The year 2020 in America feels like the end scene in 2019’s Joker where Gotham burns as the citizenry embraces the chaos spurred on by chaos-messiah, Arthur Fleck, the Joker. For the last four years, an audience of Americans watch America embrace the chaos-messiahship of the left as their saints questioned the legitimacy of the 2016 election, immediately sought impeachment, flip-flops on COVID-19, and now stands idly by as long-reigning progressive governments in Minneapolis, Seattle, and Portland descend into Jokeresque chaos.

When the movie debuted last October, opinion pieces from left to right decried the movie. Claims from leftists wanted the movie pulled simply because of the portrayal of potentially harsh realities of mental illness. Conservative Christians wrote blogs on the nihilistic, postmodernism threatening the worldview of our children.

The harsh realities of mental illness in America and how we take care of our mentally ill deserve exploration and extrapolation. Progressives should not be afraid of important thinking on critical issues. The movie does not impose nihilism or postmodernism onto the audience to prove Arthur Fleck’s epiphany “there is no meaning.” The movie is not indoctrination. It is indictment.

Instead, the movie communicates that mental illness is a real issue. Nihilism is the sign of a crazy person. Postmodernism fulfills “ideas have consequences; bad ideas have victims.” All of this is crazy. It leads us to more crazy.

Who realizes that it’s crazy to not address mental health issues and buy into worldviews of nihilism and postmodernism?

The audience. The audience knows this is all crazy.

Specifically, the audience knows Arthur Fleck is the Joker or has the prescience that he will become the Joker at some point. It’s just a question of how and when. When the audience generally watches a movie, it usually has an inside-track the characters seem to not be able to pick up on. The audience sees backstory. Parallel storylines. Emphases on key moments.

The point of Joker is that he’s mentally ill. To be non-pc, he’s crazy. Everyone can see or sense Arthur Fleck is crazy. That he’s dangerous. Does the system care? No, it’s a bureaucracy, so cutting budgets for necessary mental health programs only cuts funds for faceless human beings. Who you don’t directly interact with cannot hurt you…

Nevertheless, by the time the audience figures out the full depth of Joker’s mental illness, Gotham burns.

Since we’re imagining 2020 a movie much like Joker, the audience watching the dumpster fires of 2020 include an audience of conservatives, libertarians, and centrists. This audience has the backstory of progressivism, leftist politicians, Antifa, and neo-Marxism. In fact, the audience had the prescience to realize faux-autonomous zones would lead to the present-day crisis. It’s just a question of how and when.

Indeed, the audience of conservatives, libertarians, and centrists know that progressivism, the protagonist and Joker of 2020, is indeed mentally ill. It’s crazy, and no character in the movie of progressivism is aware of what the audience sees throughout the whole movie.

As Gotham burns with everyone concealing their identities under donned clown-faces, the mob has no anticipation of a Utopia or reborn Gotham. Instead, the clown-faced do not realize the joke is on them in that peace and a new society cannot be realized through the destruction of Gotham. They only enact revenge, and the dish best served cold will not give them a better world.

In our 2020 movie, progressivism leapfrogs peaceful protest for anarchy and an erasure of America with the call not for a better America but no America at all. Like the violent clown-hordes of Gotham, Antifa and others justify a broken system to enact violence against innocent citizens. Yet the audience is not fooled. Just like the clowns of Gotham, progressivism in the current violent form has no plan for a Utopia or solutions that work.

Again, the audience knows this is all crazy. The audience sees backstory. Parallel storylines. Emphases on key moments. The only people who don’t know the movie is crazy and the outcomes are no good are the progressive characters of the movie. Elected officials stand idly by as they champion nihilism and postmodernism. CHAZ and CHOP simply taste like the dregs of its Marxist taproot and beget more crime with walls, neo-police forces, and more crime.

Nevertheless, the sliver of hope of Joker is that Arthur’s chaos sets in motion the death of Bruce Wayne’s parents, which is the catalyst for the Batman who will one day rescue Gotham from chaos’ clutches. The audience recognizes there is still hope, even as the Joker begins his reign in Gotham. Chaos does not last forever. As Don Henley sang “one more starry-eyed messiah (will) meet a violent farewell.” The clown prince of crime will meet his Batman.

Progressivism will meet its Batman. Provided the audience of this 2020 movie pays very good attention and responds wisely, not idly, to the craziness.