I would like you to explain how Captain America and Superman are reactionary.

I mean… c’mon. Captain America is low-hanging fruit - the correlation between Captain America and actual US behavior in the world essentially writes itself.

Superman is a far more sophisticated representation of US-style liberalism - but, just like liberalism itself, that doesn’t make Super Cheese any less of a reactionary.

However… we can talk about the individual politics of these characters all day long - and we’d be missing the entire point of the metaphor in it’s entirety.

The problem with the “super hero” genre is not the individual politics of the characters concerned - it’s with how they normalize and justify the concentration of power in the hands of these exalted individuals.

In other words - the problem is fundamental.

He doesn’t understand the core themes of superheroes,

I think he understand them perfectly, because…

Zack Snyder is an Objectivist

It’s all liberal media, Clyde.

Liberalism is the status quo… that’s the media you’ve been watching all this time, and that includes all the (so-called) “conservative” media, too.

but student terrorist movements were largely left behind in the 70s

The left has never left the use of force in the past - it is as available to us today, and as thoroughly justified, as it was in the 70’s… 1570s, 1870s or 2070s.

The willingness to use force doesn’t distinguish between a left and a (supposed) “far left” - the left is not a mirror of the right, and there is no leftist equivalent to a far right (which is purely distinguished by it’s proximity to, willingness to control and/or operate the state machinery of violence).

It’s not about spots on a silly “political compass” infographic and never has been.

By American standards, the Stop Cop City people are a ‘far left’ group;

That’s not “far left.” That’s just plain old bog-standard left - whether in the US or anywhere else.

action against Stop Cop City has been pretty brutal.

Again… just common-or-garden variety treatment the left has always received from the forces of the status quo - nothing “far left” about it.

There’s no such thing as a “far left” - and it’s critical that we push back on these kinds of propagandistic framing devices liberals love to use to demonize the left and provide cover for the right. I don’t think leftists realize how powerful and dangerous this basic type of propaganda can be.

The status quo is not politically neutral.

The status quo mildly dislikes the far right - on the other hand, the status quo despises anything left.

want to preserve the status quo,

No different than liberals, then.

Fascists want to subvert democracy

All institutionalized political power is violently anti-democratic - it’s literally why you are forced to pay for violent paramilitaries to police you and protect the status quo from anything that can be called democratic with a straight face.

Fascists are not unique in that regards.

and install a completely new status quo

The capitalists that funded Hitler and Mussolini into power did not do so because fascists “install a completely new status quo.” The CIA didn’t fund fascists into power all over the third world during the Cold War because fascists “install a completely new status quo.”

They funded fascists into power because fascists protect the status quo. You know… the status quo liberals and conservatives all love so much?

There’s a difference?

If Batman was real today, he’d be Donald Trump.

That’s what these (alleged) “super heroes” really are… idealized, ubermensch-esque metaphors for the actual power wielded by the rich and privileged.

In fact, I’d say that Batman is the ultimate Objectivist wet dream - he perfectly personifies the fascist (as Batman) and the capitalist (as Bruce Wayne) in one person. Even Ayn Rand’s creepazoid ancap sugar-daddy “heroes” didn’t manage that.

It’s like the anarchists say - scratch a fascist and a liberal bleeds.

Ah my favorite self flagellating liberal!

Oh, you remember me? How flattering.

However, I don’t remember you… you liberals all sound the same to me, and, of course, that’s a you problem.

I used to… but now I don’t.

Such “equally opposing forces” are purely media creations - there are no such things in actual politics. For instance, there is no such thing as a “far left” - it was purely created by liberal media to be a neat (but entirely fictional) “equally opposing force” for their shitty “both-side-ism” narratives.

You don’t. Not with your vote, anyway - these libs telling you to “vote blue no matter who” aren’t interested in Palestinians apart from the bad optics it brings to their liberal ideology.

Vote your conscience - but if you want to help Palestinians, you have to go outside the “formal” political channels (the “formal” political channels are all perfectly fine with the slaughter)… just like the people who protested the Vietnam War.

It happens to the best of us.

Now do conservative

Which part of…

I guess watching liberals pearl-clutching themselves into supporting colonialist genocide

…didn’t you understand?

So-called “conservatives” are liberals, Clyde. So-called “conservatives” buy into the exact same pro-capitalist, pro-colonialist ideology of liberalism that you buy into, Clyde.

The only difference between the people you call “liberals” and the people you call “conservatives” are that the latter is further along the “liberal-to-fascist” pipeline than you are.

Oh joy… I guess watching liberals pearl-clutching themselves into supporting colonialist genocide is going to be the dominant spectacle on this community until the hammer drops in November.

Yay.

We have lots of space here… unfortunately, it’s also the only thing we have enough of.

Sooo… instead of pandering to the white supremacist base that got him into the Waffle House in 2016, Trump is making a terrifically cringe go at winning black folks over.

Somehow, I don’t think the neo-nazis and the KKK is going to be all that enthusiastic about him this time around.

Jesus fucking Christ his followers are dumb.

Blaming the victims of capitalism and not the capitalist class itself isn’t just a thing with Trump’s followers - it’s literally the unspoken consensus liberal ideology rests upon.

Whoosh.