#i've been reading some spiderman fanfic lately. and like it's entertaining and crazy emotionally satisfying but just kind of cant escape

[skullinahat]

unexpert claim in many ways but the superhero "vigilante" is really so inseperable from liberalism as an ideology, especially the concepts on individualism and "good people", that is to say goodness as a moral quality seperate from real actions. The conception of a world full of roaming thieves who don't count as human and simply exist as fodder for violence is such hardcore cop mentality it really can't be saved. I've seen people claim that superheroes are and always have been "leftist" (in a cyclical justification of their own politics and goodness, ie. because i am good the things i read are (politically) good and because the things i read are (politically) good i am good) but i would claim the opposite. I think the superhero genre is so married to the existence of an ever-present people who are okay to hurt/kill (thieves, purse-snatchers, villains) and so insistent on a punitive, incarceral system of problem-solving that it could never be "leftist". Most comics at some point play with this dynamic but always settle on the side of the jail the villains are sent to. this is of course a material result of the current state of production of the majority of superhero stories and their funding from the military, but i'd argue the very central dynamic of a superhero is fundamentally liberal. the idea that "if one guy ran around and beat bad people up that would make things better" supposes that 1. one guy can make a meaningful difference (ignores the possibility of real organization) 2. supposes the existence of "bad people" as the fundamental cause of all issues (ignores the presence of systems of harm for benefit) and 3. supposes that one guy beating these bad people up will cause bad things to not happen anymore. (supposes that punitive measures are effective).