Why are people so intent on this meme?
Bruce Wayne is literally the kind of .1%er that can only live in fiction: an actual good one, that uses his wealth ethically in all the ways no one with that degree of wealth would ever do in the real world.
Not unlike how Batman is the ideal fantasy vigilante taking the law into their own hands (i.e. uncorruptible, unbiased, and uncompromising in his ethics), Bruce Wayne is the ideal fantasy billionaire that isn’t a drain on humanity.
Neither are realistic, neither exist in real life, and that’s the whole damn point. It’s aspirational and escapist.
It’s the reason why Lex Luthor is a villain and Bruce Wayne isn’t.
People are exactly as intent on imagining Batman as a real world evil billionaire, as they are on imagining Elon Musk as a comic book superhero billionaire.
A lot of people consuming superhero media are kids who don’t know how the world works. They’re learning about the real world from paying attention to the mundane parts of comics and movies. I learned what an insurance agent is from watching The Incredibles. Most kids these days know what a Walkman is because of GOTG.
Kids know Batman isn’t real because they don’t see anyone talking about real batman in real life. But they hear grownups saying billionaires have their best interests at heart, so they don’t question Bruce Wayne.
If your argument is we can have any unreasonable myth we want in comics, why not have Aryan Man, the genetically perfect superhero created by white supremacist eugenics? Batman is a problematic myth on par with Aryan Man.
He was trying to save his love by freezing everything and she wanted plants to become the dominant lifeform on the planet. So yes, we’re rooting for the billionaire that has a better adjusted moral compass than those two yahoos.
Thats just billionaire propaganda.
As I get older, the more I feel like Batman is billionaire propaganda. Like I get that it’s fiction. But they want us to root for the billionaire and that fucking annoys me.
It’s right-wing propaganda in general.
Who’s the hero? One of the richest men in the city.
Who are his allies? The cops.
Who are the enemies?
- An immigrant who wears a mask
- A psychiatrist
- A psychologist
- A female environmentalist
- A male environmentalist
What happens when his enemies are defeated? They are sent to a mental hospital… a mental hospital that is falling apart and chronically underfunded. That leads to them escaping, giving Batman another excuse to go beat them up.
If Mr. Wayne is a billionaire and very influential in city politics, the way they always portray him, shouldn’t he be advocating tax increases on the wealthy, and using that money to fix up the city… or at the very minimum to fix up Gotham Asylum?
Who are his allies? The cops.
No, just one cop. Right? I’m not super familiar with all versions of Batman lore but I’m pretty sure it’s a typical plot point that only Commissioner Gordon likes Batman.
Commissioner Gordon is his buddy, and they work together. But, it’s not like he’s otherwise suspicious of the cops. Instead he thinks the problem is just a few corrupt cops but that the overall police institution is wonderful.
I never understood this… Poison ivy isn’t a misunderstood anti-hero, she’s a villain. She’s not a villain because she wants to save the world from pollution or climate change.
She’s a villain because she’s a mass-murderer and terrorist.
Does killing the billionaire solve anything though? The system will just put some other stooge in his position instead. Systemic change is the only way to solve this.
Poison ivy would argue we don’t have time for systemic change. She’s doing what is in her power to do. She’d probably say that if your potted fern is droopy, it needs to be in the sun. But if you can’t afford a place with sun, maybe you need to do what you can now, and get a grow light.
She’s doing what is in her power to do.
…but her actions don’t actually achieve anything other than fulfilling some sort of revenge/punishment fantasy.
The billionaire isn’t personally responsible for the emissions, and the companies will continue to operate without him. If we’re not talking systemic change (i.e. government-mandated, I guess?), then she needs to either target the businesses/facilities/supply chains directly, or convince the billionaire (or someone else with power in the companies) to change things.
How is the guy emitting a shit ton of emissions and being in charge of so many companies that emit even more emissions not responsible?
He’s not directly responsible - removing him from the equation doesn’t change anything. It’s not like he’s a machine and turning him off stops the emission. The companies will still run and nothing will have actually improved.
Habe you looked into the lifestyle billionaires live and how mich emission they produce compared to a normal guy?
Yes, and compared to the companies they run, even their emissions are completely negligible. Individual action will not fix our climate crisis, regardless of who does it. Systemic change is the only option that has the possibility of a statistically-useful effect.
I don’t think killing him will solve anything. It just changes the owners.
she cute
I think you missed the point… oh wait are you The Guy?
You should care more about the environment dude…
We’ve never met.
