A Film That Caused Violent But Very Peaceful Protests

screenwashed (adjective) — When something seen on the screen completely changes the way a person thinks or feels, as if his old beliefs are erased and replaced by what he just saw.

Posted by Joshua Tyler | Published 7 seconds ago

In 2020, violent protests rocked the United States, destroying major cities. Since then, many others have appeared, so many that they seem commonplace.

But it’s rare.

Make a list of the most violent protests of the last 20 years, and you’ll find that most of them didn’t happen until after 2019. Before that, most protests, even big ones like Occupy Wall Street or the Tea Party protests of the early 2000s, were just a bunch of young men carrying signs until dark. There were exceptions, such as the catastrophic riots in Ferguson, Missouri, but those were notable because they were rare.

Now, violence, especially from supposedly peaceful protesters, is commonplace. An everyday occurrence in some cities, a regular seasonal event in others. What has changed? In 2019, one movie took over the theaters and used its ardent audience to stop the fun.

This is the story of how The Joker examined Americans’ acceptance of violence as an expression of self.

The Story of the Joker

The Joker it was billed as being about Batman’s archenemy, but it has no real connection to the world of comic books. Instead, it’s a terrific character study about Arthur Fleck, a mentally ill, socially invisible man who is slowly being crushed by a town that doesn’t care if he lives or dies. There are no superheroes, no grand conspiracy, and no redemption arc, just a sad, broken man who finds that the only time the world takes notice of him is when he stops playing by its rules and embraces sleaze.

When Joker hit theaters, it was both controversial and a box office hit. No movie captured more of the cultural conversation in 2019 than it did, and theaters were packed with people looking for something badass, different, and maybe dangerous.

The Lone Spectator

The debate about the Joker often focused on whether it might inspire mass shootings or murders. All that dialogue misses the real danger in the film.

Only one person saw the truth. It wasn’t mass murderers or an increase in individual murders that we had to worry about. After a few months The Joker’s release, at the beginning of the George Floyd riots in 2020, chief organizer Scott Adams made this observation:

“I’m willing to bet 90% of the protesters have seen the Joker. It’s so powerful and well-crafted that it jumps into your brain and gets inside, creating a dominant pattern of your thinking.” – Scott Adams

Scott then asked, “Can one movie drive a young person to violence and chaos? The Joker it can be. That film is next level, convincing.”

The Joker it doesn’t just show chaos; it makes you love. It does, using some very persuasive tactics.

Catharsis Through Violence

The film presents social breakdown as catharsis. Arthur Fleck’s depersonalization is combined with a city-wide explosion of masked protesters who burn, riot and kill. Every time the camera treats it like freedom.

That’s Catharsis. The release of closed emotions through experience or talk leaves the mind clear by releasing emotions that have been contained or not safely resolved.

The need for catharsis is present in all of us. It’s an irresistible pull. That can be healthy, encouraging reflection, relaxation, and clarity. But it can also distort judgment, causing people to rush for emotional release for their own sake, overreact, or accept narratives that justify anger, sadness, or guilt just to feel less burdened.

That’s what Joker gets into.

Violence is not constructed as sad or cautionary. It works. The crowd becomes a chorus affirming Arthur’s conversion. Gotham’s chaos is not shown as a failure of civilization, but as a necessary cleansing.

This is important because cultures are not created by teaching; it is learned together.

Arthur Fleck is presented as weak, humiliated, and neglected. By immersing the audience inside his suffering before whatever violence takes place, the film makes sure that the viewers identify with him emotionally.

The Joker’s Six Screenwashing Tricks

The Joker seduces his audience by using six different persuasive techniques.

Responsibility for violence is increasingly shifted from the actor to an invisible force: “the system,” “the rich,” “society.” This trains viewers to see violence as an inevitable consequence, not a moral failure.

• Two, The Aestheticization of Chaos

The riots are well documented. When violence looks good, the mind associates it with power and liberation rather than danger or shame.

• Three, Catharsis Substitution

The film substitutes violence for resolution. Destruction itself is beneficial, reinforcing the idea that “burning it” is a valid emotional end.

Arthur’s conversion was not confirmed by reasoned opposition, but by popular approval. Spectators slowly absorb the same validation loop.

• five, Thinking Beyond Marketing

The story strongly suggests that violent social collapse is inevitable. When the results feel predetermined, the audience stops questioning even thought violence is okay and start asking only when.

• Thumb, Meaning To Inject In Anger

Most importantly, the film provides a story of anger. Anger becomes “truth.” Once anger is framed as understanding rather than impulsiveness, acting on it feels right.

Before Joker, America had a culture where only peaceful protest was acceptable. After The Jokerthe cultural zeitgeist became one where violent protest was not only acceptable, it was the only way to be heard.

In the movie, The Joker nothing to talk about; he just wanted to be heard. And now, being heard is all that matters, not whether or not you have anything to say.

A Case Against the Joker’s Power of Persuasion

Those who have no understanding of persuasion say that the audience is smart enough to distinguish fiction from reality and cannot be swayed by what they see on the screen. If a culture can be changed with one film, then why not a movie V for Vendetta have the same effect?

A movie like V for Vendetta it will never achieve the same effect because it posits violence as a symbol, an idea, and an idea, not an emotional personal one. V not everyone is in the audience; is a clear, systematic, and morally convincing fiction. His actions are presented as myth, not catharsis. The film creates distance through style, rhetoric, and overt political philosophy. This keeps viewers analyzing instead of pointing.

The Joker it’s a completely different piece of screenwashing because of the way it wraps that distance, a frenzy that evokes deep humiliation and emotional appeal, making the release of violence feel personal, spontaneous, and psychologically relatable rather than theatrical or ideological.

Was The Joker Effect Intentional?

I think it’s important to mention here that it’s not clear that plunging America into endless violent riots was director Todd Phillips’ intention when he made it. The Joker. Little is known about Phillips’ political views; he refuses to be separated.

It is possible that Philips’ intention was something other than what he achieved. Indeed, the sequel to the film suggests that he was not entirely happy with the impact of his first film on its audience. The Joker 2 attempts to undo much of what the first movie did, portraying the Joker as a fraud and his followers alike.

Of course, Joker wasn’t the only one responsible for the cultural shift in violence. The COVID shutdown created a powder keg, and irresponsible media coverage lit it up. But will things go as badly as they did, and continue that way for many years, if at all The Joker was he not there, at that precise moment, to prepare the riots in advance?

Watch one of the violent scenes from The Joker. Then watch any protest in Portland, Oregon and ask yourself if what you see is living or just The Joker cosplay.

The Joker he did not instigate violent protests. But it did something far more influential: it made violent protest sound understandable, positive, and emotionally direct. If culture gives moral permission, truth often follows, no charter required.

Congratulations, violent but mostly peaceful protestors, you have been cleared.