Good news: There's very little of The Ultimates in this episode.

Bad news: That means we have to fill air time talking about ways in which the US government infiltrates and shuts down left wing movements, how the working class needs to learn to come together, and how other countries are good, actually. Hooray.

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Tony Stark knows you better than you know yourself.

In this age of sensors, cameras, and speculative markets, everything we do is catalogued and sold to the highest bidder.

Unlike the Earth in this issue, our privacy isn't being invaded. We're giving it up willingly.

(Ultimate Celebrity Sighting Count: 23)

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Old jokes and old terrors. New jokes and new meanings.

Does the United States of America care about you? Of course not. As a project at large, the United States is a vehicle for consumption and destruction, and even its most ardent defenders get thrown into the fuel tank.

We explore that here. Also, Hank Pym's anatomy.

I'm a Doofus Update: I missed TWO Ultimate Celebrity Sightings in this one - Elton John and a (not mentioned) John Wayne reference!

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Why does the United States of America keep children at its southern border? Why did Ronald Reagan give millions of dollars a day to fascists in El Salvador? Why does the Black Widow want a fake ID?

It's all for Tony Stark.

For the current count of children held at the US border:

https://healthdata.gov/widgets/ehpz-xc9n

Erratum: The Trump administration assassinated Qasem Soleimani on Jan. 3rd, 2020, not 2021 as was stated in the episode. I'm a doofus who likes to type dates wrong and then read them that way on the air. Thank you.

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CW: Violence and anti-Muslim racism

You are not you. You are you plus others. You are you plus others plus your environment.

When this you is split, the consequences are almost beyond imagining. Almost. Through the Ultimates' manipulation of the media and the narrative, we imagine them here.

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CW: Discussions of assault

Between commodifying relationships and driving the need for imperial expansion, capitalism sure has done a number on this world. While all workers are victims of it, there are those upon whom the blows fall more heavily. Concurrently, there are those who, by the very nature of capitalist occlusion (and exclusion), are either bribed or hoodwinked into being foot soldiers for their own and others' oppression.

We can be more. We can be just and loving. A better world starts with us. Specifically, with us not reading Mark Millar.

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Found on 1/25/23

Is this a message? A warning? Who left this for us?

If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of the subject of the recording, please email [email protected].

Solidarity.

[Heads up for this one: The intro contains a real 911 call that some might find disturbing. I certainly did.]

Do you have an adequate support structure in times of crisis? Beyond your family or your personal savings (if you've even got any)?

Social safety nets are being taken from us every day. Some more rapidly and violently than others. This is deliberate and nefarious, but it can't begin to compare to the suffering caused when our leaders export these systems of exploitation.

Here we see the Hulk doing George Bush Jr.'s work for him, and I'm sure SHIELD and the rest of the US military are happy to go along with it.

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In the corporate-funded presentation of politics, the actions of a "destined" few among the "everyday" many are highlighted and made to seem necessary and inevitable. This is reinforced by an entertainment industry that delivers these narratives in flashy and convincing ways.

This trope of the "heroes" being removed from or above the masses serves only those currently benefitting from our belief in it. Further, any "hero" speaking truth to those in power can be undercut in so many ways, and can never properly represent us.

*We* are the only ones who can save the world.

(Ultimate Celebrity Sighting Count: 13)

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Things are being taken from us. Even many who have been systemically shielded from the violence of this decay are beginning to notice.

What is there to do about this rot from the right?

Who can save us from it?

Don't go looking to the Ultimates for answers.

(Ultimate Celebrity Sighting Count: 3)

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