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This week the US Army issued an email to personnel warning about the possibility of mass shootings at screenings of “Joker,” scheduled to open October 4th.

 

The film, starring Joaquin Phoenix in the title role, tells the origin story of Batman villain, The Joker, and has already sparked worries about copycat movie theatre violence.

Family members of those killed in the 2012 Aurora, CO massacre sent a letter to Warner Bros, who produced the film, expressing their concern that the plot “presents the character as a protagonist with a sympathetic origin story.”

Twelve people were murdered by a nutbag wearing Joker make-up during a screening “The Dark Knight Rises.” Warner Bros. says “Joker” will not screen at the Aurora theater where the massacre occurred.

 

In its email to personnel who might go see the movie, the Army suggested service members identify two escape routes” and to “run, hide, fight” in the event of a shooting, Gizmodo reported.
“Run if you can,” the message said. “If you’re stuck, hide (also known as ‘sheltering in place’), and stay quiet. If a shooter finds you, fight with whatever you can.”
The Army issued the warning after alarming social-media posts were flagged by the FBI and sent to the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division. Officials said they had received “credible” intelligence from law enforcement in Texas about “disturbing and very specific chatter” on the dark Web regarding “the targeting of an unknown movie theater during the release.”

The chatter and threats have emanated from the “incel” community — and if you’re like us, we actually had to look up that term to confirm it really is a thing.

 

Sadly, in this day and age, it is.

 

According to the messaging board Incels.me, the site’s admin says “incel” is short for “involuntary celibate,” or a person who “can’t have sex despite wanting to.” Incels believe that they are inherently disadvantaged from having a romantic or sexual partner because they are unattractive, insecure, not masculine enough, or too mentally ill, among other reasons.

Per the NY Post, The Army e-mail explained that incels “idolize the Joker character” because like them, he’s an angry loner who turns to violence after too much rejection.
The film’s director Todd Phillips complained that countless other violent Hollywood movies, such as the “John Wick” franchise, haven’t been given the same scrutiny or sparked the same level of concern.

 

“The movie still takes place in a fictional world,” he said.
“It can have real-world implications, opinions, but it’s a fictional character in a fictional world that’s been around for 80 years.”
“The one that bugs me more is the toxic white male thing when you go, ‘Oh, I just saw “John Wick 3.” ’ He’s a white male who kills 300 people and everybody’s laughing and hooting and hollering. Why does this movie get held to different standards? It honestly doesn’t make sense to me.”
“Toxic male thing?” Folks, this is why we now have “incels.” We’ve so devalued and messed up the traditional — not to mention biological — norms of maleness and masculinity that young men don’t know if they’re coming or going.

 

It is horrifying and disturbing that the US Army has to warn its soldiers about a whole subset of our society that would be inspired to commit bloody murder by a comic book character.

 

 

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