A “right wing media meltdown” has resulted from the fact that director James Gunn’s claim that his latest Superman, in theaters now, is portrayed as a “nice guy.” So asserts blogger Parker Molloy. “They’re literally angry at him for being nice,” she points out.

Can’t argue with that. Here’s some of what she cites as evidence: “Fox News immediately branded the film ‘Superwoke.’ Jesse Watters suggested Superman’s cape should read “MS13.” Breitbart called it ‘terrible,’ ‘superficial,’ and ‘overstuffed’ — which is impressive considering they hadn’t seen it yet. One OutKick writer declared that Gunn was ‘obviously upset that President Donald Trump is deporting illegal immigrants by the millions.’”

She added, “Fox News didn’t just report on Gunn’s comments; they created an entire narrative. ‘Superwoke’ became their branded shorthand, repeated across segments like a mantra. Kellyanne Conway appeared on the network to declare, “We don’t go to the movie theater to be lectured to and to have somebody throw their ideology onto us.” Because apparently, suggesting people should be kind is now ‘ideology.’”

Well, Superman is nice in the movie, take it from me. Aside from the fact the movie is just another example of what modern day Americans seem to have a bottomless appetite for, movies rated for their whiz-bang special effects over quality of acting or story lines, I thought it was a good film.

It’s a rare case of a hero actually being a good guy in more than just the superficial way that sports announcers claim for star athletes. Superman in this movie is self-conscious as being an immigrant, albeit from another planet, and of the challenges that alone presents for him. There is a soliloquy where he laments this and hopes the real Earthlings will discover that despite being an immigrant, he’s just a person with a person’s needs and aspirations, just like they are. He is not into killing people, even his arch enemy, and he has a super-cute, super-loyal super-dog who plays a big role, as well.

He (Superman, played aptly by David Cornswet) just wants everybody to get along but must temper the impact of evil intentions by others in hopes of bettering the chances for that. He’s up against a conspiracy that smacks a lot like what our current federal government is engaged in. The role of his prime adversary, played by Nicholas Hoult, reminds one of Elon Musk or any number of people orbiting around Trump.

Maybe the right wing’s loud complaints are aimed at distracting attention from the Trumpian machinations the film portrays, much like the film Stonewall, about the uprising from which the modern LGBTQ+ movement arose, was attacked from within the gay world for not having enough Third World representation in the rebels when that was a distraction from the damning role a cross-dressing J. Edgar Hoover character is assigned in it.

There is no doubt that an aversion to “nice” and “kindness” are big features of the MAGA world, in conjunction with the promotion of hyper-masculinity that is a definite aspect of our culture now. Some of us who have seen this show before are aware of how those fearing a true democracy use divide and conquer tactics and smoke screens, as well as promoting the kind of hyper-masculinity that will not question going to war at any point.

In the seminal 1970s, along with the proliferation of cults that had one or another reason for denying reason and objective facts, there was the “human potential” movement that was welcomed by corporate leaders right into the workplaces of millions.

This particularly nasty operation saw countless cases of practitioners being brought into the workplace to operate abbreviated brainwashing tactics involving sensory deprivation and lack of sleep and revealing painful personal secrets to others in the name of “ego-stripping,” as it was usually called.

But there was another more important objective, which was empathy-stripping. People were urged to break the bonds of moral and emotional ties with others they cared about and thereby felt an obligation toward. It was love out the window, replaced by selfish self-interest.

Corporate America thought this would make its workforce willing to work for less with grandma kicked to the curb.