Oh, of course he's motivated entirely by selfishness here
He's a TERRIBLE person in most respects
The only reason that he's so aggresively pro-Mutant is because his status as a Mutant is very public knowledge at this point and the world is aggresively anti-Mutant so wholeheartedly embracing said cause is his best chance for survival
Even if he's ONLY willing to do the ruthless things needed to protect Mutantkind because he's selfish, that's still better than people who, while they do earnestly support mutantkind for selfless reasons, won't do what needs doing out of some desperate spineless desire for moral purity and desire to be the Good Minority and Not Stoop To Their Level
The problem with leftists and liberals like the X-men is that they cling to some moronic idea that deep down everyone wants to be Good
It's like the idiots who wouldn't vote for Kamala in the last election because they decided this thing she said or that thing she did didn't allign with some absurd need for Moral Purity that exists in their heads.
So yes...Sebastian Shaw only wants Mutant Liberation for selfish reasons. But....anti-mutant humans want Mutant EXTERMINATION. So really at the end of the day it doesn't fucking matter what the motives of the person who is opposing that are
Sebastian Shaw might be a monster in almost every way but he understands this about the world: It's run by bastard flavored bastards who would happily slaughter BILLIONS just to make one more dollar and who only respond to two things: The carrot and the stick
It doesn't matter how many times fucking imbeciles with an X on their costumes save the world or punch morons in stupider outfits than theirs or rescue kittens from trees...humanity will ALWAYS despise them. Just for being born. Because that's just human nature. In fact its basically the one thing that seperates us from the animal kingdom. When a lion eats a gazelle it isn't doing it because it doesn't like the gazelle's sexuality or where the gazelle is from. But humans? We're hateful.
The only way for a people that the world is bigoted against to ensure their safety is a two-pronged approach
Make it profitable for people to support them or at least leave them alone
And make the utterly terrible consequences of fucking with them very clear to people
That's the big mistake Krakoa made
Its use of life saving medicines as a form of blackmail and leverage against the worlds nations was GENIUS. A master stroke and one of the ONLY times I've ever actually been in support of anything Charles Xavier did. Saying "Give us what we want and leave us the fuck alone and we will supply you with this in return" is an excellent way to exert soft power on other nations
But it didn't have a big enough stick. Or rather it wasn't willing enough to USE a big stick
You can't simply say "Do this and things will be great for you".
You also need to be sure to show people: "Do THIS? And things will go VERY BADLY FOR YOU"
See that's what Cyclops did with Utopia, which was again a flawed approach. Terrifying humanity by showing them just how powerful Mutantkind is and how easily they could fuck them up? GREAT idea. But also not providing them with enough of a reason not to turn that fear into violence by not doing enough to make Mutantkind's presence financially/socially beneficial to those in power
You need to frighten the living shit out of people while also making yourself something they need
No one really LIKES America. Or at least not everything about America. Including those living in it.
But at the end of the day America is a big part of the cultural and financial landscape of the world. And also? America has enough Nuclear missiles to basically wipe out all life on earth. There's a reason no country in the last seventy years has tried to start a war with America and it's not because it's nice or friendly or non-threatening
It's because America helps them to survive and prosper...and they know that America could wipe them off the fucking map if it really decided it wanted to
Sebastian Shaw as a PERSON?
Yes he's a fucking monster
But Mutantkind honestly needs monsters
Because at the end of the day, Monsters Get It Done. Which is more than can be said for the X-men, whose big idea for Mutantkind in the aftermath of humanity destroying their homeland and attempting to genocide their people are basically "Run and hide and cower in dogshit places where maybe the humans won't bother to come hunt and kill us while collaborating with the very people trying to exterminate us"
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