Board 8 > Politics Containment Topic 443: 'Is Batman a socialist?' locked after 500

(+) Yeah! (+)

HanOfTheNekos posted...

Also not right!

I've been thinking of it for a bit - and I'm pretty sure the answer is with some amount of nuance, but legislatively left since his family was big on public works and he honors his parents above all.

Batman doesn't desire a police state, but he will monitor everyone himself.

He's flat-out against guns, though I'm unsure if it's ever stated if he's against the 2nd amendment.

He surely believes in combatting climate change.

He's the biggest employer in Gotham, but also probably is the most fair with wages in Gotham.

He works with the police, but also works against police corruption.

He amasses fortune through business - but uses that fortune to provide a public service - in the form of a private militia.

Ultimately, what I think it comes down to is this: public works that benefit society make his job as Batman easier and closer to unnecessary. He's about helping people, and not so much "pull myself up by my bootstraps". Like, there's no argument that Batman would support systems that help the poor and disenfranchised.

If a candidate was personally a problem, he would identify them and probably remove them from contention before voting became a thing. In the case of Trump, he probably is able to access whatever records exist that prove Trump as a pedo-rapist and doing shady deals for foreign actors and then reveals that publicly to bring him down. If it's just a politician he doesn't like, however, then he'd just vote against.

Ultimately though, I don't think Batman cares about voting as much. It's more likely he masquerades as a bigwig donor - probably for both sides to play the role of buffoon - and understands that a presidential choice doesn't always have anything to do with the work he considers that he has to do himself - which is, ultimately, very authoritarian at times. He's a moral absolutist, after all.

Of course, Batman has been personally named public enemy number 1 by a president before, so I'm sure he has some care for who takes the office beyond what we do.

I'll defer to this evaluation. I've really only got surface-level Batman knowledge.

Another story of the day is that based purely on party affiliation, Florida might be Red as FUCK tonight. Like, deeeeep red. Which....is actually a good thing if it holds, since what that likely means is that DeSantis turned that state into a Republican heat sink that is absorbing Republicans from swing states.

Mostly just saying it wasn't right that he believes his role is to punch criminals. The guy runs (or did run?) the biggest business in Gotham, and one of the biggest in the world. He's much more involved with people than just punching baddies.

Also, I'm by no means the expert on these matters. There are other more well-read folk in this topic.

Also worth pointing out that it may be erroneous to call Batman authoritarian - he'a pretty strongly against authoritarianism. He just uses police state tactics.

Like a benevolent Big Brother.

If Iowa goes blue, Democrats might never run a white person for president again.

President Warnock incoming.

Yeah I don't see Batman as firmly red or blue and more of a "vote on candidates not party" kinda guy

But he absolutely votes Harris here

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Another story of the day is that based purely on party affiliation, Florida might be Red as FUCK tonight. Like, deeeeep red. Which....is actually a good thing if it holds, since what that likely means is that DeSantis turned that state into a Republican heat sink that is absorbing Republicans from swing states.

Not so good for people living in Florida, though.

paperwarior posted...

Not so good for people living in Florida, though.

Believe it or not, my brother and his wife are leaving Florida - to return to Ohio.

My wife and I would 100% leave Florida but we cant for 10 years due to my stepdaughter

HanOfTheNekos posted...

He surely believes in combatting climate change.

Sidebar to this, I find it annoying that Dark Knight Rises paints his pro-nuclear energy agenda as being well-meaning but naive - because terrorists would just be able to hijack the reactors and blow up football. Like Bane just plugs a laptop into a fusion reactor, types a few things and converts it into a neutron bomb gimme a break

HanOfTheNekos posted...

Believe it or not, my brother and his wife are leaving Florida - to return to Ohio.

have they considered a state that doesn't suck shit

LightningStrikes posted...

Wait a second.

Alfred is Batmans butler. I dont remember him being mad about the surveillance thing. Also, Alfred is regrettably 100% Tory.

The one mad about the surveillance was Lucius Fox. Also clearly liberal how?

Lucius my bad

HanOfTheNekos posted...

Also not right!

I've been thinking of it for a bit - and I'm pretty sure the answer is with some amount of nuance, but legislatively left since his family was big on public works and he honors his parents above all.

Batman doesn't desire a police state, but he will monitor everyone himself.

He's flat-out against guns, though I'm unsure if it's ever stated if he's against the 2nd amendment.

He surely believes in combatting climate change.

He's the biggest employer in Gotham, but also probably is the most fair with wages in Gotham.

He works with the police, but also works against police corruption.

He amasses fortune through business - but uses that fortune to provide a public service - in the form of a private militia.

Ultimately, what I think it comes down to is this: public works that benefit society make his job as Batman easier and closer to unnecessary. He's about helping people, and not so much "pull myself up by my bootstraps". Like, there's no argument that Batman would support systems that help the poor and disenfranchised.

If a candidate was personally a problem, he would identify them and probably remove them from contention before voting became a thing. In the case of Trump, he probably is able to access whatever records exist that prove Trump as a pedo-rapist and doing shady deals for foreign actors and then reveals that publicly to bring him down. If it's just a politician he doesn't like, however, then he'd just vote against.

Ultimately though, I don't think Batman cares about voting as much. It's more likely he masquerades as a bigwig donor - probably for both sides to play the role of buffoon - and understands that a presidential choice doesn't always have anything to do with the work he considers that he has to do himself - which is, ultimately, very authoritarian at times. He's a moral absolutist, after all.

Of course, Batman has been personally named public enemy number 1 by a president before, so I'm sure he has some care for who takes the office beyond what we do.

All of this says that the best analogy for Batman is the US itself, and Gotham is the global geopolitical landscape

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Another story of the day is that based purely on party affiliation, Florida might be Red as FUCK tonight. Like, deeeeep red. Which....is actually a good thing if it holds, since what that likely means is that DeSantis turned that state into a Republican heat sink that is absorbing Republicans from swing states.

Unsurprising. Florida is the endgame retirement spot of GOP oldies.

Counterpoint to all the Batman discussion. He doesn't keep his promises:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-of2BjL6Dy0

https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1853887635691131063?s=42

Oh?

https://x.com/jdawsey1/status/1853851741818929176?s=42

he should stfu

God, can you imagine how big his tantrum will be once he loses this one too. He'll be so pissed that he'll complain till he literally dies.

The issue with trying to do comics comparisons to real-life politics is that we don't live in a world with supervillains. Well, we DO, but I mean supervillains who dress up in crazy outfits and try to kill literally everyone in the city once a week. If we had a real-life Joker, not many people would be complaining about Batman rising up to stop him.

You can say that's problematic as the inherent framework of superheroes stories is authoritarian-leaning, but that's a different discussion entirely.

KamikazePotato posted...

dress up in crazy outfits and try to kill literally everyone in the city once a week

garbage man uniform, etc

UltimaterializerX posted...

Maricopa is reporting a massive republican turnout.

I think I might just stop paying attention. That is bad news.

Arizona is not needed for the W

Ignore the noise

Literally the bitcoin price rn
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b6a57308.png

Forceful_Dragon posted...

Arizona is not needed for the W

AZ has it's fair share of Trumpers, but there is still a lot of older McCain Republicans here. So big R turnout there doesn't really matter, also a third of the state are registered independents or something close to that.

On the Dark Knight Rises thing they did at least have the scientist there to convert the reactor but yes that is the weakest part of the film (at least the cop stuff still lands on critical of the police), you cannot convert a reactor into a bomb and it does play into anti-nuclear energy sentiment a bit.

KamikazePotato posted...

You can say that's problematic as the inherent framework of superheroes stories is authoritarian-leaning, but that's a different discussion entirely.

Theres an absolutely incredible Steven Moffat quote about how the Doctor from Doctor Who bucks this trend:

A lot of our heroes depress me. But when they made this particular hero, they didn't give him a gun, they gave him a screwdriver to fix things. They didn't give him a tank or a warship or a X-Wing Fighter, they gave him a phone box from which you can call for help. And they didn't give him a superpower, or pointy ears, or Heat Ray, they gave him an extra heart. They gave him two hearts and that is an extraordinary thing. There will never come a time when we don't need a hero like the Doctor.

More superheroes like the Doctor! Incidentally in one late Peter Capaldi episode he literally blows up space capitalism. Its awesome.

Yeah, but does Bruce Wayne vote differently than The Batman?

My prediction is that we are going to see unusually high R -> D and I -> R voting today.

wallmasterz posted...

https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1853887635691131063?s=42

That's why Trump odds have been manipulated yeah

It's going to like $3 if Trump loses. Retail investors are gonna get wrecked if that happens

Sorozone posted...

AZ has it's fair share of Trumpers, but there is still a lot of older McCain Republicans here. So big R turnout there doesn't really matter, also a third of the state are registered independents or something close to that.

That's a good point as well. These aren't results we're seeing, these are potentially a snapshot of how people have previously registered and identify themselves as.

the anti-Trump McCain stans will show up as republicans in that metric.

And while it will be more pronounced perhaps in Arizona we should see that nationwide. Where very few registered democrats vote for Trump, but a larger % of registered republicans "have had enough" of Trumps divisiveness and they vote for Harris. At least that is what I would expect.

Seanchan posted...

Yeah, but does Bruce Wayne vote differently than The Batman?

Bruce Wayne would publicly and loudly claim he's voting R to keep up appearances of the rich out-of-touch asshole, then vote D.

It would give me enormous pleasure for Arizona to be blue this election with my mother and her husband voting for trump.

Kenri posted...

have they considered a state that doesn't suck shit

I'll stan for Ohio still! Better than 50% of states at least.

AuraChannelerCh posted...

Counterpoint to all the Batman discussion. He doesn't keep his promises:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-of2BjL6Dy0

You can't use the Harley Quinn series as a generally accurate representation of the characters tho.

KamikazePotato posted...

The issue with trying to do comics comparisons to real-life politics is that we don't live in a world with supervillains. Well, we DO, but I mean supervillains who dress up in crazy outfits and try to kill literally everyone in the city once a week. If we had a real-life Joker, not many people would be complaining about Batman rising up to stop him.

You can say that's problematic as the inherent framework of superheroes stories is authoritarian-leaning, but that's a different discussion entirely.

Sure, but doesn't mean we can't do it.

Look, I know some people have a lot of anxiety about today and the first half of the day has basically no news to report so I figured Batman discussion was a good way tide people over. It also got some laughs out of Foolmo's stumbling so all-in-all, quite a success

My father is a staunch republican, and he voted Kamala, saying the only reason he is doing so is because he doesn't think Trump would leave after 4 years.

I really hope this is a common thought among old white men

I'm now interested in the question of:

Assuming there are no restrictions (ie. felon disenfranchisement, not American citizen), and assuming they have a binary choice between Harris and Trump, how would Batman's biggest villains all vote?

KamikazePotato posted...

Bruce Wayne would publicly and loudly claim he's voting R to keep up appearances of the rich out-of-touch asshole, then vote D.

I think he'd hedge the line as much as possible, glad-handing everyone, then claim to vote third party. Or write-in Superman.

https://x.com/capitolpolice/status/1853869248562475086?s=42

This is fine

KamikazePotato posted...

You can say that's problematic as the inherent framework of superheroes stories is authoritarian-leaning, but that's a different discussion entirely.

It's really the same discussion because that's the thesis of Watchmen and part of my original comment

It's interesting how small differences in electoral vote count can decide this election. We have 3 buckets with similar but not identical EVs:

Pennsylvania - 19
Arizona + Nevada - 17
Georgia - 16

Unless he can pull off a win in MI or WI (I think it's unlikely he can do this and also lose Pennsylvania) or wins somewhere very unexpected, then Trump needs Pennsylvania plus one of the other two buckets here. If Pennsylvania had just one less electoral vote, Trump could win the election (in the House, after a 269-269 tie) by winning the other buckets.

But as it is, Pennsylvania is truly a must win for Trump.

Inviso posted...

I'm now interested in the question of:

Assuming there are no restrictions (ie. felon disenfranchisement, not American citizen), and assuming they have a binary choice between Harris and Trump, how would Batman's biggest villains all vote?

Joker doesn't vote
Riddler goes Kamala
Penguin goes Trump

Idk what other Batman villains are considered the biggest

Harvey Dent tries to vote twice

The Joker would vote Trump because even though he hates Nazis, some men just want to watch the world burn

Two Face would flip a coin, obviously

Penguin strikes me as an old-school Democrat. Hed vote Harris but wouldnt like her.

Poison Ivy would vote Harris for the planet

Harley Quinn canonically voted for Bernie, so Harris

Riddler it depends on the version but the Paul Dano one would LOVE Trump

This is fun.

Man-Bat

HanOfTheNekos posted...

tl;dr Batman would vote for what he thinks is best but ultimately cares more about local elections unless a supervillain is running for office... Again.

I would expect him to vote left more often than right but ultimately I don't think he would have any party loyalty.

Finally the right answer

Things can change, but I am not seeing any indication that the gender gap is noteably shrinking on election day so far.

Kteankt

I remember a comic where Joker ran for office. Part of his campaign was that he would kill a random civilian daily until elected.

Do we know if the DCU canonically has the same political parties as the real world? What about Lex Luthor's party affiliation when he came president?

LightningStrikes posted...

Kteankt

Your biopsy came back. The tumor Kteankt malignant

That's what I get for going to get an apple as soon as I hit post.

maricopa has only swung dem once in the past 70 years

Inviso posted...

Assuming there are no restrictions (ie. felon disenfranchisement, not American citizen), and assuming they have a binary choice between Harris and Trump, how would Batman's biggest villains all vote?

Riddler votes Kamala Harris because he despises the rich and corrupt. And he seems to have a decent grasp on who's corrupt
Joker votes Jill Stein for the chaos, he couldn't stand Trump because even Joker has some standards. He would also view Trump as competition for attention.
Scarecrow votes Trump because FEAR
Catwoman votes for Harris
Penguin votes for Trump
Poison Ivy votes for Harris unless she thinks she could kiss Trump and make him do her bidding.
Two Face flips a coin and lets it decide.
Mr. Freeze votes for Kamala. His only real goal is to save his wife.
Killer Croc would vote for Trump

Just my guesses.