Remember when Joker came out, and Todd Phillips was so insistent that its celebration of violence was going to be a nothingburger?
“What’s outstanding to me in this discourse in this movie is how easily the far left can sound like the far right when it suits their agenda. It’s really been eye-opening for me,” he proclaimed, also explaining in the interview, “It wasn’t, ‘We want to glorify this behavior.’ It was literally like ‘Let’s make a real movie with a real budget and we’ll call it f–ing Joker’. That’s what it was.”
I tend not to believe that media representation of violent crime inevitably leads to real-life violent crime. But stuff like this always reminds that media representation is one part of the equation and sociopaths will cling on to whatever affirms their worldview. And even in Japan, absent the specific American politics that were inherent in the left-wing critique of Joker, it makes you think.
EDIT: Looks like some in the comments on the twitter post are pointing out that the guy is more likely dressed up as Kira from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.
