Comic books have always been political. That’s their argument. They push it even further by saying all art is political, and they’ll cherry-pick specific comic book panels to gaslight you into believing that every single title you’ve ever enjoyed is–and always has been–propagandized, all to get you to shut up and swallow Current Year propaganda.
For example, they’ll show you Captain America punching Hitler, and then pretend like he always punches Hitler in every panel of every issue.
It’s a lot like how they cite an ambiguous, minor, and ultimately inconsequential moment in the first issue of Uncanny X-Men as clear evidence that Iceman is not only gay, but that he was always gay, while conveniently ignoring the fact that almost every single issue since (over the next thirty-five years) has proven time and time again that he clearly wasn’t, including issue #2.
Back in the “old days”–let’s say 1993 and back–radicals would go rogue and write an insanely politicized comic book script every now and then, typically done for shock value (and as a way to trojan horse radical politics into the minds of young people). Comic book readers would kind of roll their eyes and tolerate it because they enjoyed the overall character and franchise, even if they felt the occasional issue was written a bit too ham-fisted.
Now almost all the writers have gone radical and have carte blanche to write whatever nonsense they want. The result? While Captain America might have punched Hitler a few times in the past, he now has to punch Hitler in every single issue as many times as possible.
Which, as you can imagine, gets old very fast. One might even say painfully “boring”.
And since these radical writers were indoctrinated from a young age to think of everything in terms of gender and skin color, the characters who used to be your heroes (and save everyone because it was the right thing to do) are now sexist and racist at all times, letting bad ideologies skew their decision-making into misguided moves that are anything but moral.
The other difference between today and yesterday is that U.S. society has never been so politically divided. Not since the Civil War. (And contrary to popular belief, the Civil War was not started over slavery.)
But hey. Comics were always like they are right now. And if you think otherwise, you’re stupid and bigoted. (Or… maybe different interpretations are okay?)
I promise you can be friends with someone who doesn’t think the same as you politically but is passionate about the same hobbies you are. All you have to do is leave politics at the door and not act like some clap-emoji jackass.
In fact, common ground used to be a great way to meet people, such as chatting up a fellow dog owner or sharing workshop tips with other woodworkers.
But as I demonstrated in the previous post regarding the comic book collecting community, many have been indoctrinated to the point where they feel the need to constantly push their politics onto others, punishing and ultimately forcing out anyone who doesn’t interpret stories the exact same way they do. And they’ll even call you stupid or racist or many other names for thinking otherwise.
Take the recent issue with Shad M. Brooks of Shadiversity, who is one of the kindest, friendliest sword, castle, and overall mediaeval enthusiasts that ever walked this Earth. He’s a great teacher and scholar, and it would behoove anyone writing fantasy to pay attention to what this guy has to say.
It seems a fellow sword enthusiast and longtime colleague of his, Matt, was collaborating on a project with him only for the friend to suddenly bury the project, drop all contact with Shad, and block him out of nowhere, which broke Shad’s heart.
Turned out a few Karens in Matt’s audience were “concerned” that Shad dare have some opinions right of Mao (which Shad kept separate from his main YouTube channel). These Karens warned Matt they would unfollow him if he continued to associate with Shad.
The rules are simple: Associate with someone who has normal (ie: non-radical) political beliefs and you get a scarlet letter. We can’t have friendships across the aisle. Not in Current Year.
This kind of poisoned logic has infected everything from Warhammer 40k to online knitting circles. You can’t enjoy a hobby and also be right-wing, or even moderate. You have to either be full-on left and accept every one of their arguments as gospel truth, learn to ignore them in a zen-like fashion, or vigorously utilize the mute button. Because if you dare voice even one of your disagreements (as I’ve also previously demonstrated), they’ll blacklist you and boot you out for good.
Like Sailor Moon but you’re not a feminist? Too bad. In the early 90’s you could talk about the show and manga all you wanted; You could share your collections with the fandom, listen to the imported music, create fan art, write fanfiction, and even share your unique story interpretations. Everyone got along.
These days? Expect rainbows (Haruka and Michiru), themes of grrl power, cross dressing (the Starlights, Haruka, and Zoicite), female empowerment, and feminism to shoehorn themselves into nearly every conversation.
This series got hit especially hard as woke ground-zero because of the nature of the show, and because the 90’s voice dub censored the script in sensible ways that aligned with Western culture, such as removing nudity and cusswords.
That’s right, DiC dared dub each episode with the understanding that young children would be watching. They understood the Overton Window hadn’t shifted far enough left in 1991 to teach 6-year-old girls about cross-dressing and lesbianism on syndicated TV.
Shocker.
Not measuring up to Current Year standards (30 years later), however, was their fatal sin according to the die-hard wine-aunt fans who are still around today. Of course, they ironically grew up loving the “awful” DiC dubs and would have never fallen in love with the franchise in the first place if it weren’t for DiC. But DiC‘s dub was just “one more chain of systemic oppression” holding back women from “sexual liberation”, I guess.
Here’s what I find the most mind-bending regarding all of this: Let’s say you’ve read comic books all your life. Okay?
And you look at the “you missed the point” list I was talking about in the previous post (It begins with: “If you didn’t understand that X-Men was about the Civil Rights Movement, you missed the point.”).
Let’s say it mirrors your politics as an adult perfectly. Like, every single point checks out. You agree with it all.
If comic books shaped and sculpted you to the point where every bit of its propaganda was successful in reprogramming who you are and what you believe in, then your parents didn’t raise you; the Bible didn’t raise you. — Comic books did. Pop culture did.
If I had read comic books my whole life and found myself agreeing with every single one of those bulletpoints, it would be cause for some serious self-reflection. I’d have to start wondering how susceptible my mind is to programming and propaganda.
If that’s you, I’d start reflecting hard, wondering how impressionable (and maybe even gullible) you’ve been your whole life. Why isn’t there any nuance between your beliefs and what you were indoctrinated to believe?
So I ask again: What has happened to independent and critical thinking?
Nick Enlowe 