The Dictatorship

The MAGA meltdown over ‘woke’ Superman is incredibly revealing

Published

12 months ago

July 12, 2025

The MAGA meltdown over ‘woke’ Superman is incredibly revealing

Superman is a uniquely American fairy tale. A simple one, too.

Once upon a time, the Kents, a childless couple from Kansas, found an alien baby in a rocket ship. They called him Clark and loved him. His real name was Kal-El, and he was forced to flee from his home world, the doomed planet Krypton. Although possessing extraordinary powers, he grew up an American, and he decided to use those abilities to help others.

But this story isn’t so simple, apparently, to some members of the conservative media, who have spent the past few days pretending to misunderstand Superman so they can publish angry posts on social media about James Gunn, the director behind the newest Superman film, which is opening this weekend.

But this story isn’t so simple, apparently, to some members of the conservative media, who have spent the past few days pretending to misunderstand Superman.

In a recent interview with The TimesGunn reflected on what the character means to him. “Superman is the story of America,” Gunn said. “An immigrant that came from other places and populated the country.”

He continued, “But for me, it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.”

The suggestion that his movie will celebrate kindness was oddly triggering to a certain segment of MAGA pundits. Influencer Clay Travis complained that America is “desperate for apolitical entertainment,” as if “kindness” is a political tactic instead of what loving parents teach their children.

Jesse Kelly, a podcaster, accused Gunn of being a “communist,” and talking head Eric Metaxas declared, “I guess we’re all skipping Superman! Go woke, go broke!”

Meanwhile, Fox News chyrons screamed: “Superwoke.” During one of many segments on Gunn’s statements, former Trump aide Kellyanne Conway said: “We don’t go to the movie theater to be lectured to.” “You know what it says on his cape? MS-13,” retorted host Jesse Watters. Hilarious.

There was a time when most Republicans would have embraced Superman’s values. But not anymore. Gunn hasn’t made Superman “woke.” Superman simply knows the difference between right and wrong. But today, I worry too many on the right see no political utility in kindness, or in publicly celebrating America’s embrace of immigrants. In fact, for many conservatives, embracing kindness appears to be a sign of weakness.

But this is not true.

Kindness is strength. Kindness is fortitude. Those who are kind know how to listen to those who feel unheard. They comfort the suffering. They forgive. If more men were kind, the world would be a better place.

Superman is a clean-cut champion with a tender heart who loves America as only an immigrant can, because immigrants chose to be here. He could easily have flown away to another country or galaxy. He could have declared himself king of the world, too, because he’s an unstoppable force of nature.

Superman chose to be an American because this country is, as Republican President Ronald Reagan once put it, “the shining city on a hill.”

Superman chose to be an American because this country is, as Republican President Ronald Reagan once put it, “the shining city on a hill.” A beacon to all. The current administration is trying to turn the lights off in that city, but it can’t, much the same way some of its most illogical followers are failing to argue Superman isn’t who he has always been.

Superman is blessedly free of cynicism. He is who he is, without ironic subtext. An alien who protects humans and fights monsters.

Superman made his first appearance in Action Comics No. 1, which came out in June 1938, a dark period in world history. He was the creation of American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian artist Joe Shuster, two young men from Jewish immigrant families who first met in Cleveland. Eighty-seven years later, Superman’s cheesy earnestness still resonates, maybe more than usual.

During the 1930s, fascism was sweeping through Europe, a political movement that promised safety to the strong at the expense of politically convenient scapegoats. But in the U.S., Siegel and Shuster were telling America’s comic book fans that the strong should ensure the weakest and most marginalized are safe.

The news today is grim: war, economic insecurity, masked officers terrorizing dishwashers and their families, natural disasters straining the resources of a federal government more interested in “owning the libs.”

But what makes Superman special isn’t his heat-ray vision or his bulletproof skin; it’s his optimism. He believes in humanity’s innate goodness so honestly and sincerely that he aspires to be a mortal, even though we fail to live up to our potential so often.

The Brits have Bond, a symbol of imperial masculinity. He’s a hero who drinks, seduces, and kills for crown and country. In America, Superman is the best hero men can aspire to.

I’ll admit I’m a bit of a superfan. I even appreciate Henry Cavill’s portrayal in 2013’s “Man of Steel.” Director Zack Snyder’s heavy metal aesthetics are looked down upon by many, but I’m not one of them. At times, his movies can come off as emotionally chilly and macho, but they’re also gorgeously shot. His imperfect, but inspired, 2009 adaptation of the classic graphic novel “Watchmen” is one of the comic book genre’s best.

Cavill is a beefy He-Man whose intelligence as an actor is often overlooked. His Superman may be more God than Boy Scout, but Cavill imbues the superhero with a sadness and restraint that should serve as a reminder to America, the most powerful nation on Earth, that compassion, not strength, is the greater virtue.

I never lacked for comic book superheroes as a boy. There were so many to choose from, even then: Batman, Spider-Man, Wolverine. But I wanted to be Superman. I didn’t want super strength or the ability to fly. (I was into the cape, though. Capes are cool.) I wanted to grow up to be the kind of adult who shows up for people in need, regardless of their race, religion or political affiliation. Everyone matters to Superman — even archenemy Lex Luthor. Indeed, one of the most underrated themes in Superman comics and movies is his repeated forgiveness of Luthor. I wanted to be a good guy. I don’t always succeed, but I try my best.

My favorite Superman moment — the one that defines the character for me — comes from the first “Superman,” respectfully directed by Richard Donner, when the hero swoops down to rescue a little girl’s cat stuck in a tree. The late Christopher Reeve played the title character in an iconic performance, and Reeve, dashing and strapping, was exceptionally good at portraying the Man of Steel’s inherent gentleness.

I loved that scene growing up because it defined Superman’s priorities: He would save Metropolis from supervillains, but he would also take the time to help a kid.

Is there a better example in all of pop culture of how a man, or anyone, is supposed to behave? If Superman can commit random acts of kindness, anyone can. And everyone should — even Jesse Watters.

John DeVore

John DeVore is a culture writer and author of “Theatre Kids: A True Tale of Off-Off Broadway.”His writing has been published in Esquire, Vanity Fair, Marvel Comics, and many other publications.

The Dictatorship

8 convicted in Texas immigration center shooting sentenced to decades in prison

Published

1 hour ago

June 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

8 convicted in Texas immigration center shooting sentenced to decades in prison

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Eight protesters accused by the Justice Department of having ties to antifawere sentenced Tuesday to decades in federal prison over a shooting outside a Texas immigration detention center that wounded a police officer. Prosecutors have called the shooting an act of terrorism.

One of the defendants, a former U.S. Marine Corps reservist convicted of opening fire during the July 4 demonstration outside the Prairieland Detention Center near Dallas, was sentenced to 100 years in prison, the maximum punishment.

The lengthy sentences were condemned by family members and supporters in a news conference outside the federal courthouse in Fort Worth. Hope Song, whose son Benjamin Songreceived the heftiest sentence, disputed prosecutors’ claims that her son shot the officer and said he didn’t intend to hurt anyone.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, one of two judges overseeing the proceedings, said what happened wasn’t a protest but “an assault on democracy.”

“The need to deter this type of conduct is high,” O’Connor said.

The seven other protesters received prison terms ranging from 30 to 70 years.

Prosecutors said the eight are members of antifa, a decentralized anti-fascist organization and a targetof the Trump administration. Antifa is not a single organization but rather an umbrella term for far-left militant groups that confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations.

President Donald Trump last fall signed an executive order designating antifa a domestic terrorist organization, even though there is no domestic equivalent to the State Department’s list of foreign terror organizations.

The defendants deny any affiliation with antifa and maintain they attended the demonstration in support of detained immigrants.

Prosecutor Frank Gatto urged the judge to impose stiff penalties.

“People with that kind of extremist beliefs need extra time in prison,” Gatto said. “They believe violence is justified.”

Phillip Hayes, Song’s attorney, said outside the courthouse that he takes issue with the idea that the protesters are extremists.

“This is a bunch of kids and young adults who really have a really big heart and really wanted their voice to be heard,” Hayes said. “It was never intended that anybody get hurt. It was never intended that any shots would be fired.”

Prosecutors said in court that Song had yelled “get to the rifles” and opened fire, striking a police officer who had just pulled up to the center.

Hayes argued that Song’s shots were “suppressive fire” and that a ricochet bullet hit the officer after he arrived on the scene and “aggressively” pulled out his firearm. He said his client will appeal the 100-year sentence.

“Song, aside from this day, has had an impeccable life. A former Marine. A good student,” Hayes said. “He had a lot of good qualities that were just ignored. The judge went ahead and gave as much as he could.”

Other defendants and their family members pleaded for leniency in court.

Autumn Hill said the gathering “seemed more like a party to me than anything else” and that she and others who participated “didn’t expect or want any violence or destruction of property to occur.”

Amber Lowrey told the judge that her sister, Savanna Batten, is a compassionate person with dreams of opening a bakery. She said Batten’s activism started with animal rights and evolved into anti-war and human rights advocacy.

“She’s the best person I know,” Lowrey said.

Hill and Batten both received 50-year sentences.

Other defendants previously pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorists rather than take their case to trial.

Critics warn the case could have a wide-reaching impact on protests given that organizations operating within the U.S. are supposed to be protected by First Amendment free-speech rights.

Last week, federal prosecutors charged 15 peoplewith impeding the Trump administration’s immigration crackdownin Minnesota. They claimed the demonstrators were members of antifa who conspired against the federal government to block arrests and deportations by setting up blockades around government buildings and throwing chunks of ice at federal vehicles, among other actions.

The Dictatorship

Tulsi Gabbard and Senate GOP face difficult new questions over influence of her ‘guru’

Published

1 hour ago

June 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Tulsi Gabbard and Senate GOP face difficult new questions over influence of her ‘guru’

About a month into Donald Trump’s second term, Senate Republicans weighed whether to confirm one of the president’s worst nominees. Indeed, the list of reasons to reject Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination for director of national intelligence was not short.

The former congresswoman lacked the requisite experience in intelligence matters. She had an indefensible habit of echoing Russian propaganda. She struggled to explain her record of defending Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime. Senators heard from former national security officials who issued unsubtle warnings about elevating Gabbard to an important and influential position.

But in case that weren’t quite enough, let’s also not overlook the fact that Gabbard was a member of a secretive Hare Krishna offshoot religious sect that is considered by many of its former members to be an abusive cult.

Gabbard, who wrapped up her tenure as DNI last week, has long insisted that any suggestion that she was somehow enthralled to or controlled by this sect or its leader, whom she has referred to as her “guru,” is just bigotry against her faith.

But it’s against this backdrop that The Washington Post obtained hundreds of secret memos prepared for Gabbard during her congressional tenure, which were put together by members of the alleged cult and which included thousands of pages of specific directives to her on policy and politics.

After careful analysis of thousands of these documents, which have not been independently verified by MS NOW, the Post determined that they likely came from Gabbard’s secretive guru, a man named Chris Butler.

The memos, starting in 2013, when the Hawaiian first arrived on Capitol Hill, reflect a dynamic in which Gabbard didn’t just take direction from the materials, but essentially took dictation from the alleged cult leader: Memos told Gabbard what she should do as a member of Congress, and she often did exactly that, sometimes word for word.

The Post’s Jon Swaine spent months trying to get Gabbard to respond to questions, but to no avail. Her spokeswoman reportedly encouraged Swaine to drop the story, saying, “I cannot imagine WaPo’s readers would be interested in yet another uncredible, bigoted attack on the DNI’s faith.”

On May 20, Swaine nevertheless alerted the DNI and top members of her staff to the fact that the Post was prepared to publish his reporting anyway on her association with Butler.

On May 22, Fox News reported that Gabbard was leaving the administration, ostensibly because of a health issue involving her husband.

This week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke on the Senate floor and commented on the reporting:

There are reports that Tulsi Gabbard was receiving instructions from a so-called guru and repeating them word for word. That ought to concern all of us if it’s true. No one knows who this guru really is, what his connections are, and where the instructions came from. … We need answers.

The New York Democrat’s comments made sense, though it’s worth considering who, exactly, “we need answers” from.

It stands to reason, for example, that Gabbard has some explaining to do, but I’m also interested in the answers from those who elevated her to an influential intelligence office in the first place.

In February 2025, confronted with an avalanche of reasons to reject Gabbard’s nomination, 52 Senate Republicans — every GOP member except Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell — shrugged off every red flag and voted to confirm her as the nation’s DNI, including so-called “moderates” such as Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski.

The question for these 52 senators seems obvious: Do you regret that confirmation vote and now recognize it as a mistake? Or do you still think it was a good idea to put Gabbard in this influential intelligence position?

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”

The Dictatorship

Trump ignored warnings before launching Iran war, reporters tell MS NOW

Published

1 hour ago

June 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Trump ignored warnings before launching Iran war, reporters tell MS NOW

Jun. 23, 2026, 2:30 PM EDT

In the lead-up to the Iran war, President Donald Trump dismissed the possibility that Tehran would close the Strait of Hormuz despite warnings from his top military adviser, authors of a new book told MS NOW’s Lawrence O’Donnell on Monday.

In their first televised interview about “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,” New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan said Trump also disregarded warnings from Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about the potential effects on American weaponry and about casualties.

The initial closure of the strait, a narrow passageway through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes, led to a spike in gas and oil prices. According to Swan, Trump thought Iran would have limited time to take action because the war would be over quickly — a claim he has made repeatedly during the nearly four-month-long war.

“He felt that this regime was a paper tiger, that this was going to be a fast war,” Swan said on “The Last Word.” “He just said he felt that that was going to be the case, that they were going to collapse very quickly.”

“It’s a form of magical thinking, actually, is what it all boils down to,” he added.

The revelation is just one of several in the book — which is based on more than 1,000 interviews — that illustrate how Trump repeatedly bases geopolitical decisions on his own whims rather than experts’ assessments.

Another example of such thinking was when Trump floated a plan to expel 2 million Palestinians from Gaza so he could turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” Haberman and Swan wrote in the book that one senior aide characterized the idea as “legitimately nutso … but very on-brand.”

Haberman also spoke about “how scared” people were inside the White House ahead of last year’s so-called Liberation Daywhen Trump unveiled sweeping global tariffs. (The Supreme Court struck down those tariffs in February.)

“They were scared at how close the bond markets came to just completely melting down seven days later, which was finally what got him [Trump] off of it, but again, it was the willingness to just go straight to the brink” that was jarring, Haberman said.

Despite such fear among Trump’s staff, Haberman added, the White House makes up “a group of people who genuinely want to see him succeed.”

Julianne McShane is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW who also covers the politics of abortion and reproductive rights. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at jmcshane.19 or follow her on X or Bluesky.