupted by it.
Good theory but the math is off, 30+30+30 only adds up to 90. What about the other 10%?
The balance. It ebbs and flows with the cultural landscape of the times. It determines which side prevails.
And just a hunch, I’d say it leans toward the ambivalent center most of the time. But as things get tough, it would become more activated and polarized.
Their religion / tribal cult only wants to use the United States, forget about “Truth, Justice and the American way”, they want US soldiers to pay with their blood.
Nah kindness is Woke
I only watched a cam-rip and stopped after Louis Lane “interviews” Superman which was painful to watch. The typical reporter tearing and deliberately misrepresenting or framing things in the dominant world order, every question a cut and propaganda criticizing people who disagree. It was kinda gaslighting, like “why did you attack our ally unprovoked?! Also some people are saying you’re an alien spy!”. Instead of asking questions to get the truth, they are loaded questions that can’t be answered without making yourself look bad.
What a total failures as a character introduction and makes her instantly an unlikeable removed. I mean holy shit is that bad storytelling. Or is that just me? If that is what you think a reporter should do, then don’t do it as a friend / girlfriend, and if that is how you see the world that you are not worthy of being the girlfriend of a hero like Superman. Because in my opinion you’re one of the villains in real life.
I do suspect this plays into why some people disliked superman. What people seek in these troubled times is strength. And they hate what tears strength down, seeking to control or subdue it or put it in it’s place in the proper order of things. They want someone to break things because deep down we all know the path we’re on right now leads downward (economic inequality, enshittification of products, appliances and services, climate change and environment, rising tensions, news and social media, post truth world). The people voting aren’t entirely wrong in just wanting to see the world burn.
There is a quote which I don’t know where it came from or remember well: “The samurai valued strength above anything else, because that is where all other values flow from”. Or differently: “The samurai believed that strength was the foundation of all values, as it enabled them to uphold honor, loyalty, and discipline.”
But our liberal world order sees strength as something that has to be separated, atomized, means tested and distributed into channels to control. Controlled by laws, bureaucracy or better yet, the dictates of capitalism, because it’s oh-so-efficient. I suspect right wingers like Homelander not because he’s a corporate product, but because he breaks out of that and goes rogue, and also rejects the “we must not kill anyone and obey the laws or we will be like the villains!” bullshit.
The cult of personality or hero worship represents a desire of people that someone comes and fixes all this shit and cuts through the red tape. Someone who has strength and the courage to use that strength, despite all the clever fucking shitty arguments and conventions to the contrary. Because we’ve heard it all before and it sounds so good but it’s clearly not working. Superhero movies are supposed to fulfill that wish and grand escapism into a world where our problems are magically solved. But recent movies (Marvel) failed to do that, instead pushing the failed real world fantasy of a liberal world order into the movies. Like the common trope of Washington and the government being fundamentally good and working well, except for a few bad apples, and as soon as you get the proof and give it to the good people or the newspapers, everything works out fine. Which is a painful reminder that it doesn’t in real life.
I suspect the “reactionary backlash” is not just about racism, it’s about the rejection of the distraction of identity politics - that if we only lean in more, if we accept different cultures, everything will be fine - because that is just distraction from the continued neoliberalism and disaster capitalism. But breaking things and bringing things to a head is also an opportunity - accelerationism.
These are just by jumbled thoughts on how this reflects on our culture war. Again, I haven’t watched the movie or read any of the right wing critiques, only seen the “liberal backlash to the backlash”. This controversy in itself is rather predictable and pisses me off. Like it’s a distraction in itself, a pair of two anger memes that complement each other perfectly are tossed into the ether to continue to keep us occupied.
Also after I stopped the movie I read some (serious) reviews and it’s also just a shitty movie.
If you’re going to use a movie to deliver populism and morality, it better be a good movie or you’re just handing ammunition to the world’s worst piles of shit.
We need to all collectively admit to ourselves that Superman is tired and over and from a different world. We can write new stories that will connect with and give hope to a far more apathetic and cynical population.
Edit: lot of people telling me it was a great movie, reflexive negative reactions are from guys who think it’s “cringe” to be at all genuine and thoughtful in a media work.
Yeah the value of art is that it can express or show things about the world that are hard to express in words. And we desperately need a new way and clarity about the failure of the old ways, because that is what leads to the cynicism and hopelessness. So either keep politics out of it and produce harmless entertainment, or have a bloody brilliant take on politics that provides actual artistic value.
I quite like superhero movies as escapism, like a fantasy world where clear definitions of good vs evil exist. But I can’t stomach biopics or docudramas that mix this fantasy with real world propaganda, like some nostalgic fantasy about US politics or journalism any more. It feels like they all want to recreate the beautiful fantasy of Sorkin’s “The White House” or the classic thriller take of “a bad apple in a good system” but today that is a dangerous lie.
The best example of how the world has changed and changed us is by rewatching The West Wing. A show that if aired today, would probably end up with the production studio burned down.
Superman fighting the klan didn’t work because adults laughed at their hand signs and shit that were disclosed…
It’s because it got a generation of kids to see the klan as the bad guys
If Superman hated you, how the fuck were you going to indoctrinate your kid into the klan?
That’s why they’re always bitching about media. The people doing it are ignorant, but the ones telling them what to be mad about it are picking logical targets to fufil longterm goals.
It’s why fighting fascism is like losing weight, you can’t reach a goal and stop giving a fuck, it’s a lifestyle.
It’s why fighting fascism is like losing weight, you can’t reach a goal and stop giving a fuck, it’s a lifestyle.
Can confirm. 330lbs I said “I’ll reach 320.”
At 320 I said I’ll reach 310.
At 310 I said 300.
At 300 I said 290.
Then 280.
Then 270.
Then 260.
Then 250.
Then 240.
I went back up to 250. Oh no no no no no. Fuck that shit. I’m going to see 240. And when I do, it’ll set my sights on 230.
And when I see 230, I will hug someone. Because that will be 100lb.
Which means I’ll look to 220.
And then 210.
And 200.
I don’t know where my weight loss journey ends. I don’t know when I’ll feel at a healthy weight.
I just know I hope my journey brings me to a day when I get to punch a nazi.
Because nazi lives DON’T matter!
Send a text when you hit 0!
You’re gonna do it brudduh, don’t stop bettering yourself :)
Well. Your journey took real strength. Ain’t that something? Keep fighting the good fight.
I mean Hitler did kill Hitler.
The last thing you said is why I got one of my bans on Reddit. Fuck Reddit.
The horrible thing about it all is that saying you should always punch Nazis was an uncontroversial statement even as recently as three years ago.
The only reason it’s now considered a terroristic threat is because powerful figures have started openly identifying with fascism.
We need to be saying it more, not less.
Just don’t think of it as a diet or oppressive. Make it a lifestyle. I’m still around 220 after 11 years of mostly stuck in bed. 16 years ago I was 350. A part of me wishes I was still 190 at 7%, but it is super hard for me to get that low. I just don’t have that kind of pain tolerance to deal with being light headed and hungry 24/7 while counting calories, eating constantly, but never meals or more than a few bites of dry salad or chicken. Without racing and riding like 400+ miles a week, I’m just not that kind of motivated. I’d much rather be lazy and eat meals with way too many calories at once but still far fewer than most people. I have no desire to binge or eat processed food of any kind any more. Avoiding dairy has also been super helpful too because that is a good excuse to avoid most junk people make, fast food, or restaurants the few chances I ever get.
The only good fascist is the one buried in the earth.
Wait are you saying that Hitler is good?
Well he did do one good thing in his life. He killed Hitler.
Holy shit you’re right.
Fighting for freedom never ends.
I completely agree it’s like loosing weight, at a certain point it becomes actively harmful.
For all the right wingers who think woke, pro immigrant superman is a new concept, reminder that this is a poster from the 1950s
Interestingly enough zero black people depicted, or any other races but white - just one dude with a dark orange complexion like the Mango Mussolini.
from this article:
Another story from 1953 called “People are People” has a Black youngster holding off an escaped lion until Superman can capture the animal. The owner of the circus the lion has escaped from wants to congratulate a white boy for his (nonexistent) heroism until Superman points out that the heroic young man was Black, and that the circus owner only wanted to congratulate the white boy because he was prejudiced.
Ethnicities. “Race” is a shit expression.
Colour palette.
But it’s three syllables shorter! That’s like 75% of the syllables. Won’t you think of the savings?
Agreed, but ‘ethnicity’ means something else, closer to ‘national origin’ mentioned on the poster. All the white people pictured may well be of different ethnicities, for example. ‘Ancestries’, perhaps? ‘Different skin color’?
Yeah you got the crux of the problem here! Let‘s correct people that are saying the same with a bit of arrogance to have a dopamine kick and then let’s make a fight about this so we are pushing the other person away
God why everything has to be so divisive these days?!
Interesting article about the history of ‘socialist superman’ during the depression and the ideological evolution.
Propaganda is powerful. You convince your followers that some classes of people don’t deserve kindness, you convince them that everything out of Hollywood is part of a leftist agenda, and once they believe both of those statements it’s very easy to spin this as further proof of the narrative they’ve already bought into.
Hey, fascists don’t deserve kindness.
I disagree. Every person on this earth deserves happiness, and to avoid suffering. They also deserve kindnesa. That, however, does NOT mean they can do whatever they want. “Hey fascist, you do not get to tell people that kindness is bad” is not an unkind statement. You can have boundaries while still being kind. I really don’t believe we’re ever going to win the fight against fascism with more hate. Hate breeds hates. Kill them with kinds is a saying for a reason. If you tell a hateful person that you love them in spite of their hate, they don’t know what to do. They want people to hurt because they are hurt. If you accept their hurt, they will stop trying to hurt you (disclaimer this isn’t always black and white for each individual person, this is a philosophy that applies to humanity)
You’re just ignorantly wrong on that one. Way to completely fail to learn the lessons of MLK Jr. A person very much interested in being kind to others.
"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”
and many other quotes with a similar glint. How was his kindness rewarded? (hint: he was murdered in front of his own house) Evil people DO NOT deserve kindness. Even Jesus went whipping up on shitheads trying to turn a profit in the church.
Only a complete fool willing to sit by and watch the world burn allows terrible people to march around with torches to set things alight.
But what if you kill them with kindness?
I don’t care how you do it, it’s something that must be done either way.
Just be sure to make it look like an accident.
Like Bob Ross, just a happy accident.
Feels wrong to hide it.
Whatever gets the job done.
In that case, the end justify the means. :-)
I’m just baffled because not only is it way easier to not hate people, it’s way more beneficial for everyone.
These people are taking two mile hikes to find the perfect deer shit to shove down their throats.
You forget who benefits. It’s not the majority, correct.
That’s fully understood, we’re talking about propaganda, and I’m talking about who that propaganda affects.
You’re not wrong though at all. Arm yourself, convince anyone you can to do the same.
Only war is class war and I aim to win this bitch
Probably the same idiots who thought Homelander was a hero.
I’ve been wondering if there are Trump supporters watching The Handmaid’s Tale and siding with Gilead
I’m sure they have watched it and made lots of notes.
Yes there are
too many words, not enough explosions
Homelander is a hero, just not to the public.
You didn’t even upvote your own comment. That’s how stupid it is.
i think he is analyzing how maga thinks not being a maga himself… but i could be wrong.
Conservatives are still mad that Superman fought the kkk.
Which is admitting they side with the kkk, isn’t it
Well, yeah. They aren’t exactly trying to hide their white supremacist tendencies anymore.
If Superman were real, he 100% would have melted a lot of those racist fucks.
If you haven’t, I highly recommend reading “Superman Smashes the Klan.” An all-timer, based on a radio story from 1946, which was honestly its own kind of ballsy.
I really don’t know how to convince people they should care about others.
I don’t know how to teach empathy.
There’s an underlying care instinct that needs to be activated. Its emotional; you can’t explain it, they have to experience it… There was a post years ago supposedly describing the empathic awakening of a white supremacist, which occurred as he was waiting to harm or harass a father and son on a bus, and the moment of awakening happened as he witnessed the father expressing his love for his son and something clicked for him, probably because he wanted that sort of affection from his dad and never got it.
People care about their in-group. Make being human their main identity.
we can purge those filthy xenos from the galaxy!
A few slaps on the butt (assisted by a carpet beater when the occasion demands it) will usually do it. At least that’s how my mom did it with us.
“You! Have! To be! Good! To! Your! Sister/neighbor/dog!”
(EDIT: /s if not clear)
Captain Archer had some good ideas. Turns out he really doesn’t like bullies.
If you can’t learn empathy, learn to spite the enemies of empathy
By exercising it at a young age in public schools.
And judging those without more harshly.
You cannot. It’s either felt, or they’re shitspawn to be flushed.
That’s the thing, isn’t it? You either have empathy, or you are the other species. The one that can’t comprehend that there is anything wrong with them, but the world would be better off without them.
Empathy can absolutely develop over time. This rhetoric is not useful. Even dumb fucking right wing pieces of shit feel empathy when their in-group is affected.
If hate can be learned so can empathy, what you’re suggesting is dehumanizing
Well, I have neither empathy or sympathy for those anymore. They dehumanized me first, after all.
I’m with you brother. They have dehumanized so much they are no longer human themselves. Right wing ideology is subhuman ideology, in all forms.
This includes liberals.
Empathy can be developed over time by MOST people.
Also, performative empathy can be developed.
But then ALSO, anti empathy seems to be developing in society? Which is wild.
I am absolutely with you.
Also people should learn the difference between empathy and sympathy, the latter not as fatiguing and difficult to develop and often more useful.
Oh fuck off would ya? Every time I test my empathy, I am basically shown to be simply unemphatetic. Doesn’t make me a monster - simply instead of feeling something is wrong, I have to think shit through.
And trust me, it’s even easier that way. Would I like someone to kick me? Maim me? Deport me? Does the net good outweight both the general consequence and the consequence for the other party? No? Then don’t fucking do it. Whether I like other party doesn’t take part in the process, which isn’t true for empathy.
I like the Nathan Fillion comment during some red carpet interview when the interviewer was trying to egg him into saying something that would get rage clicks from one side or the other of the current political trash fire.
“its just a movie guys”
Superman was not a brooding edge lord until Snyder’s take outside of specific story runs, and it is obvious that a lot of people don’t know that.
Captain Hammer best superhero, who’s with me on this
I so want a sequel to the sing along blog.
Dr Horrible has become obsessed with reviving Penny by turning back time. He doesn’t care how many people need to die, because he believes he can “fix” things. But the risk of time travel is the destruction of the universe…
Captain Hammer, now knowing what pain is, has two choices, grow and overcome the pain, or continue to hide away…
And Penny. The multiple zombies, and clones, and computer simulations of Penny that were never “right”. Well, she too has her parts to play.
love it, but it won’t happen.
Dr Horrible was released 17 years ago.
That plot was already made by marvel, almost to a T
They don’t have a movie but they have a show. Homelander is the perfect ‘hero’ for these people. Only even the dullest dullard in the magat pile fails to recognize the character is evil but they never consider they are the baddies. Edit: fixed spell check.
Highlander? I am not making the connection.
I fixed it. It was supposed to be Homelander.
There can be only one!
(I don’t get it either. Maybe they’re thinking of The Boys, with the character Homelander?)
They confirmed it was an error and indeed meant homelander—you were right. They corrected it. FYI.
Highlander being a hero for the conservatives is an interesting thought experiment though hahaha
If we’re giving them all claymores and letting them have at it it seems okay to me.
People angry that Superman represents kindness
Do these people exist? Is it just one troll, or a significant enough of a population to even give the slightest bit of thought?
Look at how many Americans would voluntarily die themselves just to prevent “unworthy” people from getting free health care.
These people exist.
Pain is the point for them
I frequent dive bars. I have met plenty of people who believe in kindness, and love, and Jesus and shit - but not for immigrants, not for non-white people, not for criminals of any level. I straight up have had these people say this to my non-white face and then say, “oh but you don’t count because you have a job” or “you don’t count because you aren’t a drug addict”. Etc. etc.
These people suck fucking dick and I want them all to die.
It’s fucking ironic too when these same people talk about smoking weed, or stealing from big box stores self-checkouts, or vandalizing some dude’s car.
“Rules for thee, not for me.”
I read local obituaries solely to celebrate when I see some of these people die.
This is dark, but you fuckin do you gurl. Fuck em.
If only the circumstances that spawned them would change too…
I’ve met countless people who hate morals and will tell you you’re an idiot if you treat other humans as equals
No way
yes way. I have seen it with my own father. And the saddest part is they got this from religious rightwing media and have never ever interacted or had an opportunity to interact with the out-group that they are told to fear. Oh and, I am not from the 1st world. This shit is everywhere.
Business school and working at large corps. You inevitably meet a lot of those trump and tate wannabes
humans are just resources to expend and exploit.
It’s one guy making the propaganda right now, but I assure you, in a week, everyone in your family that you try not to talk to will be spouting this horseshit.
