LogFAQs > #980296875

VeggetaX posted...

Very good of you to make this distinction because it was looking like you were saying "genocide against the complete opposition because a group of them are our oppressors".

So that's always been the quandary of the Magneto character. Ultimately he wants what is best for mutant kind. He doesn't care about humanity, because humanity doesn't think of him as one of them.

It's what makes his Jewish heritage very important to the character. He lived through what the Nazis did. They were only a small portion of humanity but the thing is, no one cared. Not a single country on earth was fighting the Nazis because of what they were doing to the Jews. If the Nazis hadn't been hell bent on invading all of their neighbors, no one would have given a shit. Countries, knowing what the Nazis were doing, turned away Jewish refugees. Sent them back to be slaughtered, because they didn't fucking care. So even though it was just a small portion of humanity committing the holocaust, the rest of the world shared responsibility because they did nothing. That doesn't mean individuals didn't try and help, but the Nations of the world, and humanity as a whole failed in every sense of the word.

If you are walking down the street and you see someone getting the shit kicked out of them and say "not my problem" and keep walking, you now share part of the responsibility for that beating. Neutrality only ever benefits the oppressor, not the person being oppressed.

So in the mind of a man like Magneto, with his experiences, you can see where he might be able to justify in his mind what he does. "These people are trying to do what the Nazis did and everyone else is going to let them, just like with the Nazis. What they are doing is benefitting my would be oppressor, so that gives them a share of the responsibility for their crimes. So why should I mitigate my force against my murderers to protect those who don't care if I get killed. Especially when they don't even think of me as human".

And I can't say that were I Magneto, with all of his life experiences, I would feel any differently. It doesn't make him right, but it sure as fuck doesn't make him wrong in his reasoning.
Again, we aren't supposed to have an easy answer. If I had to guess Claremont's goal was simply to get people to think and try and do better.