Austerity Created the 'Joker' with Connor Kilpatrick

Jacobin Radio

Jacobin

Socialism, History, News, Left, Jacobin, Alternative, Socialist, Politics

4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2019

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

'Joker' is not an ode to the alt right. It is a film about the devastating consequences of austerity. This is an objective fact, which I spoke with Jacobin story editor Connor Kilpatrick about.

You can read my review of 'Joker,' which touches on many of the themes we talk about in this discussion, for the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/10/joker-far-right-warning-austerity Eileen Jones's piece about 'Joker' and America's long history of movie moral panics is here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/09/joker-and-the-long-history-of-movie-moral-panics

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Transcript

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1:06.0	Hello, welcome to The Vast Majority.
1:09.0	I'm Jacobin Managing Editor Micahutrich.
1:12.0	This is a slightly unusual episode of the vast majority. It is one that is about a movie.
1:18.2	It's born out of my anger and bafflement about the coverage of the blockbuster of the moment
1:23.0	Joker. Now if you like me paid any attention to the coverage of the movie
1:27.6	before it came out, it was that Joker was an owed to the angry loner white male film that only the all right could love
1:36.2	one that would probably inspire all kinds of wild acts of violence and
1:40.4	nihilism and mayhem in its wake and that it was probably racist and
1:43.8	misogynist and an all-around reactionary fest. Instead I saw the movie this
1:48.7	weekend and saw nothing of the sort. I watched a fairly straightforward and if anything heavy-handed
	...

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