Canada’s Premiere Conservative Cultural Critic Claims the Current ‘Captain America’ Story Casts Him As the Red Skull
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The best Captain America stories have always been critiques of the far-right and problematic political foes of American yesteryear. Indeed Cap’s own identity is fraught with the burden of reconciling its inherently jingoistic nature that seems strident outside of war time. It is, in this vein, that Ta-Nehisi Coates has been writing a very-much-worth-checking-out Captain America that explores these themes.
Esquire said, “If you want to read something, you know, with some insight before the dumbassery ahead, check out Volume One of Cap x Coates here. It follows the recovery of an America that HYDRA actually manages to conquer at one point, thanks to a fake Cap declaring allegiance to the organization. The Falcon and the Winter Soldieris using its post-Blipped world as a way into investigating the motivations of forum-lurking groups like QAnon. Now, Canadian psychology professor and guy you avoid at parties Jordan Peterson believes [writer Ta Nehisi] Coates used his philosophies in the newest issue of Captain America.”
Coates who previously helmed Black Panther began his career as an essayist at the politically left leaning Atlantic Monthly, which is why Peterson has homed in on the parallels. He believes it to be a highly sophisticated form of political character assassination.
We’ll get to the panels in a second here, but one scene sees the villainous Red Skull pointing out the ’10 RULES FOR LIFE’—which feels reminiscent of Peterson’s rallying cry for angry little boys, 12 Rules for Life—which include ‘CHAOS AND ORDER,’ ‘KARL LUEGER’S GENIUS,’ and ‘THE FEMINIST TRAP. Nice. In another moment, Captain America riffs on America’s weak, young men who are “looking for purpose,” making them willing to live and die for anyone who challenges their secret greatness. This, again, is reminiscent of teachings from the dude who fears that ‘the masculine spirit is under assault.'”
Peterson’s claim to fame began when he released a series of YouTube videos criticizing the Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code (Bill C-16), passed by the Parliament of Canada to introduce “gender identity and expression” as a prohibited grounds of discrimination. He argued that the bill would make the use of certain gender pronouns into compelled speech, and related this argument to a general critique of political correctness and identity politics. Peterson’s lectures and debates eventually gradually gathered millions of views and became the basis for his bestselling book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos.
“Peterson,” says Esquire, “Never one to not be online and miss such a thing, tweeted about the seeming parody, responding to both the Red Skull panel and the Cap dialogue. And to be clear, it’s not apparent what, exactly, he’s taking issue with—he merely asked questions about the panels and seems surprised that they existed in the first place.”
What the hell? https://t.co/CGkuztpEjq
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) April 6, 2021
Is this from the same issue? https://t.co/jYksMVLXKl pic.twitter.com/cLl8IelMPg
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) April 6, 2021
Coates hasn’t responded to Peterson’s tweets, so we can’t yet confirm that the correlation was intentional. But it wouldn’t be a stretch to think that Coates, a longtime contributor to the left-leaning magazine, The Atlantic, and critic of America’s racist past and present, would take aim at Peterson.Even if he didn’t, that hasn’t stopped the merry rage gang from chiming in. Conservatives seem mostly upset at the possibility of Peterson’s ideas being worked into the philosophies of Red Skull, whose origins, historically, are that of a Nazi general officer.
The fact that Ta-Nehisi Coates was trying to come up with the most evil supervillain he could and the best he could do is a Canadian psychologist who writes about Jungian analysis and encourages young men to make their beds is pretty telling.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) April 6, 2021
Captain America’s villain, “Red Skull”, now promotes “10 rules for life” and “chaos and order” … mocking Jordan Peterson.
The comic also dishonestly associates Peterson with nazis.
But @JordanBPeterson‘s real impact is helping men find meaning in RESPONSIBILITY: pic.twitter.com/hC6VwFZgjK
— John Stossel (@JohnStossel) April 6, 2021
Ultimately though as many have pointed out putting Jordan Peterson’s words in Red Skull’s mouth gives the supervillain a plausible set of motivations in the world today.
At least putting Jordan Peterson’s words in Red Skull’s mouth gives the supervillain a plausible set of evil motivations! https://t.co/BSJzR75WdQ
— Charlie Stross (@cstross) April 6, 2021
Post Millennial said: “Peterson’s audience is often described as being composed of young men who are searching for direction in life, and Peterson tries to convince the males in his audience to take on responsibility, grow up, and become men. While some critics of Peterson have characterized him as portraying the whole world to be against his followers, his message often focuses on the idea that life is suffering, and that only through the taking on of responsibility can men find the necessary tools to handle the suffering that accompanies life and turn it into something meaningful.”
So intentionally or not, Coates implementing the culture of the anti-PC bro into a Cap comic is unequivocal critical comic book gold.