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By Chris Snellgrove
| Revealed
Not too long ago, the world was rocked by the sudden assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the following arrest of suspected shooter Luigi Mangione. As a result of I’m a pop culture writer and all-around geek, I are likely to view main occasions by the lens of TV and movie, and the widespread help for the CEO’s homicide led me to a wild and considerably uncomfortable realization. Briefly, the Joker is actual and he’s all of us, with the primary Todd Phillips movie concerning the clown prince of crime completely predicting how we’d react to those weird occasions.
We Are All Clowns
What made Joker notable when it got here out was the way it provided an actual look into the psychology of a comic book e book villain who is usually dismissed as nothing greater than a killer clown. Somewhat than giving the titular villain a really ambiguous origin just like the comics and earlier movies did, Joker very explicitly exhibits how his descent into murderous insanity was prompted by the system constantly letting him down when he was at his most susceptible. This culminates in his execution of three conceited Wall Avenue bros and a sneering speak present host, and the film’s conclusion exhibits how a lot his actions resonated with a supportive public.
When Joker got here out, this ending appeared nearly as loopy because the clown prince himself. It didn’t appear actual that so many individuals would riot and in any other case help behind an utter stranger after discovering out he was a assassin. Nonetheless, that’s precisely what occurred not too long ago when the UnitedHealthcare CEO was shot and killed. Even earlier than Luigi Mangione was arrested as a suspect, there was an outpouring of public help for his actions. And since his arrest, he has loved much more help, with even fellow inmates not too long ago crying out that he ought to be freed even when he’s discovered responsible.
With out commenting on the morality of the shooter or the ethical culpability of the sufferer, I nonetheless can’t assist however word that these occasions have confirmed the plot of Joker to be actual and eerily prescient. In that film, the title character kills highly effective Wall Avenue bullies who we see harassing a helpless lady, and he later kills the speak present host who can’t consider our favourite clown finds his murderous actions so humorous. Joker kills Murray Franklin, too, after realizing that the person’s major position is to prop up help for a damaged system that chews up goals and spits out our bodies.
The Eerie Similarities
Should you suppose I’m reaching concerning the Joker turning into all too actual, return and rewatch the movie and see how nicely among the quotes match as much as the discourse surrounding the CEO’s assassination. Joker confronts Murray and asks “Have you ever seen what it’s like on the market?” and rhetorically asks whether or not highly effective figures like Thomas Wayne “ever suppose what it’s prefer to be somebody like me?” In justifying his choice to shoot the Wall Avenue bros who labored for Wayne, Joker declares that highly effective figures “suppose we’ll simply sit there and take it…that we gained’t werewolf and go wild!”
There was the same chorus from these defending Brian Thompson’s assassination, with many mentioning that UnitedHealthcare’s historical past of denying claims (reportedly, they denied one out of each three claims) meant the corporate was liable for hurting and even killing on a regular basis folks. As such, the CEO grew to become a form of Thomas Wayne determine, and lots of have been simply as unsympathetic to his demise as Joker was to Murray Franklin for a similar purpose: a perception that individuals can solely be pushed to date earlier than they start pushing again.
Regardless of the groundswell of help for suspected shooter Luigi Mangione, mainstream media publications have largely reacted with horror on the concept of anybody condoning the homicide of Brian Thompson. To those that condone and even have a good time that homicide, that is emblematic of one thing Joker instructed Murray in one other little bit of actual perception into the ability construction tearing the nation aside. “All of you, the system that is aware of a lot: you determine what’s proper or fallacious the identical approach you determine what’s humorous or not.”
We Get What We Deserve
Whereas Luigi Mangione’s guilt has not but been decided, it’s value noting that his personal background appears to point he may really feel betrayed by the healthcare business. He suffered a serious again damage that made every thing from browsing (a favourite passion) to intercourse unattainable, and he notably turned killer at 26, the identical age at which younger folks can not be coated by their mother or father’s insurance coverage. In Joker’s closing joke to Murray, he retains it actual by asking what you get “whenever you cross mentally unwell loner with a society that abandons him and treats him like trash?”
The deadly punchline is “You get what you f***ing’ deserve,” and it’s onerous to keep away from the conclusion that America is, in actual fact, getting what we deserve. The healthcare system is more and more unaffordable and irrevocably damaged, however we have now all been conditioned to tolerate a world the place executives can rake in thousands and thousands of {dollars} whereas primarily handing the poor sufferers whose claims they dismiss a demise sentence. Just a few years in the past, although, it nonetheless appeared wild to suppose {that a} relative no one attacking the wealthy and the highly effective might so provoke the general public into treating him like a hero.
Now, although, the Joker is actual, but it surely’s not essentially the suspected shooter. As a substitute, it’s all people who’s more and more going “werewolf” and “going wild” due to a want to push again towards a sick system that preys on even sicker folks. And contemplating the latest glut of CEO needed posters sprouting up in New York Metropolis to encourage different vigilantes to take additional motion towards the wealthy and highly effective, it looks as if this joke gained’t be ending anytime quickly, and we could quickly see extra punchlines that ceaselessly change the discourse of healthcare in America.
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