Man attacks midnight screening of "Dark Knight Rises"

[Alisha Mynx]

I don't know all the details despite having watched the news channels for a couple hours, but a man attacked moviegoers in Aurora Colorado during the midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises".

Here, here and here are some articles.

[Alisha Mynx]

A newer report suggests that upon arrest, the attacker claimed he was the Joker.

I'm curious if the media will blame Batman movies and comics for this when the man was so clearly unhinged beforehand to go through with this as well as booby-trap his apartment with explosives.  I'm not ignoring the terribly tragedy or trying to make light of it, but I have the feeling that someone will want to place blame and in the past the media has gone to other sources instead of blaming the person involved (such as after Columbine blaming certain music artists because they had never heard of the artists that the kids were fans of).

[Xian]

I'm curious if the media will blame Batman movies and comics for this when the man was so clearly unhinged beforehand to go through with this as well as booby-trap his apartment with explosives.  I'm not ignoring the terribly tragedy or trying to make light of it, but I have the feeling that someone will want to place blame and in the past the media has gone to other sources instead of blaming the person involved (such as after Columbine blaming certain music artists because they had never heard of the artists that the kids were fans of).

To address this specific question, the widespread appeal and success of The Avengers and Rises strike a significant blow against that line of argument.  By being enjoyed by a massive cross-section of the world, it is much more difficult to blame something you partook of yourself and enjoyed or to argue something so incredibly prevalent and ubiquitous gave rise to the tragedy.  When comics and games were blamed as the source of degeneracy before, they tended to be marginal audiences (at least in detractor's portrayal) who couldn't speak for themselves: young children / slacker kids without jobs, etc.  The value of becoming mainstream, besides simply monetary clout, is that there are fewer critics and more examples of responsible normal adults who enjoy the medium without apology or issue- be it Walking Dead, Call of Duty, or Avengers- and even if you're outside looking in, in all likelihood you know a well-adjusted person who enjoys those things even if you don't.  It also doesn't hurt that Batman isn't about the glorification of villains but the triumph of heroes over evil- and, sadly apt- has a "No guns" theme through it.

Whatever grace is extended to media, however, I suspect is a lot less likely to be extended to gun owners or culture.  While it's nearly impossible to be out and about and not at least have heard of The Avengers or Batman, and most have- at least at one point in their lifetime- consumed media even if they don't do it routinely or identify with it, gun culture in America is incredibly divisive.  It's easy to find people who have never touched a gun in their life and don't know anyone who owns them... nonetheless as many as 53 million Americans in 45% of households are in legal possession of firearms (2010 US census data).  For these two cultures, that tend to be alien to one another, it is way too easy to finger point and blame each other instead of the actual perpetrator (for too much access and for lack of defensive access, respectively).

My only point in raising this is not to specifically argue guns, games, graphic novels, or what not, but to consider whatever grace we would like extended to our media consuming community in light of a criminal's actions, be likewise shown to others rather than rely on finger pointing and blame shifting or hijacking a tragedy for policy arguments.  Reasonable minds differ on issues, I can totally respect a person with a different opinion than mine, but its sad that things like this can tend to show cultural divides rather than unity (for people looking to blame the media, blame social break down, blame parenting, blame government, blame guns, blame media coverage, etc).  So that's one of the reasons the popularity of The Avengers / Rises matters... it shows a certain public consensus that this material is good and worthy of consumption, not a creator of deleterious minds.  I tend to think that's part of the reason attempts to blame things like The Matrix or Doom didn't necessarily fly with Columbine, but the music they listened to got more traction.  It's simply easy to find fault in something you don't partake of, aren't familiar with, or don't like.

While I'm reasonably skeptical about anything that comes from his mouth, in this case the perpetrator is alive and- perhaps- can give insight into his motives rather than leave the press, the grieving, and arm chair psychologists to speculate and guess at the origins of his motives as is typically the case.  He may very well say he used the Joker as inspiration or revel in his access to guns or claim Call of Duty trained him.  While that would be unfortunate and probably more devastating than empty accusation by speculators, hopefully cooler minds will prevail and recognize him to be an aberration rather than the expected outcome of his dalliances.

[Alisha Mynx]

To address this specific question, the widespread appeal and success of The Avengers and Rises strike a significant blow against that line of argument.  By being enjoyed by a massive cross-section of the world, it is much more difficult to blame something you partook of yourself and enjoyed or to argue something so incredibly prevalent and ubiquitous gave rise to the tragedy.  When comics and games were blamed as the source of degeneracy before, they tended to be marginal audiences (at least in detractor's portrayal) who couldn't speak for themselves: young children / slacker kids without jobs, etc.  The value of becoming mainstream, besides simply monetary clout, is that there are fewer critics and more examples of responsible normal adults who enjoy the medium without apology or issue- be it Walking Dead, Call of Duty, or Avengers- and even if you're outside looking in, in all likelihood you know a well-adjusted person who enjoys those things even if you don't. 

However, this doesn't always hold true.  It doesn't happen as often as it used to, but mainstream games/movies/music still get blamed.  Not that long ago, it was the pointed out in the title of an article about a serial killer that supposedly played World of Warcraft several hours a day.  The article itself wasn't that bad, but the title alone could cause more than a few folks to jump to conclusions.  Nevermind that statistically the amount of people who play WoW means that chances are high that an unbalanced individual would play the game, people will still jump to conclusions like "A killer played it, so it must be bad". 

I tend to think that's part of the reason attempts to blame things like The Matrix or Doom didn't necessarily fly with Columbine, but the music they listened to got more traction.  It's simply easy to find fault in something you don't partake of, aren't familiar with, or don't like.

Earlier reports blamed relatively mainstream music, though.  Things people hated or found different, yes, but that was because the music they apparently did listen to was unheard of.  Marilyn Manson and Rammstein got blame because the media knew of them and someone suggested one of the shooters had a Manson poster (which was apparently a lie or mistake).  Yet it has come out later, much later, that they weren't fans of Manson to begin with.  Even once truth came out and time has passed, many people still point the finger at him as if he himself pulled the trigger.

[Xian]

I don't think I said you can stop accusation altogether.  Those can be made even of the innocent and even where factually wrong (as you pointed out with the alleged music).  However, mainstream adoption- for better or worse- tends to vitiate broad public acceptance of accusation.  Further, blaming comics, in this situation, would be- in part- condemning the audience that went their to enjoy a comic-based property.  People playing the blame game generally want to use something that differentiates the perpetrator from his victims unless they don't care about claiming the victims "deserved it" which is rarely a pervasive track.  I wouldn't say your fears are unfounded- the only news revolving comics and blame is of those in the industry trying to preempt the issue with condolences, relief efforts, and defending comics... so if it was a complete non-issue they wouldn't have addressed it- but I also don't think there's any real traction to be had here if the accusation is made.

[dantemarx]

I think this tragedy, much like several other tragedies before it, just demonstrates that occasionally, people are insane. It is not something that is typically reflected by their hobbies, or background. Rather, it is because they needed professional help, and did not get it.

As to whether people will blame this on something? I believe they will. People do not like the idea that there are sociopaths or madmen within society. They much prefer the idea that this individual was converted by some bizarre activity, and that there is no chance that one of their neighbors could have gone mad.

My opinion as to what happened? He was in the first year of a PhD program in the hard sciences. From personal experience, I can say that PhD programs can be very stressful, and a lot of the people around you are ambitious and narcissistic. He probably didn't have a support structure and was experiencing a great deal of work and finance related turmoil. I would not be surprised if he had gone postal in the traditional sense.