the earth doesn't deserve superman

[Adekis]

Let's pretend there was some hypothetical, imaginary, completely heinous American Presidential administration.

Let's say like, that '80s Lex Luthor was President, right? That awful Lex.

6BtrGQE.jpg

The kind of person who could never get elected in real life, right? But this is a comic book, so it doesn't have to be realistic. Let's just pretend we elected an evil President.

Let's pretend that President Luthor had decided to, say, put children in cages for months, or had soldiers use tear gas on kids. Maybe this hypothetical '80s businessman President Luthor was interfering in free elections, repeatedly, in an attempt to stay in power, and had publicly talked about that fact. Now I know this is not what happened when Luthor was actually President back in the early '00s, but let's just pretend.

Let's say that for some reason, like say, starting in like the '70s or '80s there was a long-running series of misinformation campaigns started by, I don't know, somebody like G. Gordon Godfrey, which led to super-villainy being more and more normalized, allowing rich, powerful people with no morals, to stay rich and powerful at the expense of everyone else.

And let's say that because of that campaign, the United States Congress was comprised of enough super-villains that President Luthor had a lot of allies within the system, and they refused to remove him from office in the normal, legal way, and moreover, maybe a not insignificant number of American citizens think that that's a good thing, because they drank the cool-aid that Godfrey was giving them since like, the '70s or '80s, right?

Godfrey probably even has a whole news network all devoted to that kind of misleading news, with a punchy, memorable name. I don't know, I can't think of what they'd call a network like that. Maybe something alluding to his general wiliness, I don't know, that's just one idea.

But maybe because of Godfrey's media presence, when journalists like Clark Kent and Lois Lane shed light on the fact that President Luthor is lying to the American people constantly, you know, it's not like people don't believe them, most people kinda know it, but it doesn't really seem to make a difference, or impact Luthor's polls too much, because his supporters are going to support him no matter what.

Because the people who watch Godfrey's news station, they only get their news from that source, or from other sources which are on board with that sort of misinformation, right?

Maybe Luthor even hires some people who work for super-villain news networks that are even more gung-ho for the villainy thing than Godfrey openly is, because Godfrey knows there's a limit for most people, right? He wants to influence people toward evil like, slowly, and subtly.

But other more extreme networks sprung up in his wake, networks that support people like, say, Ultra-Humanite, or Captain Nazi, people you'd never expect the American public to support. And Luthor hired people who worked for that network.

And now say maybe there was like a super-villain rally or event, of some kind, run by Captain Nazi, and President Luthor actually went out and supported Captain Nazi and his henchmen, live on TV, and publicly condemned the people who protested and opposed them, even though one of those protesters was murdered live on tape by some kind of evil super-villain vehicle driving into them.

So at this point, it really seems like Luthor ought to be removed from office, but again, the senate is full of villains, so that's just not happening. Most of them probably aren't on Captain Nazi's level, that's true, but they're all willing to stand by Luthor after he called Captain Nazi's henchmen "very fine people," or something like that.

I mean I know that's all ridiculous, and something like that could never happen in real life, but these are comic book characters, super-heroes, it doesn't all have to be realistic!



So what do you think Superman would do in a situation like that? What should he do? What's the moral course of action here?



Look man, I don't know. It would be a complex situation, if something like that were ever to happen, even in a comic book, to say nothing about real life. But I know this much:

Superman wouldn't hold the American voting public accountable for Luthor's actions in office, just because they were mislead by decades worth of media campaigns normalizing immoral thoughts and behaviors. And if you think that he should, maybe you ought to learn some compassion, mate, which is the exact sort of trait that I imagine those imaginary people who voted for Lex Luthor probably lack.

[Jon Clark]

Let's say that Adekis' Luthor was elected by 80% of the voters. Do the 20% who voted for someone else deserve to be punished for what Lex's administration did? Would Superman have to determine who someone voted for before saving them?

Now what if the other choices for president had been Darkseid, The Joker, and Ambush Bug? I mean Lex can always be the lesser of some evils. At the very least of that group he is least likely to destroy the planet.

[NaVi]

Let's pretend there was some hypothetical, imaginary, completely heinous American Presidential administration.

Let's say like, that '80s Lex Luthor was President, right? That awful Lex.

6BtrGQE.jpg

The kind of person who could never get elected in real life, right? But this is a comic book, so it doesn't have to be realistic. Let's just pretend we elected an evil President.

Let's pretend that President Luthor had decided to, say, put children in cages for months, or had soldiers use tear gas on kids. Maybe this hypothetical '80s businessman President Luthor was interfering in free elections, repeatedly, in an attempt to stay in power, and had publicly talked about that fact. Now I know this is not what happened when Luthor was actually President back in the early '00s, but let's just pretend.

Let's say that for some reason, like say, starting in like the '70s or '80s there was a long-running series of misinformation campaigns started by, I don't know, somebody like G. Gordon Godfrey, which led to super-villainy being more and more normalized, allowing rich, powerful people with no morals, to stay rich and powerful at the expense of everyone else.

And let's say that because of that campaign, the United States Congress was comprised of enough super-villains that President Luthor had a lot of allies within the system, and they refused to remove him from office in the normal, legal way, and moreover, maybe a not insignificant number of American citizens think that that's a good thing, because they drank the cool-aid that Godfrey was giving them since like, the '70s or '80s, right?

Godfrey probably even has a whole news network all devoted to that kind of misleading news, with a punchy, memorable name. I don't know, I can't think of what they'd call a network like that. Maybe something alluding to his general wiliness, I don't know, that's just one idea.

But maybe because of Godfrey's media presence, when journalists like Clark Kent and Lois Lane shed light on the fact that President Luthor is lying to the American people constantly, you know, it's not like people don't believe them, most people kinda know it, but it doesn't really seem to make a difference, or impact Luthor's polls too much, because his supporters are going to support him no matter what.

Because the people who watch Godfrey's news station, they only get their news from that source, or from other sources which are on board with that sort of misinformation, right?

Maybe Luthor even hires some people who work for super-villain news networks that are even more gung-ho for the villainy thing than Godfrey openly is, because Godfrey knows there's a limit for most people, right? He wants to influence people toward evil like, slowly, and subtly.

But other more extreme networks sprung up in his wake, networks that support people like, say, Ultra-Humanite, or Captain Nazi, people you'd never expect the American public to support. And Luthor hired people who worked for that network.

And now say maybe there was like a super-villain rally or event, of some kind, run by Captain Nazi, and President Luthor actually went out and supported Captain Nazi and his henchmen, live on TV, and publicly condemned the people who protested and opposed them, even though one of those protesters was murdered live on tape by some kind of evil super-villain vehicle driving into them.

So at this point, it really seems like Luthor ought to be removed from office, but again, the senate is full of villains, so that's just not happening. Most of them probably aren't on Captain Nazi's level, that's true, but they're all willing to stand by Luthor after he called Captain Nazi's henchmen "very fine people," or something like that.

I mean I know that's all ridiculous, and something like that could never happen in real life, but these are comic book characters, super-heroes, it doesn't all have to be realistic!



So what do you think Superman would do in a situation like that? What should he do? What's the moral course of action here?



Look man, I don't know. It would be a complex situation, if something like that were ever to happen, even in a comic book, to say nothing about real life. But I know this much:

Superman wouldn't hold the American voting public accountable for Luthor's actions in office, just because they were mislead by decades worth of media campaigns normalizing immoral thoughts and behaviors. And if you think that he should, maybe you ought to learn some compassion, mate, which is the exact sort of trait that I imagine those imaginary people who voted for Lex Luthor probably lack.

While Superman has compassion for a stupid species that votes for a psychopath, knowing that he is a psychopath, countless worlds are destroyed. Nothing is free in this life, compassion must be earned, if you give unlimited power to a psychopath, knowing that he is a psychopath, you do not deserve compassion, you are just as bad as him, if you vote for Mahatma Gandhi but it turns out that he is a psychopath , then deserves compassion. the reality is that in dc (marves is even worse) the people in the public eye a lot worship the heroes, but they always turn a blind eye to the government attacks (which they chose) it's time for a Kingdom Come canon.

[OpaqueGiraffe17]

For better or worse, it isn’t the nicest guy who wins, it’s usually the most charismatic one.

[Powerboy]

Let's pretend there was some hypothetical, imaginary, completely heinous American Presidential administration.

Let's say like, that '80s Lex Luthor was President, right? That awful Lex.

6BtrGQE.jpg

The kind of person who could never get elected in real life, right? But this is a comic book, so it doesn't have to be realistic. Let's just pretend we elected an evil President.

Let's pretend that President Luthor had decided to, say, put children in cages for months, or had soldiers use tear gas on kids. Maybe this hypothetical '80s businessman President Luthor was interfering in free elections, repeatedly, in an attempt to stay in power, and had publicly talked about that fact. Now I know this is not what happened when Luthor was actually President back in the early '00s, but let's just pretend.

Let's say that for some reason, like say, starting in like the '70s or '80s there was a long-running series of misinformation campaigns started by, I don't know, somebody like G. Gordon Godfrey, which led to super-villainy being more and more normalized, allowing rich, powerful people with no morals, to stay rich and powerful at the expense of everyone else.

And let's say that because of that campaign, the United States Congress was comprised of enough super-villains that President Luthor had a lot of allies within the system, and they refused to remove him from office in the normal, legal way, and moreover, maybe a not insignificant number of American citizens think that that's a good thing, because they drank the cool-aid that Godfrey was giving them since like, the '70s or '80s, right?

Godfrey probably even has a whole news network all devoted to that kind of misleading news, with a punchy, memorable name. I don't know, I can't think of what they'd call a network like that. Maybe something alluding to his general wiliness, I don't know, that's just one idea.

But maybe because of Godfrey's media presence, when journalists like Clark Kent and Lois Lane shed light on the fact that President Luthor is lying to the American people constantly, you know, it's not like people don't believe them, most people kinda know it, but it doesn't really seem to make a difference, or impact Luthor's polls too much, because his supporters are going to support him no matter what.

Because the people who watch Godfrey's news station, they only get their news from that source, or from other sources which are on board with that sort of misinformation, right?

Maybe Luthor even hires some people who work for super-villain news networks that are even more gung-ho for the villainy thing than Godfrey openly is, because Godfrey knows there's a limit for most people, right? He wants to influence people toward evil like, slowly, and subtly.

But other more extreme networks sprung up in his wake, networks that support people like, say, Ultra-Humanite, or Captain Nazi, people you'd never expect the American public to support. And Luthor hired people who worked for that network.

And now say maybe there was like a super-villain rally or event, of some kind, run by Captain Nazi, and President Luthor actually went out and supported Captain Nazi and his henchmen, live on TV, and publicly condemned the people who protested and opposed them, even though one of those protesters was murdered live on tape by some kind of evil super-villain vehicle driving into them.

So at this point, it really seems like Luthor ought to be removed from office, but again, the senate is full of villains, so that's just not happening. Most of them probably aren't on Captain Nazi's level, that's true, but they're all willing to stand by Luthor after he called Captain Nazi's henchmen "very fine people," or something like that.

I mean I know that's all ridiculous, and something like that could never happen in real life, but these are comic book characters, super-heroes, it doesn't all have to be realistic!



So what do you think Superman would do in a situation like that? What should he do? What's the moral course of action here?



Look man, I don't know. It would be a complex situation, if something like that were ever to happen, even in a comic book, to say nothing about real life. But I know this much:

Superman wouldn't hold the American voting public accountable for Luthor's actions in office, just because they were mislead by decades worth of media campaigns normalizing immoral thoughts and behaviors. And if you think that he should, maybe you ought to learn some compassion, mate, which is the exact sort of trait that I imagine those imaginary people who voted for Lex Luthor probably lack.

The real problem, of course, is that nobody sees themselves as the villains. So our people that are voting for this alternate reality modern day President Luthor think they are making the right choice because these other people are crazy worrying about racism when it doesn't exist anymore and it's just agitators keeping it going and worrying about the environment when we aren't hurting it and we don't see any evidence except for stuff that's all made up regardless of what all the actual scientists say. What do they know? Besides, they're part of the global conspiracy to destroy America which they hate. And these bleeding hearts worrying about separating families? Cry me a river. Can't they see that these little snots are really commie terrorist agents sent to hurt us?

I would think even Superman would feel fear at how easily people can be manipulated into casting out all compassion and twisting reality with their paranoid conspiracy theories and rationalizations when the people opposing them are the ones fighting for the American Ideal. Of course, he should protect people without asking who they voted for. But that's not the same as making his own positions clear nor should he defend corrupt institutions.

All of which puts the writers in impossible situations when they deal with something designed to resemble the real world. Look at the Supergirl season about aliens from space taking jobs. Half the posts were about how great it was and half from conservatives saying "Supergirl" has no respect for them and doesn't want them to watch her show.

I tend to side with a fictional character I'll call Robert Doleman who said, if you think this party is a home for racists and other bigots, there's the door. Of course, the problem was Doleman lost in a landslide while "Luthor" technically won.