re: What do we think about the major criticism of "The Joker"

Joker should be just a guy like Heath Ledger played him; crazy and we don't know where he comes from.

Pass on the Joker film

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when do we start approaching censorship?

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Dude............never

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There are some complaints about the direction the movie goes in, but more and more I've seen criticism about how it handles the joker. It presents him as a man who means well, but it's the world who wrongs him. Hes a lonely, depressed, psycho who is shunned by the world and therefore, his only outlet is violence. Almost like it glorifies his decent into mass villainy. And it seems like a number of critics are touching on the aspect that, due to the fricked up nature of our current society, it could possibly be viewed as a rallying cry to the next Walmart el Paso shooter to incite mass violence

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Obviously, I haven't seen the movie yet, but I hate this line of criticism (not saying its yours). We live in a society in which angry, alienated white men committing acts of violence is a very real problem and a critic is actually going to posit the theory that making art about the very real phenomenon is irresponsible? That is utter horseshite.

In fact, the problem is in the second part of the paragraph... the very people who talk so much about empathy and understanding are unwilling to extend empathy to people they actually disagree with, which is the whole point of empathy. I doubt the movie glorifies his descent into villainy, but it asks us to see it from his perspective. And that's a real world skill that would be sort of useful.

Sure, the solution to the Joker's problems are bad. To make clear, one should not become an insane, murderous criminal who delights in nihilism. That's bad. However, this doesn't mean we shouldn't pay attention to the diagnosis and the causes of the descent. Those things are not just legitimate, but real. It's like people who right off FIGHT CLUB for accurately tapping into young white men's anger.

The irony is, the healing elixir to this sort of anger and nihilism actually is love and understanding. Imagine if people treated Joker with empathy... there is no origin story. It's the same in real life. Imagine if young, disaffected kids were shown love and acceptance instead of vilification... and the only place they find that acceptance is within the neo-Nazi movement. People crave acceptance. In the absence of that acceptance, they will find it from shills and conmen, who wish to exploit their anger into something far darker.

I have no idea of THE JOKER is any good, but for critics to argue that portraying a young, angry white man is somehow irresponsible or out of bounds is precisely the problem in the real world. That's how you weaponize that anger instead of merely growing out of it.

It’s a movie about a sadistic comic book villain. I don’t think they’re trying to glorify anything, just trying to make money in a popular genre. But I’m sure some of the crazies will relate. That can happen with any villain/outcast though. Just take the movie for what it is.

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We live in a society in which angry, alienated white men committing acts of violence is a very real problem and a critic is actually going to posit the theory that making art about the very real phenomenon is irresponsible? That is utter horseshite.

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it's their M.O. though, maybe not this critic intentionally, but the M.O. of people he agrees with on socio-political issues and he may not even realize how primed he is to parrot their bullshite. the left side of the spectrum has become the champions of censorship and i think i know why

when the gay marriage issue was still a big deal, there were a lot of reports on studies/science that figured out how to sway voters, and it was essentially exposure. Here is a NYT article on it from 2014.

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Psychologists have long suspected that direct interaction, like working together, can reduce mutual hostility and prejudice between differing groups, whether blacks and whites or Christians and Muslims. But there is little evidence that the thaw in attitudes is a lasting one.

The study, published Thursday by the journal Science, suggests that a 20-minute conversation about a controversial and personal issue — in this case a gay person talking to voters about same-sex marriage — can induce a change in attitude that not only lasts, but may also help shift the views of others living in the same household. In other words, the change may be contagious. Researchers have published similar findings previously, but nothing quite as rigorous has highlighted the importance of the messenger, as well as the message.

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combine that with 2016 and you had a lot of people on the left begin to promote the idea that all views that aren't within their bubble have to be eradicated to avoid this. that's when the whole "Nazi" thing blew up and outlets (namely on the internet but some tactile ones) that allowed exposure to non-progressive views have been targeted. hell the ACLU pulled a fricking 180 in like 2 weeks on their core principles after Charlotesville (which would have been a small regional story had we just let the 50 idiots march and ignored them, but became a massive ordeal b/c of tens of thousands of leftists came to threaten them to silence them).

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In fact, the problem is in the second part of the paragraph... the very people who talk so much about empathy and understanding are unwilling to extend empathy to people they actually disagree with, which is the whole point of empathy.

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i agree and above i why that's not allowed these days