Super Power Corrupts: Most People Would Be Villains

[Grahav]

I played Mortal Kombat and GTA too many times to not have super villain moments.

 

[Ryokai]

Yes, most people would be villians. But most people are incompetent at life, and I'm sure most villians would kill each other off/die of own accidents.

So, yknow, it'd balance out.

 

[The_ModeRazor]

Hmmm... jump off a high building and survive. You can't really get more awesome than that.

Then maybe do it again.

 

[solec216]

IDK would probably use them to for my personal needs and maybe help a few others. but more often just for revenge

 

[spartan231490]

I don't agree with the line: "with great power, comes great responsibility" either, it's missing a step. with great power, comes great freedom, and with great freedom, comes great responsibility.

 

[AgDr_ODST]

I think i'd strike a balance between the two or atleast attempt too. Of course I could just tread the ground that no one has considered and be both a hero and a villain

 

[Zombus]

Upon reading the last line of that article I thought "Why can't I do both?" I mean it isn't like they are mutually exclusive things. But in regards to the topic at hand, I think the power you get will also affect your behaviors with it. Because if you have super strength, how is that really going to affect your life? You might be able to earn fame and fortune via weight lifting but otherwise it will maybe make it easier to clean under the couch. You would need a full array of powers and some kind of omniscience to make a significant difference, otherwise you are only going to be able to use your powers opportunistically, whether it be for good or assholery.

 

[robincb]

I'd Probably become dastardly and evil, in my opinion fighting crime would be a lost cause, because once you start doing it you would feel the need to stop every crime that ever happens and that just isn't possible, you would either work yourself to death in a few years or you would become insane with guilt because you had to choose to many times between to buses full of orphans hanging over a cliff.

Basically give me shapeshifting and i'd fuck up people's lives, i'd use my powers to get blackmail on everybody and then force them to do my bidding.

Give me teleportation and i'd take massive lones and fake my death by 'jumping into the niagra falls and dying horribly on the jagged rocks' (body never found)

give me mind control and i'd fuck around with everybody

allow me to read minds and i'd manipulate everybody into thinking that i'm the only righteous one on the planet

give me control over time and you've signed the death sentence of the world.

 

[LitleWaffle]

I guess I would be more of a secretive type of superhuman.
Only letting my best and most trustworthy of friends know. Maybe.
Only in desperate measures or very sneaky exploits would I use my powers.

Edit: My goodness, the man above me has 3 hearts.

Give them to people who need them you greedy son of a gun!

 

[Red Right Hand]

I would probably be one of them.

 

[Baldry]

I like to think I'd be a superhero. I always try to be a good guy and deep down I am good...soooo yeah...Give me superpowers and lets find out....please?!

 

[Caligulove]

Doesnt seem to surprise me. Though that does also support how there are far more minor, unimportant, douchey forgettable villains in comics than there are heroes

 

[Sinspiration]

You know, just because you have a personal perverted tendency that gets enhanced by sudden x-ray vision doesn't mean its the only thing worth doing. But given certain powers I suppose I could be downright evil. Telikinesis(sp?) would keep my hands clean of evidence should I for example desire to fire a gun, it would all be done separate of myself, I could stand in one way and have a knife attack some-one from a direction that would make me seem blameless.
Maybe if I had a greater range I could set up a sniper rifle on a nearby building while spotting my target personally?
No mechanical locks would keep me out so long as I understood their inner workings, or I could even kill some-one simply by an understanding of biology, understanding the location of some-ones major veins, arteries and organs would be more then enough to squeeze the life out of them and I wouldn't even need to blink in their direction.

And that's just "some" of the damage you could do with such a simple ability.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

Of course i'd be villain, being super hero never seemed like a good business branch really. You earn no money from it, you usually get a really crappy, bright coloured costume, you always have to watch out to not breach the 'line', you have to keep it a secret and in the end police and media are out to get you anyway. Using super powers for good is simply not worth the effort if you consider all pros and cons. Villains get more freedom.

Again and again these so-called specialists point things out that I could've told you years ago.

Yeah, but you do it for free, they get paid for it. So who, in the end, is smarter?

Well... When you put it THAT way... Need any superpowered followers to take over the world?

 

[tkioz]

Well I know I'd steel enough money to last me my entire life, then I'd likely do something useful with the power, but try never to let anyone know I even existed.

Personally my favourite powers are either a) shape shifting or b) telepathy; I'd adore either, but give me both and I'd fix the damn world (you'd be seeing politicians "breaking down and confessing" their sins every week on the news along with companies having their dirty dirty laundry aired)

 

[The Shade]

I would rather be Dr Horrible than Captain Hammer any day.

Or, at worst, Johnny Snow.

 

[Svenparty]

Use my power to slack my way in life*

*Even saying this pains me I can't live without a motive beyond seeing people naked while invisible

 

[lumenadducere]

You also have to take into account that psychology is a worthless field full of 'sounds good' nonsense.

A lot of it is, especially the older stuff, but there's a very large trend now towards doing actual research and getting empirical data. So I wouldn't just shrug it off.