This morning Devin Faraci stepped down as Editor-in-Chief of Birth.Movies.Death due to sexual assault allegations that he’s done everything to not deny. To many these allegations are a shock. Faraci was a Social Justice Warrior who attacked Gamergate as an anti-woman hate movement. To his True Believers, he was fighting the good fight by calling out the negativity and hate in the world. Now it is clear he was a source of that culture himself, so it is the responsibility of anyone who listened to him to question whether his targets are in fact negative and/or hateful.
One such target is director Zack Snyder, whom Faraci took to task for “systematically destroying Superman.” In truth, Faraci was attempting to systematically destroy Snyder. His basic argument was that people, children specifically, could always look to the media for Superman as a model of how to act morally…until Snyder’s Man of Steel and Batman v Superman. He wrote that in them:
“What kind of a Superman would [people] find waiting for them? Not a hero. Not a decent guy. They would find a guy filled with anger, a guy who is haughty and disdainful of regular humans. They would find a guy who, in many ways, represents the worst of us, a guy who struggles against his urge to do the right thing.”
Let that set in for a second. In Snyder’s Superman, Faraci saw a guy struggling against his urge to do the right thing which he called “the worst of us.” When you take the recent allegations into account, you don’t have to be a psychologist or do complex psychologizing to understand that this claim is pure projection. When Faraci wrote us he was really writing about himself.
Faraci struggles against his urge to do the right thing. What does that mean? He identifies the right thing to do, but finds it difficult to do. Personally, I find that struggle to be inconceivable. While there are times I find it difficult, it’s generally pretty easy to do the right thing because it’s, you know, the right thing. Why does Faraci find it difficult? I don’t know. Answering that question would take a psychologist or complex psychologizing. What I do know is that Faraci wasn’t seeing Snyder’s Superman for what he is.
His misreading of Batman v Superman becomes even clearer when you realize that the primary person Superman is struggling against in the movie is Batman (as it says in, you know, the title), not himself, and Batman embodies everything that it is now clear that Faraci is. Batman’s psychology was so warped from all the trauma that he had experienced in his life (beginning with his witnessing the murder of his parents) that he believed “nobody stays good in this world.” Terrifyingly, Batman (and Lex Luthor) are so successful in influencing the world that Superman is the one who actually says that line in the movie.
And that moment when Superman says it is the point of Batman v Superman. Superman doesn’t destroy hope. He is hope, and others try to destroy him because they don’t truly believe he is possible.
And that destruction is what Faraci and others like him do to you if you are not vigilant. Just as Superman almost believed he was bad as Luthor turned the world against him, you accept that you are bad if you accept what Faraci and his kind say as earnest and benevolent.
Critics write about movies that don’t share their worldview as if they don’t make sense. Social Justice Warriors talk about concepts like Privilege and Implicit Bias as if we’re all oppressing each other without realizing it. In reality, these critics and SJWs are just projecting what they feel and/or think about themselves onto everyone else. It’s a disturbing truth that reveals just how little they think of you and your individuality.
At the end of Batman v Superman, Bruce Wayne affirms his healed soul when he tells Diana Prince, “Men are still good.” He pledges to never again fail Superman or, in other words, give up hope. In Man of Steel, hope was defined as the fundamental belief in the potential of every person to be a force for good. To hold that hope you must first believe it about yourself.
And that hope is the best of us. And Faraci and his kind don’t have it.
Do you?
Men Are Still Good: On Devin Faraci and Zack Snyder’s Superman
This morning Devin Faraci stepped down as Editor-in-Chief of Birth.Movies.Death due to sexual assault allegations that he’s done everything to not deny. To many these allegations are a shock. Faraci was a Social Justice Warrior who attacked Gamergate as an anti-woman hate movement. To his True Believers, he was fighting the good fight by calling out the negativity and hate in the world. Now it is clear he was a source of that culture himself, so it is the responsibility of anyone who listened to him to question whether his targets are in fact negative and/or hateful.
One such target is director Zack Snyder, whom Faraci took to task for “systematically destroying Superman.” In truth, Faraci was attempting to systematically destroy Snyder. His basic argument was that people, children specifically, could always look to the media for Superman as a model of how to act morally…until Snyder’s Man of Steel and Batman v Superman. He wrote that in them:
Let that set in for a second. In Snyder’s Superman, Faraci saw a guy struggling against his urge to do the right thing which he called “the worst of us.” When you take the recent allegations into account, you don’t have to be a psychologist or do complex psychologizing to understand that this claim is pure projection. When Faraci wrote us he was really writing about himself.
Faraci struggles against his urge to do the right thing. What does that mean? He identifies the right thing to do, but finds it difficult to do. Personally, I find that struggle to be inconceivable. While there are times I find it difficult, it’s generally pretty easy to do the right thing because it’s, you know, the right thing. Why does Faraci find it difficult? I don’t know. Answering that question would take a psychologist or complex psychologizing. What I do know is that Faraci wasn’t seeing Snyder’s Superman for what he is.
His misreading of Batman v Superman becomes even clearer when you realize that the primary person Superman is struggling against in the movie is Batman (as it says in, you know, the title), not himself, and Batman embodies everything that it is now clear that Faraci is. Batman’s psychology was so warped from all the trauma that he had experienced in his life (beginning with his witnessing the murder of his parents) that he believed “nobody stays good in this world.” Terrifyingly, Batman (and Lex Luthor) are so successful in influencing the world that Superman is the one who actually says that line in the movie.
And that moment when Superman says it is the point of Batman v Superman. Superman doesn’t destroy hope. He is hope, and others try to destroy him because they don’t truly believe he is possible.
And that destruction is what Faraci and others like him do to you if you are not vigilant. Just as Superman almost believed he was bad as Luthor turned the world against him, you accept that you are bad if you accept what Faraci and his kind say as earnest and benevolent.
Critics write about movies that don’t share their worldview as if they don’t make sense. Social Justice Warriors talk about concepts like Privilege and Implicit Bias as if we’re all oppressing each other without realizing it. In reality, these critics and SJWs are just projecting what they feel and/or think about themselves onto everyone else. It’s a disturbing truth that reveals just how little they think of you and your individuality.
At the end of Batman v Superman, Bruce Wayne affirms his healed soul when he tells Diana Prince, “Men are still good.” He pledges to never again fail Superman or, in other words, give up hope. In Man of Steel, hope was defined as the fundamental belief in the potential of every person to be a force for good. To hold that hope you must first believe it about yourself.
And that hope is the best of us. And Faraci and his kind don’t have it.
Do you?
October 11, 2016 in Commentary
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