I've been very perturbed the past week seeing various media outlets painting a very disturbing story surrounding the upcoming movie Joker. The media has been fear mongering about potential mass shootings or other violence inspired by the movie. This dialogue comes completely from the media and no where else. At this point it no longer feels like a warning but instead an invitation.
I have rarely heard any media outlet use the term "incel" before they started reporting on Joker. For whatever reason we are suddenly seeing and hearing about incels being encouraged to commit atrocious acts over a movie that isn't even released. The basis of the claims stems from the 2012 tragic shooting at a screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora, Colorado. Friends and families of the victims of this tragedy had been pushing for Warner Bros. to start lobbying for more gun reform to help but an end to gun violence.
Instead of focusing on a push for gun reform and taking actions against gun violence, we instead see warnings about incels rising up in violence over a movie none of them have ever seen. We see the NYPD increasing their presence for the premier of Joker and the US military issued a warning about possible incel violence. There has been no actual threat or indication of violence happening tomorrow night and I honestly wouldn't have even thought about. There have been 334 mass shootings in the USA in 2019, to the best of my knowledge none of those happened at a theater and none were over a movie. These reports and outrage are purely being manufactured by the media. This is fear mongering and any violence will be solely the result of the media coverage of Joker.
People want something to blames things on. Often this blame will fall with a significant amount of bias. The idea that a movie, specifically a batman movie, inspires violence and possibly a series of reprehensible acts is pure bullshit. Video games aren't causing violence, movies aren't encouraging violence and no one would even be talking about this topic if the media hadn't been shoving it down our throats for the past two weeks.
On average there is more one mass shooting in the USA everyday. More needs to be done to stop these event from happening. Fear mongering over a comic book character isn't helping. Real action needs to be taken. No one should be allowed to own a weapon designed solely for harming other human beings. I don't want to hear about a new mass shooting everyday, we need change now.