this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2025
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"So anyway, I orchestrated that apprentice's death and built an empire fuelled by greed and corruption."
A french YouTuber (Bolchegeek) calls that the Magneto syndrome : the writers make the bad guys make actually good points when criticizing the supposed "good guys", but then proceed to completely discredit their character by making them do something obviously evil. He argued that it's a way to pretend like you're making a progressive movie that questions society, while still reinforcing the status quo, and to basically say "Don't be fooled by those radicals, they may seem convincing but they're actually just out for blood"
I think this is the entire underlying propoganda in Batman villains and that only the rich good guy by choice can save us!
#PoisonIvyDidNothingWrong
Capeshit in general is inherently right wing, though, if you stop to think about it. The foundational premise is the notion that if only this Great Man™ steps up to punch problems away the world will be a better place for it.
Depends on the target age demographic and how organized the Heroes are. In the MCU, the Avengers were operating investigation and acting in foreign countries without consent. I was in agreement that Sokovia Accords were reasonable and if a hero had an issues with "taking an order they disagreed with", they thought they would be forced to compile when every civilized military has a conscientious objector clause. In Justice League Unlimited, I pissed off a lot of fans when I said that Waller was right to be concerned that the JL were operating a space laser that could be used on the earth. I don't like how writers always give her really bad plans though.
Justice Gang stopping an invasion? Now that was cathartic to see.
Some writers understand the rightwing problem with superhereos and either avoid it or address it. Some people give Batman some billionaires to fight. Other times, they reinforce the rightwing problem with whatever the fuck Frank Miller was doing.
like say, when captain america punched hitler? or was hitler just a villain because the writers made him kill so we can keep the status quo
Ever read Worm?
Worm is too dark for me. Couldn't bring myself to power through it. Like, the world's already going to hell as it is, I don't need my escapist fiction to also be going to hell with cosmic horror thrown on top.
Those true evils often hide their motivation behind a "justifiable evil". It's basically modern politics. Most often in display in the US, but infects many, if not most, governments around the world.
Just because someone presents a supposedly logical and rational argument, doesn't necessarily mean either that they believe it, or that the argument is actually based in factual analysis.
Pop-Culture detective also has a good video essay about this too: Marvel: Defenders of the Status Quo (based on work by David Graeber, I believe)
That's also how the real world works. Trump is often quite good at identifying real problems with society, but all of his "solutions" are some combination of evil, stupid and/or insane.
Just because someone is good at criticizing doesn't mean they have good intentions or the wherewithal to architect a better society.
Trump just regurgitates what his base wants to hear. I doubt there's a single independent thought in his head anymore.
What? I’ve only heard Trump say shit like crime is out of control when statistically it’s the opposite.
I rarely if ever hear him address real problems.
It's kind of a broken clock / twice per day situation. He says so much shit that some of it inevitably ends up being right. Some years ago he said something along the lines of quarterly business reporting requirements being a major cause of short sightedness in publicly traded companies. But then he never did anything with that, and he said like 10 other fucked up things that day.
Yeah, this has always felt like propaganda to me. Present really solid arguments and then attach it to the character that murders toddlers or something to discredit the concept.
I think I heard of a similar cirque of Avatar's Amon.
Kay and skittles has a good leftist breakdown of each of the Korra villains, for those that are into that sort of thing 😳
xmen97 played this well. Magneto was angry but otherwise good. And then he snapped. But it wasn't a long con, he was reformed. And then someone tried to genocide his adopted nation and he snapped. Can't really blame him for that.
Let's not forget the empire vaporizing multiple inhabited planets
There were rebels there using the rest of the population as human shields.
I think that makes this even more accurate. Authoritarians can only take over a democracy due to just how angry people are with the current establishment. MAGA is the same way, it's fueled by people who can FEEL that something is terribly wrong with the world, but aren't smart enough to know why. Hate and anger is a large part of it, but the weakness and complacency of the current establishment isn't making it any harder for them. I remember a lot of people voted for trump in 2024 just cause he sounded a lot different than the usual guys. More disruptive and up-front about his thoughts. In actuality that's because he has no respect love for anything except money, but they were too delusional to know that.
All they needed to say was "We are different and we will govern stronger" and people were tricked into thinking that meant they were better.