Via Gen Z Conservative. Now, I’m not super into superheroes. Apart from the Dark Knight trilogy and Deadpool, I find the movies either overly earnest in the annoying, Boomer sort of way (i.e. Superman always doing the right thing) or filled with originally interesting but gradually duller and duller storylines (the Avengers franchise after the first Thor movie). So I’m coming at the whole DC Comics announcing that Superman is super gay, err…bisexual, from a layman’s perspective.
But, and this is important, even I know that Superman’s love interest is Ms. Lois Lane, not Mr. Louis Lane.
Maybe there wasn’t fluoride in the water on Krypton (that’s a joke, lying fact-checkers), maybe he’s just into gals, or maybe he’s a right-wing fanatic, but I’d always heard that Superman had the hots for Lois. The middle option is the most likely, as fluoride isn’t mentioned in-universe and the latter option is unlikely, as Superman fought the Klan and Nazis back when people other than undercover FBI agents were in those organizations.
Regardless of the reason, Superman isn’t gay just like James Bond isn’t a black woman. Oh, they’re changing Bond into a black woman? Well, then Superman is straight like the Pope’s Catholic! Oh, he’s a pinko that works with abortionists now? Dammit, I give up. Our culture is too far gone.
And that’s why it matters that they’re turning Superman gay (despite normally insisting that people are born gay); it’s part of an unrelenting attack on every pillar of Western culture, especially our popular culture. They hope to change our minds, not by convincing us, but by manipulating the youth through wiping out the old culture in Maoist fashion and then beginning it anew with woke books, songs, movies, etc.
We conservatives have a tendency to dismiss such things. “Who cares if superman is super gay now?” we ask, “It’s just a dumb comic book. Such trifles don’t matter.”
Such are the remarks you hear about each little leftist victory in the culture war.
The Dr. Seuss cancellation doesn’t matter because “you can still buy the other books.”
Star Wars suddenly going woke doesn’t matter because “it’s just some dumb series of cash cow movies about space.”
James Bond the peak alpha male, the paragon of masculinity, becoming some generically woke black woman doesn’t matter because “it’s just a movie.”
Perhaps each assertion is true in isolation.
Some Disney director giving a made-up space admiral pink hair doesn’t herald the imminent demise of Western culture. But it’s a warning sign.
Heroes like Superman and Bond becoming figures associated with the left (gay, black) rather than associated with the right (ripped, violent white dudes) is more important, as a society needs a concept of heroism to be functional, but also isn’t devastating on its own. “Quantum of Solace” and “Batman vs. Superman” don’t hold quite the same level of prestige as Lays of Ancient Rome or The Illiad. But they are more culturally relevant, and certainly more widely known, so they matter.
And Dr. Seuss and Star Wars are fun entertainment for kids, but there are other sources of entertainment. Individually, changing them also isn’t indicative of our imminent end. But it is a shift away from the reasonable old and toward the woke new. Each book other than one of Seuss’s on the shelf is an opportunity of the woke virus to insert itself.
But all of those changes together? They’re utterly devastating; all those minor wins for the left are adding up into a major, overwhelming, Operation Bagration-style victory.
Strong, masculine characters like Bond, Han Solo, and Superman, characters that were once excellent role models for young boys that need lessons in heroism, have been replaced with leftist icons that aren’t suitable role models for anyone, much less boys that need lessons in masculinity.
In short, once-great stories have turned into propaganda flicks for the left that are so shameless that Leni Riefenstahl would be proud!
If your son is watching Star Wars or some other woke cartoon all day, then first turn off the damn TV and give him a book, and then consider what ideas are in his head.
He wasn’t learning about great men, watching John Wayne or Daniel Craig show him how to act like a hero, or watching something that taught him about the triumphs of his ancestors. Instead, he was learning leftist talking points in entertainment form.
Ditto that if you replace a canceled Dr. Seuss book with a piece of woke kids literature or gay Superman comic book. Such content will indoctrinate him. Avoid it like the plague.
The fact is, the left gets that Hitler was correct when he said “He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.” And guess what…like the little Austrian Corporal, the left takes this seriously and plays for keeps.
They’re not messing around or acting on impulse when they make Superman gay, Bond a black woman, or cancel Dr. Seuss.
Such moves are calculated.
They want to cancel the remaining pop-culture icons that harken back to the at least somewhat conservative days of the semi-recent past and replace them with ideologically permissible, woke characters that will indoctrinate the youth into political correctness ideology.
So that’s why these things matter and why we can’t be okay with them turning Superman gay. It’s fun to joke about the utter insanity of what the left is trying to do to our culture, but never forget that if we keep losing battle after culture war battle, then the left will win. It’s not for fun, we’re not succeeding, and Western Civilization itself is at stake.
Think I’m being hyperbolic? Would Churchill have stood alone against the Nazis in Britain’s darkest hour had he not been inspired since his youth by the tale of Horatius at the gate and instead had been taught to repeat the CRT mantras of Kendi’s Anti-Racist Baby? I doubt it. Will our boys be heroes if every pop culture figure is gay or a woman? I doubt that too.
Young men need to see masculinity, otherwise they’ll forget what it is.
These small culture war skirmishes matter. Conservatives need to start taking them seriously and fighting back.