My Tribe

I shared a meme on social media that had me mulling over some aspects of tribalism. A pet theory I've been entertaining as of late is how another yet major part of the foundation of American culture was fractured with the rise in Black Lives Matter + politicization and protests among sports. Much like the regrettable polarization infecting other areas of public service by malevolent incompetence, when a previously apolitical, supposed safe zone reserved for letting off steam (ie channeling sanitized corporate + marketable urges) is removed, we now see these roaming bands of savages intent on scoring points by beating up the opposing team.

These folks could seriously use a healthy outlet, much like how followers of QAnon and other conspiracy theorists obviously exhibit obvious and serious deficiency in processing the power of imagination. This was no doubt due in some small measure to never having their imagination properly stimulated, say by reading works of fantasy and science fiction (another crucial reason to support literacy). I have a lot of empathy for folks baffled by their illogical contortions and unhinged beliefs  - it reminds me of the equally inconceivable tenets of Christianity or other religions. This is from the perspective of someone raised on an upbringing of mythology & fairy tales... so the bullshit detectors were already in place by an impressionable young age when I was exposed to attempted indoctrination to similar cultish and abusive groups. The bewilderment and perplexity of coming into contact with evangelical systems is the exact same thing.

Back to Batman: Another take would be how I never aligned myself with teams like "Marvel" versus "DC," endless fanboy debates aside I've always sided with characters, and even more specifically later on in life, it's the writers in particular who will shape my view of a feature or franchise. For example while I do have an essential reading section on the shelves dedicated to Batman, it's the work of individual creators I'll gravitate towards - and good storytelling is the shared aesthetic. Bonus points for irony in that one of my favorite authors is almost anything by Grant Morrison, who certainly has his own unique perspective. You simply cannot ever look at things normally ever again once you've mentally wrapped yourself around Flex Mentallo, The Filth, and Doom Patrol.