One of the most distressing things about my country and my culture is the contradiction between the way we view power in our entertainments and the way we view it in our real lives. We cheer movie heroes who take on the wealthy and the powerful to stand up for what’s right, but what happens if someone in the real world tries that?

Well, they don’t get treated like a hero. Sycophants to power pour out of the woodwork to declare them liars, scammers, whatever. Scarily, many many poor and powerless people have a knee-jerk sympathy for the wealthy and powerful.

So, I wondered what comments people would leave on a news site like CNN.com if these movies had actually happened in the real world, and were covered by the media. So: