Paul Cantrell4h ago

Watching Fedi and the world react to the US president go absolutely unhinged in public, threatening war crimes as his cognitive grip disintegrates before our eyes, watching the horror and the outage…there is something I want to tell you from Minneapolis.

And I’m not sure how, and I’m not sure if I can, but I want to try. People are always thanking us and calling us heroes and asking us for some kind of…something, anything we can offer in the face of the authoritarian march, and well, here it is, here is something, if I can figure out how to say it.

🧵

Show threadPaul Cantrell4h ago

In the first days of December, as it became clear that the ICE invasion was a real thing that was really happening to us, as groups of us gathered swapping rumors about the kidnappings and clearly inadequate tips about phone security, we had no idea what to expect, no idea what would happen, no idea what we were going to do. As much as we’d planned, heard from other cities, tried to be ready, we had no idea.

Only one thing was crystal clear: nobody, absolutely nobody, was coming to save us.

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Show threadPaul Cantrell4h ago

It was clarifying. We knew, with complete certainty, that nobody was coming to save us.

If we don’t stand in their way when they come to kidnap our neighbors, nobody will stand in their way.

If we don’t try to help people who need to hide, nobody will help them hide.

If we don’t try to feed people who can’t work, can’t even go outside to get food, nobody will feed them.

It put things into focus really fast.

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Show threadNicole Parsons

@inthehands

The fetishization of "heroes" in American culture has always been cognitively dissonant.

https://professionalsoutherner.com/2025/03/04/the-problem-of-the-hero/

People waiting around being miserable, suffering, and dying, waiting for the cavalry to arrive, or a small group of superheroes, or a lone man coming to the rescue.

It portrays Americans as a passive people letting others step forward & do the hard stuff.

Perlmutter, a major GOP donor, is the former owner of several movie franchises like the Marvel Universe.

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The Problem of the Hero — How to Watch

NOTE: In 2023, I posted this essay about a new movie about novelist Richard Wright, playwright Paul Green, and their collaboration with Orson Welles on a stage production of Native Son. I am repost…

Professional Southerner
12:29amWeb
Show threadNicole Parsons2h ago

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I sometimes wonder if such movies, with their strong theme that citizens are powerless collateral damage as the powerful battle each other, that they train voters to think they can sit on the sidelines & be Monday Morning Quarterbacks, second guessing but not participating.

16. Isaac & Laura Perlmutter $25,344,890

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/isaac-perlmutter-donald-trump-halloween-1236416587/

The Epstein Class wants us to believe someone else has the job of fighting fascism and the electorate just has to sit on their asses & ...

A Scary Sight for Disney: Ousted Marvel Mogul Seated Next to Trump at Mar-a-Lago Gatsby Bash

Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter held court with the president and Marco Rubio at the Palm Beach Halloween bash.

The Hollywood Reporter
Show threadNicole Parsons2h ago

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... wait for the courageous of Minnesota to rescue democracy.

Fascism & oligarchy is a group problem that demands group solutions, not indolence.

An over-reliance on heroes to step in to fix the problems caused by the disengaged is a sign of significant systemic issues. Fix the system instead.

The people of Minnesota set an example, now it's time to amplify their lessons in leadership

https://acrossthemargin.com/the-hero-is-the-problem/

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41172531

https://blog.richmond.edu/heroes/2022/05/26/the-problem-of-heroism/

https://medium.com/@JeffRoush/the-problem-with-heroes-9d0f00e8638e

"The Hero Is The Problem" by Mary Murray Bartolomé — Across The Margin

"The Hero Is The Problem" by Mary Murray Bartolomé — Across The Margin

Across the Margin
Show threadSu_G1h ago

@Npars01
Resonates & has a lot of explanatory power: “ The fetishization of "heroes" in American culture has always been cognitively dissonant.” ☹️
A striking but dissonant feature of US culture, as you say. 🤔
Makes what Paul writes all the more important.

#passivity #heroWorship #heroFetish #USPol

@inthehands

Show threadChookMother 🇦🇺🦘43m ago
@Npars01 @inthehands Yep. I've made the same observation. Yet in conflicts with other countries, America casts itself as the rescuing hero. Perhaps that's part of the same fantasy.