#but yeah. remember to boycott disney.

[shurisneakers]

being on this webbed site and seeing 2 levels of media legacy is insane. supernatural trends every week and a meme from its penultimate episode 4 years ago has become a permanent part of the culture here. every major news story has castiel's face before an actual article.

on the other hand you couldn't escape the mcu from 2014 to 2020. sebastian stan was tumblrs boyfriend for years. the newest mcu movie dropped on friday and i haven't seen a single post about it. they just announced that rdj whose character died in 2019 is coming back as one of their flagship villains in a movie directed by the same guys who directed Avengers 3 and 4. crickets.

[masterhallmark]

Credit for discovery: @misscloudiedays

So a lot of people are confused as to how Epic Mickey Rebrushed meaning Disney probably isn't getting profits works, so let me explain real quick:

What's the Sitch?

If you go to the Steam Page, Disney is not publishing EM Rebrushed themselves like they did with the original EM games, another company ,THQ Nordic, whom Disney does not own is.

This likely means they sold the licensing rights to that company rather than accepting profit cuts.

How this works

Copyright holders often do this if they think the product would make less profits than what they sold the licensing rights for. For example, this happened with the author of the Witcher books, who thought the games would flop and sold the licensing rights instead of accepting a percentage of the profits. He later acted like the victim when the games actually ended up being wildly successful. This also happened to the writer of the American Pokemon Theme Song, who didn't know the Pokemon franchise was going to go on for decades and remain popular, though he was more chill about it and worked something out.

Basically, Disney likely had so little faith in the game, they chose to sell instead of accept profits, which would mean whether you buy or pirate the game wouldn't affect them, since they would have already gotten the agreed upon amount, and they'd probably piss themselves if the profits Purple Lamp gets is more than what they sold it for.

Would they actually do that?

For anyone who questions if Disney would really be dumb enough to do this, REMEMBER THIS IS THE COMPANY WHO:

SHUT DOWN AND ENTIRE VIDEO GAME DEVELOPMENT COMPANY JUST BECAUSE EPIC MICKEY 2 DIDN'T MAKE AS MUCH MONEY AS EPIC MICKEY 1

THOUGHT PEOPLE WOULD ABANDON CONSOLE GAMING IN FAVOR OF MOBILE GAMING

THOUGHT KINGDOM HEARTS COULDN'T POSSIBLY HAVE SEQUELS

HAD A CEO WHO THOUGHT ADULTS DON'T ENJOY CARTOONS

AND THE MOST RECENT BLUNDER OF ALL, THOUGHT DISNEY FANS WOULD PREFER A LUMA KNOCKOFF OVER STARBOY IN WISH, BECAUSE THEY WANTED A MARKETABLE PLUSHIE

Yeah, I think they're that dumb.

Bottom Line

For those participating in the Disney boycott, it is probably safe to get the game, and will not be a breach of your boycott. Buying the game would instead show support to those who actually care about the game while not benefitting the company that abandoned it.

That being said, this is not guaranteed to be completely correct. Keep an eye on things as it develops, and make your own decisions on the matter.

[goddes-of-texposts]

Always remember that you have power, even when you think you don’t.

I cannot protest the genocides going on right now, not physically at least.

You know what I do instead? I boycott. McDonald’s, Apple, Starbucks, Disney… yeah you’re not seeing a single cent from me for the next 4 decades.

I inform, I share, I post on my instagram stories, I reblog.

I see mutuals of mine begin to repost and talk about Palestine, Congo, I have friends or acquaintances in my dms asking me “hey, what does this mean?”

My best friend was not aware of the happenings in Palestine until I started sharing posts on instagram. Wanna know how he reacted?

“Children dying? That’s fucking horrific!! What’s going on?” And I tell him, and he does his research.

Being more able bodied than I am, he goes to protests, he donates what he can, god, I love him.

My aunt used to believe “oh, the state of Israel deserves to exist.”

She didn’t know, after enough blown up buildings, after seeing the countless hospitals attacked, she now thinks: “I have a little baby daughter. If I were in Gaza right now, she would be dead.”

She donates and boycotts and shares.

My Grandmother lives with her, my grandmother was starting to lean conservative, because of my aunt relaying information, after hearing her favourite politician say “Hamas is committing genocide against Israel”, she was mortified and has now changed her vote to a representative condemning actual genocide.

Do you see how this spreads? Do you see your power? I may have influenced only 3 or 4 people directly, but a drop in an ocean still causes ripples.

[gryficowa]

Boycott!

It pisses me off that people care more about the fact that Snow White doesn't have pale skin than that there's a fucking genocide going on in the world (By the way, fucking boycott Disney because they helped Israel financially)

But you can see that there are more important things, remember the Olympics? Instead of being concerned about Israel being allowed, people got more outraged because they thought the drag queen was parodying an image of Jesus and not mythology… Yeah, that was fucking more important to them and it still pisses me off

It pisses me off that bullshit like this makes people look away from the genocide going on in the world and it's fucked up, stop fucking looking away, I understand, you want to feel better, but while you're doing something else, don't forget about Gaza, Congo , Sudan, Haiti, Syria, Ukraine… Just don't forget about them, I'm begging you

Now that I have your word:

[mavcancees]

How do u feel abt dteam going to disney? I cant remember exactly what the consensus on disney was regarding the boycott

it's preeetty low on my personal boycott list, i think consumables are much more of a priority. the streaming service actually ranks way higher than the place, but even then it's like. eh. it doesn't move the needle in the way starbucks and mcdonalds and sodastream do ( there's a long explanation about this somewhere )

going to the place is like, yeah you could choose not to go but it's negligible politics wise compared to f.e. them not ordering mcd anymore. or in dream's case straight up calling it a genocide

i think yes being mindful and aboiding things and actively boycotting as much as you can is good and ideal. but at this late stage in the entire thing. i care more about direct donations and explicit stances than boycotting ( to the exception of the top like 5 or 10 bds list but those are outrageously bad and they know about it so )

hope this made sense lol tldr i don't care

[florencesthoughtdump]

oh yeah , since ive been reading pjo , and the shows coming out soon please try pirating it and cancelling your disney plus subscription ! rick riordan is neutral on the situation (or a zionist — i dont remember) and disney actively supports israel . it would be incredibly difficult to fully boycott disney as they own so many different companies , but just try giving them less money . follow the bds movements boycott list , as targeted boycotts work better (also they list disney as s company to put under pressure) . if you dont own the books but want to read them , go to your local library , or find an online pdf . and if youre asking why you should do all this , i think you simply boycotting some companies and pirating a show is a lot less hard than the 75 years of oppression and genocide palestinians face .

BDS MOVEMENT (the first is shorter and more organized to just show the companies , the second has a bit more info on targetted boycotts , also it doesnt mention it on the list but also boycott starbucks and mcdonalds !) : https://bdsmovement.net/get-involved/what-to-boycott

https://bdsmovement.net/Act-Now-Against-These-Companies-Profiting-From-Genocide

[extraaa-30]

PJO & Palestine pt. 2

This is going to unpack some bullshit I've seen about Rick Riordan. For pt. 1 about why "boycotting Disney" is not actually the thing you need to be doing right now, go here.

Imma try to keep it brief this time <3

In addition to the misleading info about Disney as a boycott target, I've seen some ridiculously facile takes about boycotting the show because of Rick Riordan.

As far as I can tell, the drama stems mostly from this blog post, where he shares his (fairly tepid but still principled) view of Palestine and Israel.

Here are some key takeaways:

The blog post is from Oct 17, 2023. Only ten days into the genocide, and with plenty of attention still lingering on Oct 7 worldwide. As far as I know, he hasn't shared any updated reactions

Should he? Maybe. Here's what he has to say about it in the blog post:

He goes on to talk about having readers in both Israel & Palestine:

Maybe you think he should pick a side. Maybe you're sick of both-sideism and if you see one more media take equating Israeli grief to Palestinian grief during a motherfucking genocide you will launch yourself into the sun. Rick goes on:

I don't know what you were expecting from a children's author whose overarching theme is, "You might think you know who the monsters are, but be careful; black-and-white thinking like that reduces us all."

[SPOILERS for non book readers] In PJO, Percy ultimately agrees with Luke that the system is unjust and can't remain as it is. Luke's willingness to sacrifice the lives of their friends is the thing he can't support.

The series deeply explores questions of monsters vs. victims, how our circumstances shape us, institutional injustice...

I get the anger when people, especially celebrities and the media, use calls for nuance to avoid taking a stand. I don't think it's accurate to say that's what's happening here.

I said I'd keep this short and I've obviously failed, so let's get to the most damning part of Rick's blog post:

This is what has people calling him a Zionist. And do I kinda hate it? Yeah, I do. That line "security and support" is propaganda that Israel has spent 75+ years feeding into the global media machine. I also hate that the overwhelmingly pathetic response of most public figures has conditioned me to be impressed by breadcrumbs like 'Palestine should also be secure and supported and free.'

So there you have it. Rick's opinions from 10 days into what has become a 100+ day genocide.

Maybe this all sounds unforgivably centrist to you, and that's your right. You don't have to engage with his stories. Approaching content with an eye to the author's real positions and attitudes is a healthy way to interpret media critically.

However, I'd really like people to remember two things:

This is not a JKR situation. Watching the show does not give money to someone who actively uses their platform to spread hate.

If this is about your own media purity, I have bad news for you. Literally none of your faves are perfect, and neither are you. Trying to only interact with un-cancellable media is futile, discourse-killing, and self-absorbed at a time when there are more important things we should be doing.

Ultimately, the choice of whether to engage with content from someone whose views you don't agree with is your own. You get to decide where to draw that line.

I, personally, can respect a lot of what Rick says here. He's a children's author using his platform to speak to children. He has his eye on the long game. He still emphatically argues for a free Palestine.

There have been other betrayals from other artists that I couldn't tolerate. It's a personal choice.

So please, stop shaming people for watching this silly little show. Stop trying to police how others engage with media that isn't hurting anyone.

There's work to be done.

[headmate-packages]

A package has arrived for you! Open it?

Shipping #00001101

📮💌📦

Shipping number: 00001101 (13)

Name(s): Nicholas, Victor or Archer

Nickname(s): Nick, Victory, or Archery

Orientation: Omnisexual

Pronouns: he/him + com/pete/tionself + win/ner/winself

Species: Greek halfblood/demigod

Godly parent: Nike

Age/range: 15

Gender: male Role: motivation holder

Interests: sports, especially swimming and volleyball, the kitten bowl

Frontcalls: Anything competitive from silly games to sports

Likes: Literally anything that's not supposed to be a sport that people make competitive like “competitive knitting”

Dislikes: Losing ⁉️

Appearance: Definitely on the tall side, he had a light tan and dark brown hair. Win has no acne and has light brown eyes. Petes hair is relatively short and straight. He has a mole above his lip

Extra: His response to practically anything is “Just do it” Check here for the list of traits or abilities any Nike child has, the special one he has is wink manipulation

Sign off ✔️or 🏆

Fears: Dying Happy place: Camp and anywhere that does archery

Hobbies: Archery, working out

Passion: Inspiring others, especially those close to him, not to be losers

Favorite memory: Winning an archery competitions 💯

Headspace Room:

Best friends: An Apollo child named Justin and Identical twins from the Nike cabin named Cody and Toby

Family: Nike, All the Nike children, and a dad named James

Backstory: His memories before camp halfblood are very few. Basically everything he remembers is time spent in the Nike cabin and with family

Handwriting:

Image ID: Handwriting in black ink on lined paper. A blue pen lays in the bottom of the image. I cannot read the handwriting.

Letter:

Yoo, I'm.. me ‼‼ I'm pretty fuckin cool tbh yeah. I'm uh. AWESOME💯 I'm like, the best archer around. I like being active, I like video games, I like hanging out with people, i like solo workout and uhh yeah, .I like pretty much everything tbh. Just do it, yk 😎😎😎😎 legit

-me lol

This member comes with a warning. Disney and Rick Riordian are both to be boycotted. They are both in support of Is(not)rael during their genocide on Palestine. (Rick is "in support of both" but you cannot realistically support someone genociding someone else in any situation)

Boycott them. Do not pay them. Pirate their works.

Nike (shoe company) is also on the boycott list.

[strawberryfaced]

hey with the release of inside out 2 please remember to boycott disney!!!!!!! your reminder they have literally pledged $2 million for humanitarian aid in Israel!!!! and also while you’re relaxing in your sofa watching a movie Palestinians are out there getting their heads blown off. also if that’s not enough they are also getting SA’d by trained dogs. YEAH. they are full on training DOGS to SA people!!!! so the least some of you could do is just spend a mere hour and 30 minutes doing something other than supporting a stupid company who literally supports people getting tortured by trained animals!!!!! yeah

[nami-moittli]

Probably unpopular opinion about the PJO show

But I didn’t really like it, and I don’t plan on watching the second season when it comes out

If you like the show, fine. Great even! Like what you like, but to me it was okay at best. Maybe I’m just being a “book purist” but I didn’t really like a ton of the changes in the show to the books.

Like, minor detail that I feel like everyone forgets: Mrs. Dodds wasn’t a substitute teacher, she was an actual teacher at the school (Percy says he remembers that there was a math teacher before Mrs. Dodds, but not for very long) doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but that’s one that I wanted to point out even if I don’t have any real problem with it

Crucify me if you want but I had no idea what was going on with Medusa and I’ve grown to dislike her characterization (it’s actually a pretty recent thing that Athena blessed her, but even then Medusa hated Athena?? Also the version where she was r*ped was written by a man who has had a track record of portraying the (especially) female gods in a bad light. Please Rick, just go back to the original version, it’s so much less confusing)

It felt like Annabeth lost her love of architecture, yes I know she had that scene where she was rambling about the Arc, but to me it felt more like she was praising her mom which is why she liked it so much, I don’t think Grover even said anything like, “sorry about her, she’s super into architecture”. I feel like such a big part of her was slipped under the rug. And the thing at Hephaestus’s water park where Percy was trapped in the door felt less like she liked the architecture and more like she liked the machinery. Not to say she couldn’t like both, but I just don’t like it

And don’t even get me started on episode 7

I could very easily go on, but I don’t feel like it

Not to say I don’t like the actors or their performances! I just don’t like the directions and scripts given to the actors

I wanted an adaptation to my favorite book series, not a rewrite

Example: I love the musical adaptation of PJO, but it has changes and cut scenes, but I don’t mind because again, it’s an actual adaptation of the series!

And again, if you like the show, feel free to! I’m just a random person on the internet who feels like sharing their opinion.

(Also, side note, I recommend The Mythology Guy’s videos on the PJO series for a more critical view on the show. I don’t agree with everything he says and have some of my own opinions on things, but I agree with a lot of his views on things! I recommend them a lot)

So yeah, with the fact that we’re going to be getting a new character in the second season, I’m most likely not going to watch it (at least, by myself. Me and my mom watched the first season together, so if she wants to watch it together again then I will probably watch it. Probably won’t like it very much though 🤷‍♀️)

Anyway, like what you like and remember to boycott Disney

[rainofaugustsith]

As a Xennial who was an adolescent/young adult in the 1990s and early 2000s, there's something I wanted to point out in regards to rainbow capitalism and the current business boycotts from the right. I said this as a reblog to another post, but also wanted to make my own. Don't like seeing Wells Fargo and Starbucks at Pride? Cool, go back to the 1990s when companies were scared shitless about being there. This was not a good thing. If a brand DARED to support LGBT+ anything in the 1990s, these Christian/right wing groups would hound them with boycotts and calls and browbeat them. Hence, most companies did not publicly support LGBT+ community, or if they did it was in the most subtle way possible to avoid notice of the rabid moral crusaders. Some, like Disney (yes really) quietly did things like extending benefits to same-gender partners of employees (remember, in the 1990s there was no marriage equality), but that wasn't the same as, say, publicly putting their trademarked characters in rainbow clothing.

Actors could check a box about not auditioning for gay roles on some casting profiles because if they played a gay character it might end their career or curtail it (and it did for some - see Laura Dern for a while after she played a lesbian on Ellen). Which is also why you got situations like Nathan Lane being terrified Oprah would bring up his sexuality during a "Birdcage" interview.

Openly putting the rainbow on their products, openly showing up at Pride events, openly being sponsors for LGBT+ events, openly deciding to support the LGBT+ community over the homophobes was a sea change. It meant the companies were more committed to supporting LGBT+ and recognizing them than bowing to bigotry. It meant gay people were seen as socially acceptable. Were they trying to make money? Yeah, of course. But it was still a monumental shift. The playbook the right wing is using right now is familiar to those of us who remember the 1990s: browbeating and intimidating brands, making them fear for their employees, making their customer service people field thousands of hateful calls, and trying to return to a time when there was too much fear to support the community. I don't normally buy a lot of stuff. But this week I bought stuff from Petco and Kohl's and Disney and other companies I normally don't really shop from. I sent supportive emails to others, thanking them for supporting the LGBT+ community this month. Because while there are a lot of things I liked about the 1990s, the fucking homophobic intimidation of LGBT+ supportive companies was not one of them.

[pizzazzterbi]

Not to be that asshole but this is specific to union members. You’re effectively pushing for a boycott, which is SPECIFICALLY what they don’t want. That advice? That’s for union influencers, because yeah, no shit SAG is the influencers’ union. You can absolutely cosplay as those characters if you are non-union, and it will actually probably help the strike, provided you do not accept money to do so. Bitching and moaning about shows taking so long and being delayed is actively GOOD for the strike, so long as the focus is on the bastards who don’t come to the table.

Remember this for when car prices get fucked up in September: if the union didn’t ask for a boycott, you clamor and demand for more and you make it clear that it’s on the management to fix their shit. Same goes for transportation, same goes for rail, hell, same goes for electrical if IEW ever goes for a big one again. That’s how this fucking works. It’s workers AND consumers.

That all being said, if they ask for a boycott, fucking do it, but that won’t be how this strike goes. Boycotts and strikes don’t often play nice, because they’re creating opposite pressures. Lack of supply and lack of demand isn’t nearly the problem that roiling, furious demand and no fucking supply is for the greedy buggers, so make it clear what you want: good, union work, fairly compensated, and their parasitic asses sitting at the table to make it happen.

So yeah, cosplay the most famous Disney character whose story got put on the back burner for this, and cosplay them decapitating an effigy of Bob Iger like you’re in fucking GWAR.

SAG officially considers cosplays of current/past media as crossing the picket line as it can be seen as supporting the studios they're currently striking against.

(link is to a series of tweets, which include the original poster of the screenshot directly asking SAG-AFTRA what the rules are for cosplayers who want to support the strike)

[gryficowa]

Boycott!

Tia… I happened to watch a deleted scene from Inside Out 2 (Boycott, fuck Disney), I didn't watch the whole movie (For an obvious fucking reason), but I will tell you one thing, they wasted a dark scene with trauma, I will say one thing: Congratulations, you sabotaged your movie, you removed a scene that would make people remember this movie

But yeah, that cut scene is probably 100% way better than the movie itself, and she did it in minutes, not hours lol

I won't watch the movie anyway because I'm boycotting it, but you know what I mean, that scene was good and the thought of it being removed is frustrating, GIVE ME FUCKING DARKNESS AND TRAUMA IN ANIMATIONS

Disney is castrating its productions (Because Pixar belongs to Disney), I won't call it otherwise… AND BY THE WAY HE SUPPORTED IZAREL FINANCIALLY AND RECORDED "MULAN" AT FUCKING WORK CAMPS IN CHINA

Now that I have your attention:

----------------------------------------------------

Yes, I am 23 years old and I watch children's cartoons, what's the problem?

Although I haven't watched anything for a long time, it's because I don't have the mind for it, you know, life itself :/

[weaving-knightmares]

when i think abt some more (read: after comics blr/twt/ig's suggested posts feeds annoy me some more) Bucky getting his character reduced and turned into a just-for-ships white boi w long hair Cardboard Cutout is smth that smbckies participate in too🤔...

bc ppl are... somehow... still trying to gas up that fws d+ show like it didnt have awful character writing and some egregious jingoisitic propaganda all-round (not even just for bucky, but in general!) all bc they're celebritybrained and act like those cishet dudebro lowkey pervy actors standing next to e/o is... gay ship heaven or smth...

and it's these same ppl keep incessantly talking abt the upcoming CA movie, even tho BDS not only called for boycott+pressure on marvel but also double emphasized that specific movie, but they dgaf 😭

While I think natasha and sam are treated way worse in the fandom, I agree that it's bad for bucky rn like every move he makes is related to some ship or another by his "fans" (I remember when, during cold war, people made steve wanting to ask tony for help about w*nterir*n for some reason) & idk I think most people just want to date him or something & are self-inserting as various characters (if that isn't the reason, I have no idea why this is a thing) because they're all from the mcu fandom & mcu bucky barely has a personality even now.

I'm not exactly the biggest fan of fatws, either (the politics, mostly) but I didn't think it treated bucky especially badly, tbh. And yeah, that ship mostly exists the way it does because the actors are friends. I like 616 sambucky fine but it's also more bucky liking and respecting sam than anything else, let's be real.

About people talking about being excited for Cap 4: I wholeheartedly agree that people should stop talking about it. The BDS asked us to boycott marvel and disney specifically because of that movie so yeah, the least they could do is not promote that movie but what else can we expect from mcu stans?

[the-firebird69]

Disneyworld as his restrictions by the state and they're imposed by the legislature which this guy is supposedly part of who he is and he can't believe he did it and he's one of the ones who did it. Some people can't stand Dan either cuz he talks about her son since I can't believe it I can't believe it he's still doing it he's still at it he's the one doing it and all that stuff and the idiot dies for it and is getting killed nothing happens to her son for the most part except this guy is going to take it apart including his whole Army we just keeps doing this stupid inane routine and act and getting himself and others of his kill. He can't even figure it out he's a stupid dead man. That lady that drove the car into him and killed him is sitting next to him and he's so obtuse and clueless he can't even see what she was doing and she's looking right at him doing it this little land of retards I guess. That's why Vader and others can't stand you is to go round and round and round so fast in your head you're saying they're trying stuff in public your army gets killed and it's no use. Right now we're going over the legislature the the motions that they approved and most of it's illegal for federal and state law you can't preclude a company from all sorts of stuff because they wanted to declare themselves the township and they're saying Independence but it's really a township more taxes they needed a boycott and they're taking around with him and it's Mac and he can't even do that with his little fake City and Orlando is like a headquarters for idiot so Dan's comments this morning Rudy's people he wants to cuz he thinks he has our son kidnapped so they go out there and they try and get him to go home over and over and over those sorts of dumb things and yeah he reported there illegal activities to the police and reported to his psychiatrist and they all wrote up reports on these idiots and they see them in the government committee acts of crime and you can't stop someone from forming a township on false pretenses and you can by vote and they decided to do some stupid s*** to them instead of simply voting on it and the messages that you don't get anything and they're saying it to us and our son and we've taken over almost every business there is and he says we should start taking over there businesses here and more because we're going to destroy their entire race and they do agree that's a good thing to do and they said the way that we need to hear it. Im mad about this, it's in the way of the project and we need to do the project now so tell me mac the lock can change tomorrow after the gun tonight man he says no then remember something you need to draw them off from this kind of things happening there's a lot of projects it's working on but this one would have a major effect. And the resort it says the resort is bigger and will work on large numbers of them but Disney will work on a ton of them in a way that we really need and the entire Simpson area will be removed from universal studios until further notice and we're changing the names of our stores all of them from The Simpsons that's a good idea and she said it this morning we don't want to be associated with them and it looks like people just took it over and we're going ahead with it now

Thor Freya

And crappies is our son and he's making fun of the fact that usually with onions you get the craps and you don't have to and it almost didn't make it he's suffering against these other idiots restaurant so there's this huge group of private restaurants and they're trying to push him out all the time now they're getting clobbered in his restaurant is doing great it'd be funny as hell that's where he started getting money from some crappy place

Lol

A strong reminder to the max as they say it's not really but that's what they say

[scarletwitching]

just curious, why aren’t u reading comics anymore? Is it cause wandas not in anything?

So, Ike Perlmutter... is bad.

This is hard to explain, not because I don’t know why I quit but because I cannot recall why I didn’t quit earlier. I guess it was the Spiegelman thing that did it, though that’s confusing because I remember quitting in July, not August. (2019 was 87 years ago, so who knows.) Sina Grace’s post had gone up that same summer. There was other stuff too. Things built on each other until I felt like I couldn’t justify it anymore.

It was probably inevitable. Or at least, it feels inevitable now. I considered it after the Northrop Grumman incident, but that was cancelled so fast that I didn’t even have time to process it. Things like that kept happening. I’d get mad about something, then it would whoosh by. But it was all chipping away at me. And it chipped and it chipped until one day, I was done. What’s that quote? Liking falling asleep, slowly and then all at once.

A couple of months after I quit, there was some internal role shifting that I don’t understand fully to this day, but was treated as “Feige is in charge of the comics now.” There was a lot of relief in the fandom at the time, and I remember thinking this should make me want to reconsider, it should make me want to at least wait and see if things changed. But I never seriously entertained the idea. Well over a year later, I couldn’t tell you what, if anything, changed.

Regardless, some things aren’t going to change. Did you see that photo of the guy storming the US Capitol holding zip ties? He had a Punisher logo on his chest. I’m not gonna argue about the political implications of that character or how much Marvel could actually do to put the genie back in the bottle. I’m more thinking about how, as superheroes have come to dominate pop culture, conservatives and liberals have both started adopting their iconography more and more. Remember that Dan Crenshaw ad? And the ICE tweet? I hate that shit.

The thing people love to do in this situation is insist everyone who disagrees with them is “misinterpreting” the characters and stories, but I don’t know how tenable that position is. I won’t pretend I don’t know why fascist insurrectionists love these characters. On the flip side, I can’t imagine an argument for why the person I saw call Amy McGrath “the real life Captain Marvel” is missing the point. I’d say they’re bang on the money, and I don’t mean that as a compliment. The white nationalists who think they’re vigilantes are obviously the worst (by several magnitudes). I’m not saying the cheesy liberal shit is the same as fashy right wing shit, just that I’ve grown exhausted with the way that society at large engages with these characters.

Is that the reason I quit reading Marvel comics? No, but it is a reason I haven’t started again. This stuff has become so obnoxious and omnipresent that it has tainted my feelings about the source material. Maybe part of my annoyance is that I know so much about the history of this meaningless nonsense that when I see people oversimplify it in order to slot them neatly into their own political views, I know it’s bullshit. Because it’s never as clear-cut as people make it out to be. No, Magneto was not based on Malcolm X, but yes, the Avengers kind of are ICE. But only that one time. (Fucking Hickman.)

It’s not just the general audience either. People in the supposedly enlightened part of this fandom downplay and excuse (and make snide jokes about) actual, non-fictional US war crimes under the guise of defending a fictional character. Do some people around here have any self-awareness about how embarrassing they are? It is vile the shit some of y’all will say with your whole chest, as if it’s completely divorced from the real world. The level of historical revisionism, the literal neocon talking points I have seen trotted out and presented as antiracism. I am begging certain people to PLEASE talk to an Iraqi. One (1) Iraqi. Any Iraqi. (Okay, maybe not any Iraqi.)

Actually, forget that. I don’t want to burden a single victim of US imperialism with some of y’uns, especially since you have proven time and again you cannot be reasoned with. Does that stuff affect my willingness to to buy Marvel comics? Yeah, it does. The fans may not be the company’s fault, but this attitude that real people’s suffering is just an exotic backdrop that doesn’t need to be seriously engaged with came straight from them.

More than anything, I’ve been thinking a lot about Capitalism (lol, of course, I have) and how I engage with this awful system I am forced to live in. Disney sucks. We all know it. The comic industry is exploitative. We all know it. How much do I really want to support them instead of giving my money directly to independent creators? How much more watered down, neoliberal, “more female drone operators” art do I need to experience in my life?

I’m not calling for a boycott or whatever. I don’t pretend to know how other people should live their lives. I’m not even sure how I should live my life. I just know that it’s been good for me to step back and evaluate what I spend my money on and how I feel about art that doesn’t live up to my values. Will I come back into the fold with a healthier attitude and more insight than I had before? Dunno. Will I eventually want to catch up on Immortal Hulk? Probably, but I’m guessing I’ll get it from the library when I do.