No, People Aren’t Protesting Because of ‘Joker’

It's painfully clear that the wave of protests across the United States and throughout the world is in response to anti-Black racism, systemic white supremacy, and the abhorrent amount of police brutality disproportionately targeting Black Americans. But apparently, that's not what Scott Adams thinks. Adams is the creator of Dilbert, the comic strip that you've probably forgotten all about because you're a human being and not a Barnes & Noble in 1996.

To call Adams' Twitter account, a dumpster fire would be an insult to flaming detritus everywhere. As we mentioned before, last year, he used the literal of murder of children to promote some stupid app he created, now he's offering his own personal theories on the current protests. Do they give Pulitzers for gob-smackingly stupid hot takes by smug no-talent cartoonists? If so, get that shiny gold medal ready, because Adams thinks that the riots, the protests, everything is the result of the movie Joker, which is "next level, persuasion-wise" apparently.

Okay. It's obviously dumb to attribute what's happening in America right now to any movie, but Joker? Yes, the movie does feature protesting and rioting, but they're inspired by the struggles of a toxic white dude. Making the comparison all the more insulting, Joker has an uncomfortable running thread where Arthur continually feels threatened by Black women, be it a random mother on the bus ...

... Or his social worker ...

... the neighbor he's obsessed with ...

... and, eventually, his psychiatrist, who is the only non-"bad person" that he murders in the entire film.

Which isn't to say that the filmmakers weren't conscious of this, it seems very deliberate. But to claim that this story somehow inspired today's protests ignores the film's text, not to mention literally all of American history Scott Adams, you dumb motherfucker. Who knows, some of the protestors probably did see Joker. They also may have seen that just one week after Joker came out in October 2019, Atatiana K. Jefferson was murdered in Fort Worth, Texas; shot through the window of her apartment by a white police officer while she was playing Xbox with her 8-year-old nephew.

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Top Image: Warner Bros.