“If Superman stands for the ungainly immigrant who came here after his people were wiped out in a holocaust and realized his full potential thanks to America, Batman represents the anti-collectivist. He captivates America for the same reason communism never caught on here, the same reason citizens hold firearms for self-defense instead of just hunting, the same reason we are the only country that questions the wisdom of socialized medicine. He is the avatar of a people whose primary wish is to be left alone.” – John Boot

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31 COMMENTS

  1. outside of the false analysis on the healthcare bit whats wrong with this statement. just look at who and how we talk about the people we reviere/look up to whether its Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King, or anyone else. We talk about them as the grater items they achieved were “Their” achievements regardless of the people working under them or with them to accomplish them. We are a culture that promotes Individual achievements rather than focusing on group achievements. the head researcher on a project in the USA normally gets the majority of the praise for the success of the project regardless of their individual contribution. there is nothing wrong with that or the realization that this is how we as a culture operates.

  2. > communism never caught on here

    If you think “communism never caught on here”, then you’ve never lived in an H.O.A.

    60 million Americans — 1/5 of the population — are governed by a communisty association.

      • > Who’s the dumbass that purchased/financed a home governed by an HOA?

        IndyEric,

        You have not refuted my point.

        The assertion that “communism never caught on here” is false, as evidenced by the 60 million Americans who are governed by a communisty association regime.

        Whether these homeowners agreed to the collective ownership of their private property with their full and knowing consent and of their own free will, as you imply, or due to failures of Rational Choice Theory required to make a free market work and government interference distorting the housing market, is beyond the scope of my comment.

      • Pretty much anyone who bought a condo.

        This also doesnt take in to account that any domestic communists were brutally suppressed by the American government for exercising their 1A rights. Take for instance McCarthyism.

    • Most HOAs are voluntary.

      A more fitting target in the fight for owning your own home should be the property tax. Property tax means you just rent your home from the government. If you don’t pay, they take your house.

      • +1000

        Even if you own your home, you pay property tax meaning you just rent your home from the government. You own the house but If you don’t pay the property tax, they take your house.

      • True is some cases. Even still, at least you have a choice to buy there or not. You have no choice when it comes to property tax.

      • > Most HOAs are voluntary.

        So are labor unions.

        Yet prohibiting mandatory membership in a labor union as a condition of employment — a.k.a. “right to work” — has been a plank in the Republican Party platform for as long as I can remember.

        And most small “c” conservatives and small “l” libertarians not only agree with, but celebrate “right to work” laws as a cure to our economic ills.

        Yet when it comes to H.O.A. unions, the same small “c” conservatives and small “l” libertarians express an utter contempt for individual Americans that would make a collectivist villain in an Ayn Rand novel blush.

      • > HOA’s can take your house as well if you refuse to pay your yearly dues.

        An H.O.A. corporation can take your house for trivial amounts and reasons, not just failure to pay assessments (a.k.a. “H.O.A. dues”).

        The industry uses an accounting practice known as “application of payments” or “priority of payments,” in which your regular H.O.A. dues can be applied to any disputed fine or fee.

        The video by FOX 7 News (Austin, TX) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1jz4OuJZcQ#t=5m25s explains it this way :

        The law says if your HOA gives you a fine and you don’t pay it, your homeowners association cannot sell your house. They can only foreclose if you’re behind on dues. But some HOAs are getting around the law, by reassigning payments. You pay your dues, but instead the HOA applies that money to fines. That way, the fine is paid whether you agree with it or not, and the HOA can still threaten to sell your house.

        …Senator Carona says he will oppose any effort to ban HOAs from reapplying your payments.

        So when the H.O.A. lobby talks about “delinquent assessments”, they often mean disputed fines and fees.

        This is how a few dollars in late dues or disputed fees can turn into thousands of dollars in attorney fees. H.O.A. attorneys have every incentive to create strife and conflict and litigation within communisty associations, because their client — the H.O.A. corporation — can and will sell your house to collect their fees — even if your mortgage is completely paid off; as happened to U.S. Army Captain Michael Clauer while he was in Iraq.

        I explain all of this in more detail at http://www.righttoown.org/home/foreclosure and http://www.righttoown.org/home/foreclosure-stories and http://www.righttoown.org/home/walter-duranty .

  3. The hippies from the 60’s that hated the US government are the one running it today and a BIG part of their “education” came from USSR spies and plants that infiltrated our greater learning institutions of the day and are still there, poisoning our youth as they “pay” for the privilege of indoctrination into the commie way of life for all.

    Fast forward 50 years and now we have them and their ideas attacking freedom from every angle 24/7/365.

    Case in point: Barak Obama

    • poisoning our youth as they “pay” for the privilege of indoctrination into the commie way of life for all.

      lol wut? If universities are communist organizations in disguise, then why do the students have to pay exorbitant tuition fees?

      • Easy answer: government-based loans. All that free money available at very little risk, so the universities upped their overhead, fees, and course costs. Everybody wins!

  6. regarding your experiences with the hoa. no insult intended here, but every block or community has “that family” or “that neighbor” that can’t understand why they can’t play heavy metal at 3 am or why their kids can’t damage other peoples property at will. as a resident of an hoa community i could go on, but the only time i’ve seen our hoa crack down is on “that neighbor”.

    • “They ought to watch the story out of Lake George that came out years ago in Florida where the [H.O.A.] board did just that. They went on the property while the homeowners were at the funeral of their infant. They painted a flipping’ chimney, and charged the homeowners, and foreclosed to collect that charge.”

      – source: Shu Bartholomew. OnTheCommons.net , March 11, 2012. at 38 minutes and 40 seconds in the program. More details here.

    • A Florida man who lost his wife and son when a plane crashed into his house may have to tear down his rebuilt home over complaints from his homeowner’s association.

      Joe Woodard’s wife and son were killed in the July 2007 crash, and he’s been building a new home on the same lot for the past year.

      “I felt I was helping the community move forward with their lives because every time you see an empty lot or a burned house, you continue to live through all the memories of what happened,” Woodard said.

      But the House of Management Enterprises, which represents the homeowners’ association, said the home, which is a few weeks from being completed, does not fit their standards and are demanding that the house be torn down.

      HOAs are private organizations formed voluntarily between homeowners and, as such, comprise varying degrees of building and maintenance codes.
      . . .
      However, one thing that shouldn’t be debatable is some perceived right to flout the rules you willingly agreed to.
      . . .
      As heartless as it appears Mr. Woodward’s HOA is being, I have to side with it over Woodward, ceteris paribus.

      source: Libertarian Examiner. September 09, 2008.

      According to the original source story [ broken link ]:

      In a letter sent to Woodard from the attorney of the homeowners’ association, three specific items were mentioned. The shingles on the home and the elevation are not consistent with the community, and the home extends a few feet longer in the back than association standards allow, the letter stated.

      Woodward “eventually capitulated to the unsympathetic HOA.“

    • Deep within the heart of a seemingly idyllic North Palm Beach neighborhood, something sinister lurks.

      “You wanna buy some lemonade?” a vendor asks.

      That’s right the sinister presence is a lemonade stand.

      The vendors are children ages 5-through-10.

      Their neighborhood homeowners association is unhappy with the business.

      “We didn’t know there was a problem, but we just received a problem, but we just received a letter a couple of weeks ago, saying that they were trying to shut us down,” said Debra Cohen.

      “They didn’t like it cause they don’t have children like us,” added Jessica Cohen, one of the small business owners.

      Prosperity Harbor Homeowners Association filed a complaint which says, “signs are prohibited and business may not be conducted in their neighborhood.”

      source: “Kid’s Lemonade Stand Curtailed By Their Homeowners Association” WPTV. March 27, 2011.

    • Some people in a Nashville neighborhood are furious over a new rule that makes it illegal to own a gun.

      Residents in Nashboro Village said it’s unconstitutional and leaves them defenseless.

      Two weeks ago, residents received a letter from their homeowners’ association indicating that guns are not allowed on the property.

      “It thought it was ironic that they say you can’t have something when the United States government says you can,” said resident Cristina Salajanu.

      source: “Community Suggests Gun Possession Is Illegal For Residents” WTVF. March 2007.

      To quote Professor Evan McKenzie, a former H.O.A. attorney:

      This is another example of what I think of as “repressive libertarianism,” where certain people who call themselves libertarians invariably side with property owners who want to limit other people’s liberties through the use of contract law. Property rights (usually held by somebody with a whole lot of economic clout) trump every other liberty. The libertarian defense of HOAs is the perfect example. The developer writes covenants and leaves. Everybody who lives there has to obey them forever, even if they lose due process of law and expressive liberties.

      As private corporations take over more functions of government, this position could lead to gradual elimination of constitutional liberties.

      McKenzie was referring to employers banning guns in their parking lots (ie, people having a gun in their car when going to and from work), but it is applicable to the example of the H.O.A. corporation banning guns in the neighborhood. In this case, the property owner is the H.O.A. corporation, which has rights as a person under the law.

      If you believe that all H.O.A. corporations do is enforce noise restrictions against heavy metal music at 3:00 am in the morning, you have no idea what is going on in this country. I could continue to cite example after example of “isolated incidents” to counter your assertion. And I will if you want me to, and this blog’s owners let me.

      But let me point to some quantitative data instead:

      Two-thirds of people who live in the jurisdiction of a homeowners association are “annoyed” by them, or worse,

      and 19% have been in what they call a “war” with their HOA.

      This is according to a survey of more than 3,000 customers by Service Magic.

      According to the survey of homeowners in H.O.A.s,

      08% think they’re great
      16% think they’re OK (24% positive)
      21% think they’re a minor annoyance
      48% think they’re a major headache (69% negative)
      07% gave no opinion
      19% said they had been in what they call a “war” with their HOA
      54% said they “would rather live with a ‘sloppy neighbor’ than deal with an HOA.”
      78% said they might consider NOT buying a home under the jurisdiction of an HOA

      It is significant that 4/5 of homeowners in an H.O.A., 47 million Americans, consider the presence of an H.O.A. a liability rather than an asset when deciding where to purchase their next home.

      2/3 of homeowners in H.O.A.s, 40 million Americans, have a negative opinion of H.O.A.s.

      That 1/5 of homeowners in H.O.A.s, 12 million Americans, have been in what they call a “war” with their H.O.A. indicates there is a serious problem that has been ignored and needs to be addressed.

      source of data: “Two-Thirds ‘Annoyed’ With HOA, Survey Says” Kathy Price-Robinson. originally published in the L.A. Times (blog). September 05, 2007 [broken link]. re-printed at “Kathy’s Re-Modeling Blog” on September 06, 2007.

      The explosive growth of H.O.A.s has not been demand driven by consumers, but supply driven by government policies and developers, creating a massive distortion of the housing market and limited consumer choice.

      Steven Siegel explains this in his article “The Public Role in Establishing Private Residential Communities: Towards a New Formulation of Local Government Land Use Policies that Eliminates the Legal Requirements to Privatize New Communities in the United States” (Urban Lawyer. Fall, 2006). The article is even longer than the title, so I would suggest listening to the interview with him at OnTheCommons.net, April 28 2007 instead.

        • everybodies experience in these matters is different. while i have no complaints with my hoa you obviously have put a lot of energy and resources into your research, which means it’s very personal for you.

  8. Since the US is fascist I don’t really see what collectivism has to do with anything.

  9. Superman worked as a journalist underneath an overbearing boss for the mass media. His occupation and cultural institution were and are today highly valued by the socialists to bring about the change they want(ed). Batman was the wealthy capitalist heir to a family fortune and lived in a mansion. His reputation was one of being at least something of a playboy, philanthropist, and mostly hands-off business owner.

  10. When you get right down to it, most gun owners (at least the ones I have met) are members of the LUTHA Party: Leave Us The Hell Alone.

  11. Just wrong. Krypton was destroyed by its unstable core. Not exactly a “holocaust” by any stretch.

    Batman is a liberal reformer that constantly saves an ungrateful and degenerate Gotham. Apparently he’s an “anti-collectivist” by turning crooks over to the unionized crooks with badges. We all know how much anti-collectivists love the prison industrial complex. He’s also emotionally week. The Joker kills thousands of civilians and Batman refuses to kill him. Really, Batman was a failed initiate and too much of a p***y to join the League Of Shadows.

    Last note. How is Batman an “anti-collectivist” by appealing to Americans? Isn’t “American” a collective identity?

  13. Anyone who claims that Communism didn’t catch on here has never been to an American university. It’s almost impossible to tell the difference between most professors and commisars, except commisars dressed better.

    • I used to work in a medical university, none of the professors there seemed like commies to me, many were assholes, but not commies.

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