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Comment by willcipriano | Hacker News Reader

> "All he ever wants is to be the most powerful person he can be, even though he’s completely inadequate in his abilities to handle it. So it’s white male victimisation and unchecked ambition. And those issues just happened to reflect the guy who, it’s just still surreal to say it, was fucking president of the United States"

Curious to what "white male victimisation" meant in this context it's apparently this idea that white men cannot be victims, or that issues they are concerned with don't matter.

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???

So it seems you missed the point. The world's strongest, deadliest, most powerful person, Homelander, feels like a victim because people aren't constantly praising every little thing he does.

He has literally no limits on what he is allowed to do. He can do whatever, rape whoever, kill whoever, etc., with impunity. And he does. And he still feels like he is the victim. (Note: Homelander is a more nuanced and sympathetic character in the TV show than he is in the comics, where he's more one-dimensional.)

And that's where the critique of the "white male victimization" comes in, especially with respect to Trump. Trump, like Homelander, was for 4 years the most powerful man in the world. He literally broke dozens of laws without consequence, not including all of the laws he broke without consequence before he became president. And he still felt like the victim because people weren't praising him as the next coming of Jesus.

I just don't see other races or genders described in that manner when a individual member of a group acts in a particular way.

Well that's not entirely true, I see it when I study pre-WWII Germany in reference to things like "Jewish complaints".

You are unironically proving the point. It means painting yourself as a victim when you are the one with the power. And yes there are plenty of negative generalizations applied to other races.

What's my power exactly? To be held collectively responsible for the actions of a fictional character?

> yes there are plenty of negative generalizations applied to other races.

Can you find another example of one from the guardian?

Your power is making it all the way to adulthood, literate, apparently aware of the external world and at least some of its history, without ever noticing that you've been "[seeing] other races or genders described in that manner when a individual member of a group acts in a particular way" for your entire life.

Fairnuf. But why attribute this to white males only? Thats just stupid. Mao anyone? Winnie the pooh? Saddam Hussein? Plenty of nonwhite people suffering from the same symptoms.. I so would wish thsy americans would travel outside of the us once in a while.

Because the show is about the US and US issues?

I didnt see Homelander as a victim.

He's pretty f'd up. He's a villain for sure, but he has a host of issues himself. It's a more honest portrayal of what someone with near infinite strength and powers would become. You see it this season too after <spoiler> some of the boys take V and they all become terrible </spoiler>.

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