• 1SimpleTailor@startrek.website
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    4 days ago

    Captain America is a weird one to include. Not denying it’s propaganda, everything is, but throwing Cap in with copaganda is such a surface level take. He’s propaganda for American exceptionalism sure, but also embodies it in an old school New Deal way. The character has been consistently anti-facist over the years.

    Imo Iron Man is the much more harmful propaganda. You can pretty much draw a direct line between the characters rise in popularity thanks to the MCU and the rise of Elon Musk.

    • MarxMadness@lemmygrad.ml
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      2 days ago

      The character has been consistently anti-facist over the years.

      What was he doing during the Cold War?

    • ShareMySims@sh.itjust.works
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      3 days ago

      He’s propaganda for American exceptionalism sure, but also embodies it in an old school New Deal way. The character has been consistently anti-facist over the years.

      Pretending that America isn’t only already fascist, but inspired the fascists they are supposedly against is American exceptionalism, and you’re eating it right up.

    • Naia_Elwyn@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Kind of what the whole thing in civil war was. Tony was looking to absolve his guilt over the people they failed to save while looking for more and more authoritarian methods of keeping the world “safe”.

      Cap was much more for freedom and while the idea that the avengers should have absolutely no oversight is absurd, the question of who should be the oversight was important and much of what the avengers did could not wait on a committee to decide to act (also, the last time a committee did act they decided to nuke New York)

    • SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Any superhero movie is problematic. They all say that only a few special people can save the country and the world. The rest of the population just has to hold tight and let the important people do their thing. It’s just a small step by replacing powers with wealth to give the rich carte blanche to do as they please.

        • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          3 days ago

          I mean, I’ve definitely seen Cap used to represent the Ugly American in comics, especially during that period post-9/11.

          He’s definitely not fully anti-fascist coded, because he represents the US, and the US while ostensibly being democratic, is in many ways deeply fascist and always has been. Hitler was inspired by our Jim Crow laws.

          There’s some smart people who understand that America never actually stood for any of that stuff and they write Cap to be the same.

          • dance_ninja@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            Is that Ultimate Cap or 616 Cap? Ultimate Cap was an asshole – even that universe’s Aunt May called him out on his BS after Peter died.

            • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              3 days ago

              I’m not a big Marvel fan, I just know I’ve seen lots of examples. Makes sense that they would be alternate universe Caps, tho. That’s a great way to be able to write the character and show the dark side of US politics without necessarily marring the original character himself. However, to outsiders, there’s not really a difference between the two, because they’re not deep in nerd lore.