>>113046293>>113046390They were right, but not in the way they meant it.
Joker isn't about how we live in a society, or pro-Bernie propaganda. It takes more from Fight Club than Taxi Driver. Men aren't supposed to be open about their emotions or their struggles, because displaying weakness as a man makes you a beanboy, a fag, or a tranny. Since men are expected by society to be unflappable perfect Chads, and leftist thought, which is ostensibly about equity for everyone, tends to dismiss men, especially white men, has no time for their problems either. At best they're an afterthought.
Joker shows someone struggling with overblown versions of the problems men face. Resentful of his needs, the government cuts the mental health programs that allow him to just barely cope. His family obligations are sucking the life out of him, he can't keep up with normies because people like Thomas Wayne rigged the system in their favor at his expense, and his smiling tic is like how expressing emotion is considered a sign of weakness. Unable to grapple with these problems, he descends into delusions about being Domino's boyfriend and the beloved best buddy of his TV idol. When he finally can't take it anymore and lashes out, the world still refuses to understand him, imagining him as a blue-collar revolutionary, a role Arthur takes out of desperation for meaning, which society strips us of by reducing us to commodities.
The fact that he's a literal retard trying to take care of an overbearing and abusive mother while trying and failing to find his place in the world likely helps faggots like us empathize with him, but I don't know if that part was intentional.
