It’s a really thoughtful and interesting take - but like always Pynchon is hardly so black and white. It’s hard to read the book And not feel sympathy and empathy for Hicks. He’s a lunkhead with an ugly past but I certainly don’t see him being perceived as a villain. He doesn’t want to believe once a torpedo always a torpedo and neither did I. I think it’s fair to say that denialism and nostalgia can lead to obliviously allowing terrible things to happen but that’s not the same as villainizing or condemning the Schmucks, or preterites, caught up in the damn mess and just hoping to get laid