I think anyone who grew up a nerd in the 80s identified with the X-Men. \u00a0If you were gifted, or gay, or a minority, or just struggling with puberty, it wasn’t tough to see yourself in the Marvel depiction of the travails of being a mutant. \u00a0And it was a lot closer to home if you were actually attending a “School for Gifted Youngsters.” (And the headmaster-figure was legit bald. \u00a0Albeit with a terrible rug.) \u00a0\u00a0One of the geniuses of the Marvel concept of “fear of mutants” is that it’s always been applicable to something – whether it’s racism and apartheid in the 80s, or homophobia in recent years, or hell, even just the eternal struggle with being the weird kid. \u00a0In short, the struggle for mutants is about how society fears the different.<\/p>\n
Long ago, I summed up the Southern brand of conservatism as “the pant-shitting fear that someone, somewhere, might be different.” \u00a0Nailed it, too. \u00a0Look at what W.J. Cash had to say about social conformity as the strictest rule of the post-Confederate realm – in 1941. \u00a0Look at the moral panic over illegal immigration – Georgia chose to have its crops rot in the fields so they could bash brown people again. \u00a0And don’t even get me started on my own college experience as the one student with no affinity group.<\/p>\n
The key thing about the X-Men is that they don’t have a villain as such. \u00a0Charles Xavier has a dream, while Erik Lensherr is preparing for a nightmare, but they’re looking for the same thing: the safety and survival of mutants in a world that heretofore hates and fears them. \u00a0The Martin-vs-Malcolm parallels are done to the point of being ham-fisted, but they’re there for a reason. \u00a0Magneto doesn’t see himself as a villain, and Stan Lee didn’t see him as one either. \u00a0Magneto is there to save his own kind from the bigotry and ignorance of others.<\/p>\n
And make no mistake, we’re not short of either. \u00a0If ignorance ever goes to $100 a barrel, I want drilling rights on the House of Representatives and every state between South Carolina and Mississippi. \u00a0Right now, we’re on the brink of an historic economic calamity – an actual default on its debt by the United States of America – because of people who are in thrall to bigotry and ignorance. \u00a0And they’re not budging. \u00a0On that or on anything else.<\/p>\n
I want to believe in reason. \u00a0I want to believe that you can negotiate. \u00a0I want to feel like it’s possible for people to make a deal in good faith, grounded in facts and logic, and that a best-possible outcome is somehow attainable. \u00a0But more than that, I don’t want to suffer because somebody else chose to accommodate the spectacularly retarded.<\/p>\n
I want to believe in Professor X. \u00a0But right now, I want Magneto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I think anyone who grew up a nerd in the 80s identified with the X-Men. \u00a0If you were gifted, or gay, or a minority, or just struggling with puberty, it wasn’t tough to see yourself in the Marvel depiction of the travails of being a mutant. \u00a0And it was a lot closer to home if … <\/p>\n