I was a big fan as a kid and have spent the last few years re-reading the strip with my own kids. As a kid, I empathized with Calvin; as an adult, I empathize with his parents and even with his teachers. All of them are interesting characters, and the artistic style is spectacular. I think that Watterson mostly critiques consumerism rather than capitalism itself, but that critique can lead toward radical politics. I know that people on the Jordan Peterson subreddit are also fond of Calvin and Hobbes and quote the strip's general intolerance of whiny liberals, however. They don't seem to notice that everyone in the strip is increasingly furious with almost every aspect of the society that surrounds them.

It's interesting, too, that Calvin's ultimate goal is just to be free to relax against a tree and read books. He's so alienated from the rest of the world—and who can blame him?—that he has little if any care for anyone else's troubles, even though they must be far more severe than his own. As a bullied middle class white boy growing up in the '90s in suburban Ohio, Calvin is sadly ripe fodder for the alt right and could easily grow up into a fascist waving the thin blue line flag alongside Moe, the cop—while Suzie Derkins is on the path to becoming Hillary Clinton, Mark 2. It's not the only possible future for these characters, but it's definitely one of them.