Ted Cruz, Once Again, References 'Watchmen' To The Great Displeasure Of Fans

Senator Ted Cruz knows how to make headlines big and small. Less than a month after lawmakers and pundits began blaming him for his role in inciting January's storming of the United States capitol, he turned his sights on smalled controversies: Superheroes.

In the latest installment of Cruz's podcast The Verdict, an episode entitled *gulp* "The Meme Gurus," Cruz made a bizarre correlation between the "Mad Titan" Thanos and "rabid environmentalists" on the left. He also name-dropped Alan Moore's Watchmen, for some reason, stating that in his view, the book and Avengers Endgame reflects the "Malthusian line that there are too many people in the world, that people are bad and everything would be better if we had fewer people." Here's his full reading:

You know, you talked about inevitable. And I have to say, it brought to mind Avengers: Endgame. And, you know, Kerry doesn't quite have the massive Thanos hands and fingers, but you could see the inevitable and the finger-snapping. And actually, what is interesting in Endgame is curious. Have you noticed in how many movies how often rabid environmentalists are the bad guys? Whether it's Thanos or go to Watchmen. Where the view of the left is people are a disease. They buy into the Malthusian line that there are too many people in the world, that people are bad and everything would be better if we had fewer people. I mean, Thanos wanted to eliminate 50 percent of the lifeforms of the universe with one finger-snapping.

Sen Ted Cruz: "Have you noticed in how many movies how often rabid environmentalists are the bad guys? Whether it's Thanos or go to 'Watchmen.' The view of the Left is people are a disease" pic.twitter.com/fthdBWVSWv

— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) February 1, 2021

That's not exactly the message of either book. In Cruz's view, Thanos is much like all those environmentalists who are constantly trying to kill half of the world's population instead of making the Earth inhabitable. Classic environmentalism. As for Watchmen, it's hard to tell which version of Watchmen Cruz is citing, but we'll assume it's Alan Moore's seminal 1985 comic series. Even with that assumption, it's hard to parse what aspect of the book Cruz is focusing on. If it's the ending, in which *SPOILERS* the book's central villain stages a hoax interdimensional alien invasion to rally Earth's people around a common villain, then the metaphor doesn't really track. It's not really the book's or the villain's message that overpopulation is the problem. And even still, it's not as if either work endorses these worldviews. It's kind of a fundamental misreading of both. But that's neither here nor there because everyone seems to be pointing out the same thing.

Hi, @SenTedCruz, Watchmen writer/producer here. Literally what the fuck are you talking about? https://t.co/9s9nqHcPke

— Lila Byock (@LByock) February 2, 2021

This… doesn’t even make sense? Setting aside that Watchmen has nothing to do with environmentalism, if the view of ”the left” was that “people are a disease,” then… wouldn’t those be the protagonists? https://t.co/myQzmjQQU8

— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) February 2, 2021

Pretty sure a misunderstanding of the WATCHMEN comic has brought us to this point.

— Gerry Duggan (@GerryDuggan) February 2, 2021

This wouldn't be the first time Ted Cruz's Watchmen takes left people scratching their heads. Way back in 2015, Cruz told New York Magazine that Rorschach was his fifth favorite superhero. Of course, as many at the time said, Rorschach isn't so much the hero of the story, nor is he really meant to be someone that people enjoy spending time with. So weird pick, but I guess it makes sense if you believe those Zodiac killer conspiracy theories.

Ted Cruz really missed the point of Watchmen. Rorschach is a satire of sociopathic violent right wing superheroes. pic.twitter.com/Tp1xSP9ggo

— Yabba-Dab-Badiou (@TulipFolly) July 26, 2015