It's a spiritual antithesis, not a "f*ck you"

I think The Dark Knight and Captain America: The Winter Soldier are two of the best superhero films, like, ever. I like 'em both just about equally. One thing I really like about Winter Soldier is how it kicked off this huge debate (not that they ever engaged each other) on right-wing websites about what the film's politics actually were.

See here. I dunno; I don't think Winter Soldier was a big "f*ck you" to The Dark Knight. If you'll recall, in The Dark Knight, Lucius Fox was concerned about the misuse of Bruce Wayne's surveillance system (Bruce Wayne, you'll note, is a private citizen). Bruce told him that this concern was why he only trusted Fox to run it, and he told him to destroy the system when the mission was done.  All The Winter Soldier did was take that idea and run with it. What happens when the system falls into the wrong hands?

Because, and I don't mean to put on my political hack hat here, but, that will eventually happen. I do not care whether you're a Democrat or a Republican (for purposes of this post; I shall change my tune tomorrow, and that's how the internet works); one day you're going to wake up, and Your Guys won't be in charge anymore. The kids will have the keys to the liquor cabinet. Even if you're apolitical; Lyndon Johnson/Barack Obama and Richard Nixon/George W Bush are from different parties, but they're both/all terrible.

And, continuing to not put on my political hack hat here, when was the last time the government every destroyed anything useful? (Let me rephrase that: when was the last time the government intentionally destroyed anything useful?)

(Also, I don't think the MCU has ever made this clear: is SHIELD a US group or a global one? Its overseers teleconference, rather than always meet in person in D.C.)

Anyway. The whole relationship between the two films is, a bit, like the one between Casablanca and The Third Man (both of which are super, by the way, and if you haven't seen them, why not?). They have similar concepts; one is just more idealistic, and one is more cynical.