Thursday, April 28, 2011

Latest leftist outrage: "Superman" renounces his American citizenship

Whenever I claim that leftists in the U.S. fundamentally hate America and what it stands for, I am accused of exaggeration (and worse). The defenders and enablers of the left protest that they are simply "multicultural" and trying to recognize and celebrate the values of "other" cultures and nations as being just as valid as our own.

Let's leave aside the absurd claim that "other" cultures and nations are as good as America. Are U.S. leftists just "multicultural" relativists? Or do they actually hate their native land, its values, and its institutions?

Consider how hard the Culturati struggled to defend our current president for sitting in the pews of Jeremiah Wright's church for years, in mute approval, while the "reverend" denounced America in the most ugly terms. Then consider the same Culturati's vicious gang assault on the "Atlas Shrugged" movie, their collateral smears of Ayn Rand and her ideas -- and their undisguised repudiation of the American individualist values that film champions. It will be even harder for them to disguise their true motives when (not "if") they defend the latest outrage against a symbolic American icon.

I'm referring to the fact that the Politically Correct heirs to the DC Comics "Superman" franchise have decided to transform the caped champion of "truth, justice, and the American way" into an unAmerican citizen of the planet.

Believe it or not, "Superman" is now renouncing his American citizenship.

Here is the captioned dialogue from the forthcoming comic book:
SUPERMAN: ". . .I intend to speak before the United Nations tomorrow and inform them that I am renouncing my U.S. citizenship."

SECOND CHARACTER: "What?"

SUPERMAN: "I'm tired of having my actions construed as instruments of U.S. policy. 'Truth, justice, and the AMERICAN way' -- it's just not ENOUGH anymore."
No, we can't have American kids growing up to believe in, well, America anymore. America, and what it uniquely represents, just isn't "enough." Instead, our children must be taught to think of themselves as citizens of the world, holding their primary allegiance to the United Nations -- not to the United States.

Name me one other place on the planet where contempt for one's own nation is celebrated as the hallmark of moral virtue and intellectual sophistication.

This is not the first time that comic-book writers have, symbolically, renounced their allegiance to America. A while back, they obliterated "Captain America," temporarily morphing him into the unAmerican "Nomad" before returning him to his old identity (only after the writers scored their anti-U.S.-government political points).

And lest you dismiss this as much ado about nothing, understand that comic-book heroes are pure, idealized embodiments of a society's dominant values. Their stories are overt manifestations of our reigning cultural Narratives, which I've discussed previously.

Simply put, many of those now writing comic books for kids hate the American individualist Narrative. Alienated from that Narrative and the values it incorporates, they've spent years trying subtly (and sometimes, not so subtly) to undercut the characters and themes that represent it -- characters and themes that have inspired generations of children past.

Now, egged on and enabled by the cultural/intellectual/artistic elite of our Ruling Class -- and meeting little intellectual opposition -- they are openly celebrating their antipathy for the one nation on earth that has allowed them to enrich themselves, and gleefully vandalizing its icons.

[UPDATE: That this is not the work of a single warped individual, but represents the worldview of the whole rotten cultural establishment, can be found here, in this contemptible Wired piece by Scott Thill:
The Man of Steel throws down in outer space against a continually misguided Lex Luthor, who’s finally rewarded for his boundless ambition by becoming a petulant god. Supes also throws a pizza party with Lois Lane for his Kryptonian pals, who crowd his couch while chowing grub and chewing scenery. He talks cosmology and philosophy with an interstellar deity beset by guilt over civilizations he was perhaps too selfish to save, and goes head-to-head with a one-time pro athlete who’s become a superheroic show-off.

It’s just another day in the life of Earth’s most recognizable comics immortal, in a landmark issue penned by all-stars from film, television and comics. Previewed in the gallery above, Action Comics No. 900 features stories penned by Doctor Who’s Paul Cornell, Lost’s Damon Lindelof, Superman: The Movie director Richard Donner, The Dark Knight screenwriter David S. Goyer and DC Comics’ chief creative officer, Geoff Johns. . . .

In an age rife with immigration paranoia, it’s refreshing to see an alien refugee tell the United States that it’s as important to him as any other country on Earth — which in turn is as important to Superman as any other planet in the multiverse.

The genius of Superman is that he belongs to everyone, for the dual purposes of peace and protection. He’s above ephemeral geopolitics and nationalist concerns, a universal agent unlike any other found in pop culture.

The finest moment in Action Comics No. 900 comes when Goyer makes that exquisitely clear to everyone.]
Let me dare to resurrect the one word that best describes what this represents -- certainly in motive, if not in law:

Treason.

If you're a parent, I suggest that you begin to monitor your child's reading and viewing habits, in order to keep such anti-American garbage out of your home.

Meanwhile, all of us should protest publicly these nihilistic assaults on American icons and values. Because a lot more is at stake here than the fate of a childrens' comic-book hero.


UPDATE #2: More sickening is this motive: cashing in on international anti-Americanism.