Most onscreen acts of violence are committed by white male characters, presented to white male audiences as fantasies of power. Mainstream media attempts to justify these violent acts as being for the protection of women and children, for revenge, to correct a life they believe has gone wrong, and to prevent some imaginary future harm.
The Angry White trope is the message that when their lives don’t work out the way they want, if they don’t get the girl, or the job, or lose whatever they consider important, they can reestablish their power, manhood, and/or social standing, by turning to violence This is illustrated in movies like Taxi Driver, Falling Down, Fight Club, The Batman, and Joker, wherein white men through a mix of psychopathy, and/or rage commit acts of violence to correct real or imaginary grievances. This has had the side effect of teaching real world white men that when life doesn’t go the way they want, killing others is the way to reestablish a loss of dominance. We have seen that kind of thinking in the many mass shootings that have occurred in the US in the last twenty years.
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