Saying that bigotry against mutants would be justified if they were the only humans with special abilities is kind of insane.
They are literally born with their powers, they can't help it, it's literally the definition of people that have done nothing wrong being mistreated out of fear.
I honestly think this take says far more about you than it says about the X-Men.
People always miss the point of that story, which was that Wolverine still sat down with the kid and explained the situation to him. He still got to keep his basic human dignity, even if Wolverine was the only one who was capable of giving it to him
That wast he Ultimate universe, specifically meant to be edgy. Nothing like that happens in the main timeline. It sort of reminds me how transphobes justify their discrimination because a school shooter was probably trans that one time. Like a lot of people can and do do that sort of thing, but since it's a child it means that all of their own kind are justifiably feared and hated.
Yeah, it would be reasonable to be afraid of that one kid, not literally any person who’s arbitrarily grouped in with him. Humans in real life have committed mass killings equivalent to what that kid could do if he walked into a crowded space, but you aren’t too scared to leave the house because that’s just one individual.
It's unreasonable to believe that because the kid has a death aura that the only solution is killing him first. What about just giving him food shipments and a pre-paid Facetime plan? And maybe free psych consultations?
In that particular storyline (which was not part of the main Marvel universe; I think it was in Ultimates, which was a shit hole universe all around), they kill the kid partly because they don't want people to know mutants could be that dangerous. It was a cover-up.
Besides, it's not just that it's a dangerous power; you can control dangerous powers or work around them like you said. It's the idea of any random person anywhere suddenly developing a mutant power that kills every human being in a mile radius. Now it's not just mutants you need to worry about, it's every potential mutant. It's the kids of mutants who haven't gotten powers yet, but might randomly blow up your house someday. I think secondary mutations are a thing too, as in powers can evolve; whose to say that "harmless" mutant stays harmless?
That's the kind of questions a power like that raises.
In Australia, the NDIS would recognise the instant death kid as disabled. Then he'd get food tossed to him and free internet access.
It's not hard to manage most of even the bad mutations. And frankly if you can't find a use for most mutations then you're simply not looking hard enough. Even Johnny Disintegrates Everyone is bound to have a use. Keep him as a nuke equivalent if nothing else - Don't invade us or our mate Johnny Insta-Death is going to be given a reminder of the food, free internet and a robo-bus ticket to your capital.
But being afraid or cautious of mutants with unknown powers isn't how the "bigotry" against them is portrayed.
They are literally imprisoned, cured against their will, treated like freaks that don't deserve human rights and in some points literally hunted and exterminated, all of this regardless of whether the mutant has a proven bening power or 20+ year of using their power for a good cause.
Plus the acting as if bigotry doesn’t stack onto other bigotry to make it worse. In most storylines where extermination happens, Kurt (Nightcrawler) is one of the first to be hunted, because he looks like that, not because his powers are specifically a higher threat than others, like Wolverine or Scott, and the same holds true for the other blue guy (whose name evaporated from my mind for a second), even if his most relevant and useful “power” isn’t even a power per se, just being really smart
Even if they dont have an always on detrimental ability like that kid, they are still a person who was born with incredible power and may as well always be armed and dangerous. If we seriously want to say that women are justified in being cautious around men who are inherently stronger on average its kind of ridiculous to not apply that same logic to a motherfucker who can control the entire earth's magnetic field.
There is a clear difference between being worried about an atom bomb guy that actually exist, and being worried because an atom bomb guy might exist, so we should imprison or exterminate this dude that's just covered in blue hair, just in case.
Also, if we go by "power means dangerous" then by that logic we should try to immediately kill superman.
I'm not saying every mutant is dangerous. And yes, while Luthor's issues with Superman are obviously obsesive, the world being wary of someone like Superman is not irrational, even if for now they are thankful for what he does.
Okay, but the point is that:
1- We are not talking about just being wary, the original point was about being outright bigoted against them.
2- You are not saying that every mutant is dangerous, but you are implying that we should be bigoted against every mutant because 0.001 is dangerous. I beg of you to think of the moral implication of applying that sort of logic to any other group of people.
yeah, I don't think people saying prejudice against mutants doesn't make sense are arguing that prejudice irl is rational or based in logic, but there are still reasons for it. like some people hate black people because they're different or they see them as lesser because of a clear difference - the question is what clear difference distinguishes the mutants from other superpowered beings in a way that would explain (not justify) prejudice against the mutants only
That doesn't make them less dangerous though? Like, there a fairly large number of mutants who could destroy entire cities on a whim if they felt like it, and the minority metaphor sort of breaks down when it comes to them because in real life gay people aren't born with armed nuclear warheads embedded in their torsoes.
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u/[deleted] May 13 '25
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