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X Men: is Magneto Right? | Philosophy Tube ft NerdSync

Philosophy Tube | September 19, 2025



Marvel Comics & philosophy! Professor X might be a liberal but what if Magneto’s revolutionary politics is the path to peace? How do we challenge structural violence and systemic oppression?
NerdSync’s video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUe2nKdrBqg&feature=youtu.be

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Recommended Reading:
PBS Idea Channel, What is Violence? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyitF-6tBu4
Falguni Sheth, Toward a Political Philosophy of Race
Johan Galtung, Violence, Peace, & Peace Research
Johan Galtung, Violence, War, and their Impact
Elias Canetti, Crowds and Power (Has some cool stuff about survivor psychology that might be very relevant to Magneto!)
Franz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
Achille Mbembe, Necropolitics
bell hooks, Ain’t I A Woman Chapter 4, “Racism & Feminism” and Feminism is for Everybody
Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery
X-Men, X2, X-Men the Cartoon Series, X-Men First Class,
X-Men Days of Future Past, X-Men Apocalypse, X-Men comics

Music by Epidemic Sound (Epidemicsound.com)

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Comments

This post currently has 40 comments.

  5. @zionleach3001

    September 19, 2025 at 6:09 pm

    Aside from the movie version. I feel Xavier and Magneto are both right. Or at least they should protect BOTH species. Look at what humans do to those percieve as different for any reason.

  8. @DummyFace123

    September 19, 2025 at 6:09 pm

    Great video! Its difficult to know what people even mean when they say that "Magneto Is Right".

    At times he is a mutant supremacist, and an Omega level Mustache Twirling villain. I don't side with him in those views, certainly very few people do. But there are nuggets of undeniable truth in his comic frames. Hes suffered humanity at its worst and knows the ugly truth that idealists like Charles would deny.

    There will always be humans that fear and seek to disenfranchise mutants. This is proven true over and over again.

    Charles' truth as a people pleaser is to earn humanity's respect and trust through supplication and bargaining.

    Magneto's truth is that mutants should not have to bargain with humanity, that together mutants can guarantee their own future and security. Magneto knows that their freedom and security cannot be guaranteed by human governments. And if you ask me these are undeniable truths If mutants were real irl you know with 10,000% certainty that every nation on this planet would have them registered and watched and have an Order 66 contingency plan for them. Because its the smart thing to do. They are potentially WoMD.

    See I wouldn't even blame humanity in reacting this way. Power is power, and weapons capability is weapons capability. If we knew that someone existed where they could sneeze and accidentally blow up a city, we would want them neutralized. Its the obvious thing to do and I wouldn't even view it as evil.

    In the context of the marvel universe though, there are world ending threats all over the universe and so its a bit different, you would want magneto and xavier alive and as defenders of planet earth.

    Both sides are right. Mutant registration makes sense if you think that firearms registration makes sense. And also true equality and freedom for mutants can only be guaranteed by mutant kind by force, like on Genosha/Krakoa.

    Who is right, Xavier or Magneto? Both of them. Xavier should pursue justice and freedom for mutants in the lands governed by humanity, and Magneto should pursue founding governments of mutantkind for mutantkind, and guarantee their lives and liberties through force. (when I say through force I just mean like every nation does. The USA would not negotiate with Russia in response to an invasion of unsanctioned police oppressing citizens in California, for example. They would instead respond with … "measured" violence)

  11. @ink3487

    September 19, 2025 at 6:09 pm

    The X men are nonviolent… Did you miss the part where the X men go out and beat up villains? The whole dichotomy of the X men and magneto is that the X men will go out and save EVERYONE while magneto only cares about mutants.

  15. @Griffinwing420

    September 19, 2025 at 6:09 pm

    I wonder how humans would fare under a mutant dominanted world? Mutants can at the very least hold their own against human armies with modern technology whereas a human minority against a mutant majority would be fodder. Would mutants be any more fair to humans than the other way around? Or would humanity be a hated minority with little to no rights?

    I wonder if there's any story where a mutant couple has a human child who becomes a mutant advocate because they were raised right or where a human born to mutant parents who was hated and abused or abandoned by them and ended up hating mutants?

  17. @cmsmc2

    September 19, 2025 at 6:09 pm

    I think the lack of discussion about intersectionality in x-men happens for two reasons, first of all, mainstream corporation only cares about profits, second and very much related to first, most of the time cis-het white men are in charge of the decisions and writing the comics, they rarely ever would see the need to include these debates, most of the time they lack the readings necessary to incorporate the arguments…

  26. @jaydenburgher2651

    September 19, 2025 at 6:09 pm

    Liberalism doesn't truly believe in non violence, how do liberals think liberalism came about. And also liberal states invaded iraq and Afghanistan for liberal reasons, that's an incredible amount of violence

  27. @nkosig4995

    September 19, 2025 at 6:09 pm

    I mean intersectionality is def a thing lookup northstars childs backstory. I blame disney for shoving it down.

    Also for dedicating waaaaay to many comics to queerbaiting.

  28. @nkosig4995

    September 19, 2025 at 6:09 pm

    I think people idealize magnito as a leader too much. Hes genuinly a toxic person. He treat the people under him and his own children like crap. Even, if not more so, when hes on charles path. And despite his words the way he treats people usually causes his plans to backfire.
    Also this is a main reason why his relationship with rogue is stupid like outside his ideals hes way too truamatized to be in this sort of relationship

  30. @DJ_Faatz

    September 19, 2025 at 6:09 pm

    It’s crazy how yall can’t legit agree with magneto in a fictional world , yet play a blind eye and make excuses for modern day racism and prejudice towards minorities???

  36. @quantgeekery6358

    September 19, 2025 at 6:09 pm

    I am not sure about Stonewall. Stonewall was possibly successful due to its timing wrt to Civil Rights era and the Vietnam War. There are only so many ways to divide and conquer that do not devolve into anarchy and dissolution. Holding the line on sodomy laws while also continuing desegregation and equal rights policies throughout the 1960s and 1970s would be an incredibly hard sell to racially conservative, capitalist homosexuals.

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