The Big Picture: Magneto Was Right

[Raregolddragon]

Odds are I would want to be on Magneto's team but I would quit on week one due to not having the gut to do the evil things he would want me to do.

I am just to nice. But I do have my rage filled days.

 

[A Weary Exile]

Ironically enough, it's often the intellectuals that instigate the hate and bullying. Think about the tea party; how each member is inherently voting against their interest (badly-needed health care overall, net neutrality, etc.). The leaders are the same so-called intellectuals that the party detests so much but because they're smart enough to know how to manipulate the misinformed they can get away with the fact that they're just as educated and sophisticated as their "elitist" rivals by demonizing other intellectuals who'd call them out.

I wouldn't say "Often" but that Tea Party example is spot-on. I don't know how people buy into the whole "We're just average 'mericans!" Act. They don't work for the average American, in fact they (Referring to all politicians) often do the exact opposite, they either work for themselves or for their rich business associates, but morons gobble up the rhetoric because they can't think for themselves.

 

[jmarquiso]

Bill Gates was demonized not for making millions through his intellect, but making millions by possibly using unfair business practices, whereas Michael Jordon was usually lauded for his sportsmanship as well as talent. Further, he stole the basic technologies that would become DOS and Windows, despite being a brilliant programmer himself. Gates's practices brought to mind the Robber Barons of the past.

In retrospect, Microsoft may have used unfair tactics, but those were in the interest of its shareholders.

Bill Gates is now pretty much a hero to me and many others, through his foundation, and his work toward improving education.

These examples were way off of the mark.

That being said, I do AGREE that there is an anti-intellectualism in our culture, and it needs to change. The nerds and the geeks need to be our heroes as much as our athletes and actors and the like.

 

[roostuf]

Your right as human beings we fear what we don't know and hate things that are in our eyes, vastly superior.

I'll probably stay neutral really it'll depend on how the world will reat to me.

 

[thirion1850]

I wouldn't be on a team. I'd mix up Mondays with a super evil special, and have a cup of goodness on Thursdays. Maybe Saturday can be my vigilante deluxe.

 

[ImpostorZim]

That's something I love about Magneto. Especially in the film adaptations, because the writers make it so hard for you to actually hate him. Anyone whose never fit in, or has been hated for reasons that were beyond their ability to change, can really empathize with the mutants and understands where Magneto is coming from. Hell, I know who I was rooting for when I watched X-Men for the first time.

 

[MasterOfWorlds]

I'd be with Magneto. It's not that I don't think people should get along. On the contrary, I'd like it if they did, but you will never get everyone to get along. Magneto has a lot of valid points and I like him. Not to mention that I like a lot of people on his side. That and Cyclops in with the X-Men, and I hate that guy.

 

[Darks63]

Team Magneto all the way

 

[flosy]

The fools have oppressed too long! Step up comrades and scour the world of the bitter remnants of the Luddite scourge! Only through adversity of the... Ooh Minecraft has blue stones yey!

 

[Redem]

That's something I love about Magneto. Especially in the film adaptations, because the writers make it so hard for you to actually hate him. Anyone whose never fit in, or has been hated for reasons that were beyond their ability to change, can really empathize with the mutants and understands where Magneto is coming from. Hell, I know who I was rooting for when I watched X-Men for the first time.

Well in the first movie, Magneto plan ain't actually evil. His plan was to make the leader of the world mutant in the hope it would shift the balance of power toward the mutants. Not exactly vilaneous except he was too stuborn to recongnize his machine has deadly and the fact he was willing to kill Rogue just so he wouldn't die.

Still let us remember he was willing to kill billions in the sequel when he saw the opportunity arise

Also the way he's written very inconsistent in general

 

[Austin Howe]

I'd still pick Xavier for the same reason I believe in progressive taxation and centre-left politics: My happening to be born with more wealth, power, or inherent ability is pretty much the lottery of birth.

I'm American, which means I'm not guaranteed anything close to the same comforts that, say, a Frenchman is*, but that's just coincidence.

Does Solid Snake think he deserves a higher place in society because he's a great soldier? No, he understands that not everyone can, or should, be a good soldier, and that a good deal of his ability comes from being a clone of the greatest soldier ever, Big Boss, who himself learned most of his stuff from The Boss.

Much of our place in the world is inherited: race, sexuality, wealth, physical features, diseases, eye color, etc. The rest is decided almost purely by chance. The fact that I'm here
posting in this forum right now instead of posting in a LiveJournal is again, chance. The fact that I deeply love a medium that most no one else understands is chance. I'm not going to blame people, I blame the lottery itself, and, at the same time, I know my Serenity prayer.**

Thus, if I were born with incredible powers, I would use them for "good", that is, I would use them to fight for what I thought was right, or, lacking powers that help me only in combat, would use other powers to directly help people. Not because it's necessarilly what I want, no, what I would want, probably, would be some permutation on revenge, but out of duty to decency.

*Actually, I'm the son of a 25-year Air Force veteran, so I do get a pretty sweet health deal. It really does cover everything. Demand the public option from your congressperson now!

**Just for note: New Atheist.

 

[nomad240]

I would be on the side of protecting mankind. I know looking at my slf I generalyl talk evil... and I've got a pretty good manaical laugh but when it came down to blood and who would suffer I couldn't partake in any.

 

[Orange Monkey]

I know the feeling of wanting vengeance on bullies as much as anyone who has ever been bullied, but the fact of the matter is, even if we did have superhuman abilities with which to get our revenge, You CAN'T fight violence with more violence, it just turns into an endless spiral of revenge and destruction, at some point SOMEONE has to be the bigger man and just stop.

 

[rutger5000]

First of BOB thank you for your honesty.
I can imagine only one cause for war where I could pick a side (Well two if Poland would have declared war to the world right after WW2 I would have sided with them), otherwise only a war where machines learned to think. Now I don't believe machines by definition won't ever be able to think. But if they could I would join their side to eradicate all of humanity (myself eventually included.)
Otherwise I refuse taking a side in a war based on the cause. Depending on your point of view pretty much any reason can be understood. The only criteria I have for choosing sides in a war is the way a side fights it. Pretty much any cause can be justified, but only very few means can be. So if Magneto will only attack soldiers and military complex, but the human side starts killing young mutants before they can evolve. Then I would fight for magneto regardless if I was a mutant or not.
I can't say I was really bullied a lot, well a bit during first year of highschool. But I would base my decision on something like that. If I would pick my side based on my supposed Superiority, then I wouldn't go for any revenge. Revenge makes you fall to the level of the people you commit vengeance on, or make you even fall further.
By the way Bill Gates is hated because he is in fact an asshole, anybody who work(s/ed) for the guy agreed. Look at the guy who runs apple, he is popular isn't he? Though he is at least just as smart as Bill Gates, earned a fortune of the same order of magnitude by the same advantage, having superior technology.
And about the whole I join Magneto because I was bullying thing. First of my god you guys are a sad bunch. Really man killing people for bullying, how pathetic is that? It happens children / teenagers/ sick adults bully deal with it!
I've been on the entire side of the spectrum of bullying. I've been bullied, I bullied, I've stood there watched, I've been to the guy I bullied and apologized (and not because the teacher told me so) and I stood next to the guy being bullied and sad fuck you! And I'm not ashamed that I've done either of these things. (Granted that you could only be ashamed for the last two if you didn't start early enough to do them). Children and teenagers still have learn what is socially right and wrong. They make mistakes. Or sometimes they are just not strong enough to not join in, or not do it. Bullying is a result of this. Yeah it isn't pretty, but it is human. It's an aspect of humanity that should be fought against, but also needs to be accepted as a stain on our species that will always be present. (Which I would join the robots if they actually manage to get their own free will, I would rid humanity of it stains by exterminating it, and give the planet to a will without stains.
I do believe in the Uber-Mensch though. Mind you that's not the Uber-race, some humans are just plain better then others in anyway that matters. Sucks for them, that they need to put up with us stupidheads.

 

[hyperlasers]

A thought:

You say that the driving force behind bullying of racially different people is obvious: racism. But what is racism, exactly? With liberal arts college a thing of that past, I thought I'd never want to hear that question again. But if the answer has less to do with hating a group for that group's actual physical characteristics and more to do with hating a group just because hating feels good, then we get a much clearer picture of why nerds are targeted along with everybody else.

My theory: people have a variety of instinctive needs, and one of those is the need to feel important. But we're not all important; we can't all be important. So everybody looks for some way to feel consequential in their short time on this earth, and something the results look a little scary. The scariest might be full-blown psychotic breakdown and delusions of grandeur, but much more common is simple us-versus-them hating. Attaching your identity to a distinctive group and hating some other distinctive group is part of the construction of a personal narrative in which the hater is somehow superior, and thus important.

If that's true, then why do certain groups get targeted and not others? Is gay-bashing actually driven by sincerely-held superstitions? I don't think so. The one thing that all major targets have in common is that they can't stand up for themselves very well, and nobody else will stand up for them; picking on them is easy. If you were a protestant in public school and started visibly picking on Catholics, you'd risk a country-wide backlash. Increasingly, that's true (but only sort of) of racial minorities, and kind-of-sort-of-ish-but-not-really of homosexuals. But who stands up for nerds? Nobody. The kid with the glasses getting his head flushed down the toilet is a stock image in the American mind. We're not bound together through any big central organization, and must of us just want to be left alone most of the time. It's taken for granted that we get hurt and just need to deal with it.

 

[tjcross]

i'd be chaotic good i'd save the world from villains but would use evil methods (torture, mind-control, hacking the villains facebook acount ect.) to get what i need

 

[JonnWood]

I like how you think that all homophobia stems from religious bigotry. That's just adorable.

That said, a lot of geeks have noted that The Incredibles is more or less Watchmen-lite, and I think it fits. Not that it diminishes it, though.

Rowling also Deconstructed (in the TV Tropes sense) the idea of the changeling fantasy. Welcome to the Wizarding World, kid. Not only does it have a lot of the same problems as the real world, but you'll receive lots of unwanted attention for something you can't even remember. Oh, and there's a sociopath magic-Hitler and his followers out to kill you. Have fun!

You're using Jersey Shore and My Name is Earl as examples of lionized stupidity? The former is arguably just a show that seems like it should be on sister network VH1, which cheerfully portrays people being idiots on reality shows (with tongue firmly in cheek). Heck, they regularly mock their own programming. The later made fun of its main character's idiocy at every turn. Ironic that you seem to be projecting yourself.

 

[Sentox6]

Magneto was a terrorist who in every continuity of he X-Men save for the recent cartoons (even in the old ones he killed, it was just off-screen) is a mass murderer on the genocidal level. To say you agree with Magneto is literally like saying you agree with minority group terrorists, because that's what he is. That's what the writers intend for you to see him as, a Well-Intentioned Extremist who has taken his own dogma so thoroughly to heart that he believes he is entirely justified in killing normal people and imposing his worldvew on everyone.

Educate yourself. [http://www.magnetowasright.com/pages/analysis/genocide-or-acts-of-war-magnetos-brand-of-terrorism.php]