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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   26965 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 3, 2025

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Alec could have been a hero, but in the end as Bond said, his plan was to cause a global financial crisis to steal some cash. "Nothing more than a common thief" if I recall the line correctly.

Trevelyan had a vendetta against the British because they betrayed his parents and left them to die. They later recruited him to be an agent for MI6 and figured he wouldn’t have remembered what they did because he was a young kid. He hid is true motivations until he became a fully trained spy and turned on the British just as they did to him.

That was the whole point of the story. It was a story about vengeance. I don’t blame him one bit. If my adoptive country did that to my family and friends I’d conceal my true intentions as well, and turn on and fight to dismantle and destroy them with everything I’d learned and mastered. The “bank robber” element was an insignificant sidebar to the main plot point.

At the end of the day, Alec was a traitor. He smiled at his colleagues every day while secretly he plotted to undermine everything they were working to protect. I find it hard to think of such a man as a hero.

Furthermore, the story is at the very least more complex than he tells it. What responsibility did the British owe to the Cossacks? They had fought for the enemy (Nazi Germany) against an ally. Giving them to Stalin was inglorious in a perfect world, sure, but it’s silly to treat it as a betrayal.

If I were ever in such a position I’d hope I would betray my country before I would my family and friends. Man’s a hero in my book.

If your family and friends were allied with Nazi Germany, you really should betray them and work for your country instead.

If my family and friends were allied with Nazis I’m pretty sure I had other problems somewhere along the road.

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