Daily Comics Digression #7: Mark Waid Shot First

Daily Comics Digression #7: Mark Waid Shot First

So Ethan Van Sciver, a.k.a. Bob-the-customer-relations-Builder, is seeing an uptick in attention. While some of it is positive, there has also been a marked increase in diatribes against him. Since he doesn't ascribe to the tenets of progressivism, the common mantra has been to accuse him of being a Nazi. This ad-hominem attack is clearly baseless. Ethan espouses no views in common with such an abominable group; he's just not a Democrat.

Truly, the face of evil.

Nazi comparisons are the worst kind of false equivalency. Everything to the right of cultural Marxism seems to inevitably get compared to Hitler. SJWs who think that WWII analogies are like some kind of rhetorical nuclear weapon now face a perplexing paradox. Although such methods have proven to be effective, the more they are used, the more useless the label of "Nazi" becomes. The tactic has gotten so tired and overused that it has resulted in these very terms losing much of their meaning. If everyone is Hitler and a Nazi, then no one is.


But the real reason I am bringing this up is that this tactic of labeling Van Sciver a Nazi for no good reason is nothing new. Back in 2011, Mark Waid related this in a post where he describes confronting notorious fraudster Rob Granito:

Truly, the face of stupidity.

"Dear Fraudboy: When you have comics' leading leftwing socialist hippiefreak AND comics' leading rightwing Nazi teaming up to smack you down, YOU HAVE F*CKED UP."

In this particular instance, both Waid and Van Sciver confronted Granito due to the latter's false claims that he had worked with the acclaimed Dwayne McDuffie, who created Static Shock and worked on that wonderful Justice League cartoon everyone watched as kid. That story, as awesome as it is (Google Rob Granito sometime), is immaterial here. What I want to point out is Mark Waid's duplicity.

Notice that on the surface, Waid appears to be self effacing while poking fun at Ethan. It's even handed, right? Nope. While he calls himself a "socialist hippiefreak," he manages to accuse Ethan of being a Nazi. This is about as even handed as having a cupcake in one hand and a sledgehammer in the other. The terms "socialist"  and "hippiefreak" do NOT have social parity with a loaded term like "Nazi." Such an infamous label is deleterious to anyone who is associated with it, no matter what side of the political spectrum you fall. Being the talented wordsmith, Waid manages to pat his fellow man on the back while simultaneously backhanding him across the face.

Truly, a face.

Now I would not say that there is any particular enmity between Mark and Ethan. The two recently did an interview together (though it seemed Waid pouted about it afterward). However, one could go so far as to hypothesize that Mark Waid is incapable of being civil to someone with whom he disagrees. Even if he manages to do some surface lip service to your face, he sub-consciously cannot avoid sneaking a stab into your back.

I could be wrong about this, I suppose, so feel free to let me know if I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. But I have been unable to shake my feelings regarding Waid's chosen words in this exchange ever since I read them seven years ago.