Fascism and The Superhero
“these iconic characters are still very much white supremacist dreams of the master race. In fact, I think that a good argument can be made for D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation as the first American superhero movie, and the point of origin for all those capes and masks.”
Alan Moore
Fascism has many attractive qualities. The most important is simplicity. Fascism presents the world as a stark and easily discernible series of right and wrong decisions. Bob Dole once posed the question, “What is the leading source of crime in our country?” He then answered rhetorically, “Criminals, criminals, criminals!” I can’t think of a better example of fascist methodology at work. There is no need for complexity, no need for nuance, the issue is simple, bad things happen because some people are bad. This of course leads to the inevitable next step of eliminating or incarcerating bad people. Not only this but the repetition comes straight out of Joseph Goebbels’ playbook “The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly — it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.”
