#Online Crime Is Real Crime

[ohsalome]

"why don't we hate israelis as much as we hated russians when they invaded ukraine" - first of all, who is "we". It was (primarily) Eastern Europeans who carried the russophobia on their backs, I'm not letting you appropriate their contribution. And second of all, when were you stabbing russian immigrants abroad for the sin of being russian and vandalising their neighbourhoods with swasticas? Because all I remember is russian men harrassing & beating up ukrainian refugee women and children, and setting their houses on fire, while westerners were observing this with "omg brotherly nation forced into war by politicians. make peace not war #deep"

#ukraine #russia #war in ukraine #russian invasion of ukraine #russo ukrainian war #i swear to god the audacity of some people #you really show your chronically online ass when equating being blocked on instagram to real-life hate crimes

[brotherofbagels]

There needs to be more nuance in how people view the situation but the internet doesn't allow for that.

#georgenotfound #the thing is though is that the internet as it is rn is completely black and white so that's not gonna happen #'non-verbal consent is not consent' it absolutely can be in certain situations #if you cuddle for hours and seem comfortable doing it and reciprocate by coming back and showing positive body language l #then yes putting a hand on the waist of the person you're cuddling with isn't a heinous crime #social context is very important here #context in general is very important here #i just feel like people forget how the real world operates sometimes because the internet's view on stuff like this can be so polarizing #especially in a community as young as the mcyt fandom #that being said #caiti's feelings are completely valid #george can be innocent at the same time #i just wish people could look at this logically instead of being so chronically online all the time #instead of throwing around the assault word and hoping that gets them internet brownie points #idk this is so stupid catie's friends made the situation 1000x worse by publicizing it the way they did before catie could even try and #resolve it privately

[cookinguptales]

now that I'm done imagining a jar of peanut butter, can I just say that I love that Shane and Ryan have shifted away from traditional true crime to just shootin' the shit about weird-ass mysteries?

I always liked the "let's talk about weird mysteries" aspect of buzzfeed unsolved, but being real with you, I'm uncomfortable with true crime and the culture surrounding it. like... as someone who lost a loved one to a violent (and temporarily unsolved) crime, I've seen firsthand how internet theorizing can make a traumatizing time even harder and like. it's fucking rough, man.

I get that it makes money and all (which... is a whole other can of worms) but when you view human suffering as entertainment, it's so easy to forget about the real people who will actually be affected by what's put out there on the internet.

so I'm happy that Shane and Ryan seem to be leaning a lot more into "wow, some unhinged shit happened! how fucked up is that?" on mystery files. more of this, please!!

#watcher #mystery files #also like... anyone can make money off true crime if they're charismatic enough #which means that often those narratives end up mirroring real-life prejudices #I remember when my friend died people online were accusing his wife of doing it #solely because she was an immigrant #people kept talking about her shady accent and how she probably married him for his money and to get a green card or whatever #and how her wording was sometimes confusing so she must be lying #what money??? number one #she was ESL number two #but also this woman literally watched her husband bleed out and people all over the world were accusing her of murdering him #they figured out what happened later (shocker she was telling the truth the whole time) but it was so heartbreaking to watch #I hate that people feel entitled to the worst moments of strangers' lives y'know? #and to make MONEY off that... #bruh if someone ever tries to fucking make money off my murder while putting on makeup or whatever #I will haunt the fuck out of them #I don't even know if I believe in curses but I'll find a fucking way

[barzfrommarz]

anyone else here been a hater ever since qsmp/quackity fans committed real life crimes over minecraft servers and it went unaddressed by the person they were all doing it for

#qsmp neg #i could go on #there is so much other shit that fuck ass server and its members have done but this is the worst imo #fuck you alex quackity #c!quackity did it better #I refuse to belive he never knew what his fans were doing i’m sorry #and DONT BE LIKE oh it’s bc it’s dream and his stan’s bitch you are committing real life crimes over chronically online stan wars be so #fucking for real you imbecile

[gloriousmonsters]

bewildered and somewhat upset my therapist today by talking about anti beliefs

#me: you know the attitude of 'if you like this villain or story you're supporting real life crimes' #him: I don't think I've ever seen that #me: oh dude. that is So Many people online #him: D: #sunflower radio hour

[rochenn]

getting annoyed with leftist vs leftist callout essays on youtube. can we stop all the maliciously editing each other out of context and bad faith arguments? can we have a truce just for a moment? cause this is why we never win man

#my youtube home feed is not it today sorry lmao #uninstall twitter and go outsideeeeee #you'll find the real threat isn't the guy you met online who thinks gnome chumpsky is god and denies serbian war crimes. #there are nazis out there and they're grabbing for power so let's be chill for a second #we can still rip each other to shreds about our favorite streamers once the evil is defeated ok? xoxo #had to get this out

[butch4maryoliver]

the leftist sphere online and its insistence that nuance is critical while it completely waives it and transforms major issues into black-and-white is so….

#thinking of israel. the left (online) is so highly reactionary it’s absurd. the only thing that isn’t complicated is israel’s #documented war crimes against people within the near & middle east- particularly palestine of course #the military occupation isn’t complicated- though look even somewhat closely at any strain of its existence and that is complicated. heavil #leftism online with infographics and people “watching people learn and never learning themselves” is so frustrating #i am tired of people doing pop-research claiming to be authorities. you’re not on the ground. you have time in abundance. #do the hard work of giving justice to the stories of palestinians jews and yes even israelis since there #is a well-documented culture of revolt against the alt-right gov by its citizens- born and immigrated. #there’s so so much and so so much gets dismissed. if we were all on the ground this wouldn’t be an issue- but seriously. #we’re not. we only have time and conversation. and all of that is disregarded for easy reactionary targets #*this wouldn’t be an issue as in we would obviously have no ‘free time’ to divvy on research #i expect nothing from palestinian journalists and civilians but to do what they can even if that’s so bare as survive #it’s a hope rather than expectation #but if you’re in the west (if you’re reading this ik pretty much everyone following me is) you have an abundance of time to #remember nuance and history is real btw and especially that the history of jews and palestine pre-1948 is extremely intertwined #my one brief statement is you’re not decolonial if you want palestine to be drawn back to 1948. that’s quite the opposite really. #look into it man

[why-is-it-always-autumn]

The "Controversies" section on the in-universe Wikipedia page for Supernatural (Carver Edlund) must be such a ride. Everything from "Books 60+ Authorship Debate" to "Similarities to the Winchester Brother Killings" to "Hellhoundslair.com Libel Suit" to "Disappearance of Chuck Shurley" to "Unsolved Murder at 2009 Convention" to probably more that I'm forgetting or that Sam and Dean never learned about

#supernatural #spn #like chuck just vanished to go be god or whatever and becky posted all the drafts online #there was definitely debate about whether those were really by the original author or if she just wanted more clout for her fanfic #and obviously the plot is Really Suspiciously Similar to a lot of in universe real crimes #'skin' and 'jus in bello' would have the most controversy over that i think #i just think itd be funny if the ghostfacers found out the book included their real website and made them look incompetent and sued #also someone fully died at that fan convention #in universe spn fandom is just as wild as the irl spn fandom just with less bisexuality and more murder

[aeide-thea]

i'm never knowingly going to reblog a post that includes the phrase 'touch grass,' and that's not because i don't think it can be psychologically beneficial to get in some outdoor time if possible—i went for a walk earlier! it was great!—or to take a break from conversations that are getting you wound up, but because i think that particular wording generally reveals two things:

first, that the writer is speaking not from a place of genuine concern and sympathy, but from judgmental impatience à la 'get therapy,' which—i too have felt judgmental and impatient in my time, god knows! but when i feel that way i try to go unpack those feelings in private with a thoughtful friend, instead of pretending they constitute a source of wisdom or a helpful sort of energy to direct at people, you know? and i'm definitely not particularly interested in boosting a ventpost from someone else—who pretty clearly hasn't bothered to take the breather they're urging on others, if they're making little digs like that—as if it were actually sincere, carefully-reasoned advice.

and second, that the writer's argument embraces some seriously sloppy assumptions, which pretty immediately undermines my trust in the rest of their analysis—i mean, there's absolutely no guarantee someone's local scene will be any less parochial, just because it's playing out irl! there's also not actually a clean divide between 'people who spend time in the Real World' and 'people who spend time on the internet, which is for porn losers,' as demonstrated by a number of phenomena including, again, the aforementioned grass-recommenders' own presence right here on tumblr…

anyway. obviously we all have our own particular lines we draw around particular rhetoric that bugs us! these are just some reasons why that particular phrasing bugs me.

#language #metatumbling #like. if what you mean is 'your stance would be totally incongruous outside the microcommunity you're speaking to'? #say that! #but also—it's fine to speak to the state of affairs in a microcommunity‚ actually #you just need to define your parameters #but like. so do people who are speaking to Broader Culture bc like. *which* broader culture. #even if you mean American Cishet Culture there are. so many kinds. new york ≠ nebraska. #but anyway it's just like. stop fucking making (and reblogging) these implicit ad hominem arguments #about how people who disagree with you must be idiots and losers because they don't get out enough #if they really are wrong you ought to be able to argue against them without resorting to digs any real leftist ought to be ashamed of #and if spending all one's time in the physically-embodied socially-embedded world really stopped people from being wrong… #well. pretty sure a lot fewer people would be wrong about things‚ if that were true. #anyway i left this to rot in drafts last week for prolixity reasons #and like. it remains guilty of those crimes but they don't render its fundamental assertion untrue. #anyway fundamentally this is the sort of thing you immediately sound like a 'terminally online' loser for protesting and i realize that #but like. if we refuse to open conversational doors because we're scared of the shame bucket someone juvenile balanced on top of them… #fuck that. i decline to live in fear of implicit rhetorical bully tactics.

[true-squid]

dnis are funny to me like. its wild to me that some people really use "proship" or "antiship" or whatever to categorize themselves as a person. like guys there are so many other important things. also if you put "traumadumpers dni" in your dni do u really think a traumadumper wont interact with u? like guys the reason people are traumadumpers is because they don't know they're traumadumpers a dni doesnt work if the people you dont want to interact with dont realize youve put them into your little categories. or if you put "terf dni" do you think a terf CARES? THATS LIKE an invitation to get harrassed by a terf. also echo chamber much

#i could go on and on #and on #like guys #this shit so stupid #like is the purpose of a dni to like. find someone who matched? #like is it the reverse where youll only make friends with people #who match ur dni? #HERES MY TRIGGERS GUYS #wanna play the moral competition game? #THOUGHT CRIMES ARE NOT REAL CRIMES BTW #like you could be #dedicating time to dismantling capitalism #but instead you are online policing children and peers #squid screams

[piplupod]

okay also honestly a lot of the reasons ppl give for hating children also are things that disabled adults have going on.

i have friends who have a hard time with volume control, i have friends who drool, i have friends who have a runny nose constantly due to medication side effects, i have friends who get "over-excited" and loud about it, i have friends who struggle with impulse control, i have friends who struggle with motor control and are messy eaters because of it and might be a bit sticky sometimes (or all the time), and all of these friends are adults.

and i think it's really fucking weird that people loudly talk about hating children for these reasons when plenty of adults also possess those traits/behaviours/struggles/etc.

#i dont know !! just rubs me the wrong way #you can be bothered sure but like... to say you Despise a wide group of people is ... strange to me #also why tf do u have to make everyone know abt it. u can keep that to urself u know? why do u have to tell everyone u Hate kids #and they talk abt all the ways theyre disgusting and obnoxious when... a lot of adults have those same qualities ur describing 😐 #''thought crimes aren't real!'' okay sure but like. this isnt a thought anymore when u share it with ppl #so yeah im gonna get kind of irritated if u announce how much u hate children - an often abused group of humans - online or irl #like just... keep it to urself. its not just a thought anymore if ur sharing it lol so dont whine and bitch abt ''thought crime'' #pippen needs 2nd breakfast

[pavlovers]

actually nvm im not emo anymore 🤧

#will i ever be truly content with the ending ? no 💀 but ! everyone looks so cute nd im happy that my fav freaks are able to be silly :p #i have mixed feelings on chifuyu narrating this chapter tho lmao 😭😭 #i mean its great that he somehow remembers everything that michi went through nd their friendship wasnt lost #BUT I CANT GET OVER THAT LIKE. ONE TAKEHINA KISS PANEL AND ITS JUST HIS UGLY CRYING FACE AT THE BOTTOM 😭😭 #i kinda love that for him tho like shit make their day all about yourself king #i wouldn't have taken the whole takehina ending seriously either way #tokrev aint even about them at this point its about the collection of freaks takemichi collected along the way 😭 #what other thoughts can i put out there... #omg sanzu being an influencer is such a slay. i love how he looks exactly the same as he did in the bonten timeline #he just slays online now instead of yknow with a katana in real life ! #kazus adorable. izanas adorable #I LOVE THAT SOUTH IS JUST THERE. IDK HOW THEY MET IN THIS TIMELINE BUT FUCK IT YEAH HES INVITED WHY NOT #seeing timeskip mikey again just confirms my initial feelings towards manila mikey which is that he was ugly 😭 #IDK THE SHORT HAIR DOESNT SUIT HIM IMO 😭 I WAS HOPING THAT WAKUI WOULD GIVE HIM A NEW HAIRCUT THAT WE HAVENT SEEN BEFORE #its ok tho im happy that hes actually happy ! and that the future he wanted with emma and draken and their baby came true 🥲 #WAHH THAT TOO 😭 THE FACT THAT THEYRE MARRIED AND EMMA IS PREGNANT WITH THEIR FIRST CHILD LITERALLY SOBBING 😭 #its what theyve deserved this whole time !!!! #what wakui did to naoto was a crime tho 😭 why does he look like thatttt #bring back detective naoto 😭 current naoto looks more homeless than takemichi that doesnt sit right with me 😭 #im rocking with long hair hanma. shuji just some guy hanma 💀 #wakui making mikey looking at takemichi like that the opening panel like we know what they are 🙄 just had to remind us #thats all i think... its finally over 😭 i may have my grudges but i truly loved reading this weekly for over a year it was so much fun 💗

[tollsoftheclockwerkbelle]

wish pop culture would let bad guys or morally inept characters be allowed to be enjoyable again without taking that as some kind of reveal of the author or the viewer’s own morality.

#this is about my fear of what the terminally online public would do with lackadaisy if it ever went mainstream #‘but all the likable characters have done bad things despite being likable and sometimes seeming nice or even relatable??’ #buddy. i have news for you about real life #also please just enjoy grey characters without having to justify or sanitize them for fear of having it seem like you condone their actions #you think you are being woke but by attacking fans/creators of complex characters u are closer to a christian conservative mom than u think #looking @ u guy who messaged the author about not wanting mordecai to be ace-coded since he’s ‘evil’ #can ace people not do crime? just as a fun treat. a little murder? don’t worry about it

[definitely-supreme-court]

The best online lawyers around!

A gimmick blog by @elder-sister.

DISCLAIMER: We are trying to be as unbiased as possible, so we may prove anybody wrong or right. We are human, and will make mistakes. We will try our best to correct mistakes. This blog is NOT for real crimes. This is run by a person who is just trying to be Ace Attorney for Tumblr/FICTIONAL drama. We cannot take ANY legal action, and are NOT real lawyers. We will NOT be putting opinions into real world problems.

Wanna prove you aren't in the wrong when you said something? We'll find who's REALLY wrong!

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Wanna be a mod? Send a quick message!

We will accept icon suggestions/submissions, but please put them in asks.

#The Tumblr Lawyers #Online Lawyers #Not for real crimes #gimmick blog #gimmick account

[shopcat]

just thinking thoughts trying to articulate them but re: trans names and even "stereotypical" trans names i just think it's like. luckily it's died down for now at least on here or maybe i just follow people who aren't assholes but seriously what was with that whole era where people just made fun of people's names or tongue in cheek poked fun at each other with a little too much cruelty let alone done by CIS people... like that's so weird. like i do have what i'd call a Stereotypical Trans Name in that it's unusual and "weird" to other people and it's not even actually like, the most out there or individualistic thing ever it's just kind of an old timey name that isn't as popular anymore but i chose it specifically bc it was a "proper" name. and i STILL get shit for it like all the time. and it's just like. why do people CARE...

like. i know you can't make grand sweeping generalisations for a group of people as varied as every trans person on earth but for a lot of us i'd go ahead and say your name as a trans person and even just AS A PERSON... A HUMAN BEING is an important part of who you are and ties into your identity to a degree that differs from person to person. and for a trans person specifically can be one of the only things you have for... yourself, along with pronouns, especially in online spaces/if you're not out/if you are out but struggle for whatever reason to even be given the dignity of being called YOUR OWN NAME, etc. i'm not gonna harp on about that aspect forever bc i think we all know but it's just like, in the face of that annoying tiktok cunts making a list of "every transfem is called [blank] and every transmasc is called [blank]" and there being 6k comments talking about how stupid and unserious it all is is just NASTY. like man shut the fuck up 😭

i don't find it funny like 95% of the time i think it's just like mean ... i also know people could probably read this and be like shut up you're being annoying it's not that deep but like whatever man. i think it's basic decency to not make fun of people for something that's a part of who they are especially if that identity puts them at risk which to be real can affect pretty much everyone other than white cishet christians etc at FAR worse severity/cost and i think instilling the idea that "people's names are fair game" outside of actual tongue in cheek intercommunity good faith joking around is actually Bad. not that i'm actually comparing these things bc it's not 1:1 and has different levels but still i think it comes from the same like... source. the amount of times i've had people use my own name as if it's a gotcha in anon hate is actually astronomical and half of them don't even realise they're BEING literally transphobic is crazy. i mean i've joked about it and i don't take it that seriously but it's still like, transphobic and i hate these people it just also doesn't bother me because i'm a normal person who isn't actually insecure about it and who literally cares what someone's name is. and xfiles girls love me unintentional side effect.

#🐾 #like don't get me wrong i did pick the name bc i thought it WAS cute and a bit different and that made it like fun but like ?! how is that #a crime 😭😭 people naming themselves after nouns or angels or fictional characters has been happening forever first of all. and second it #just so seriously doesn't even matter #i also know that the notion of being like ''it's actually transphobic to make fun of a trans person who having a really typical western #english name'' could be weird bc like obviously they're not being targeted for THAT that's not what i'm saying it's just like. mean #to do to someone who chose their name (usually). esp if they're younger too like why are people bullying kids ... get a job ?! #i dunno... just thinkin... #also obv not comparable to you know. racism or antisemitism or antiblackbess etc and the way names being targeted there works #but it's also not like the asshole 16 year old boys on tiktok aren't also holding the same ideals #and i also don't really mean those things that are like Haha every transmasc is named [list of typical bames] though it is annoying #that's just like. well. like i said annoying. i just mean the amount of cunts who have been like is your name REALLY that #i can't believe that's your name i'd never take you seriously if that's true ... you mean that's your online name right like a pseudonym.. #you don't Really go by that it's not REAL it's something you CHOSE it's not Serious #LIKE DAMN!!!! shut up 😭 #also i actually have seen ppl make fun of a cultural name bc they thought it was a ''trans'' one and therefore fair game #''your name is literally [blank] 💀'' like ...?! #anywya this isn't super serious tldr it's just kinda weird hmmm...

[non-licet-bovi]

Why (I personally believe that) the Riddler is white supremacist coded

I’ve seen some back and forth over whether or not the Riddler as a character can be interpreted as a white supremacist in The Batman (2022), so I figured I’d expand a bit on why I personally came away with that assessment in my viewing of the film. This is a bit of a character study ramble, because I feel like I need to touch on what I believe the core of Riddler’s persona is to really explain why I believe he’s a supremacist terrorist.

Obviously a lot of this is based on subtext and imagery as well as my own ruminations on the film’s themes, not direct quotes from any member of the cast or crew, so feel free to take this with a grain of salt. Regardless, I think the structure of the Riddler character is pretty overt, especially when paired with Reeves’ and Dano’s words about him.

I really enjoy this take on the Riddler because it is so different from what we’re used to in other Batman media, for the most part. I think Reeves & Dano tooled his character in a way to really benefit the structure of this story and to reflect on societal problems that are prevalent in our modern lives. This character is so effective, I feel, because he is a familiar figure of fear in our culture that we see so often: a passionate extremist with a hateful, selfish motive he twists into a dogmatic ideology that radicalizes others into violence online.

While Riddler has a sympathetic backstory and is absolutely an example of how the lack of social programs causes undue suffering, he’s purposefully an extremist. He employs fear to exact his personal form of justice and it makes him a textbook example of a terrorist. His spree of murders coupled with an entire media campaign would be enough to designate him as such, but his purposeful use of bombs and a small army of enthralled followers fashioned in his own image hammers the point home. 

Nashton uses the same tactics we’ve seen from white male terrorists for decades, from the Oklahoma City bombing to the Christchurch Mosque Massacre. Not only were those terrorists motivated by racism and supremacist ideology, they were also stridently anti-establishment just like Nashton. It was hard for me to view the attempted assassination of a Black female political leader by a crew of masked white men in military surplus gear and not draw connections to real world terrorist attacks.

The only other people we know he associates with are his followers, who are apart of a small, radicalize group that watch his social media videos. That structure is so important, I think. Like, yes, the Riddler drew a ton of inspiration from Heath’s depiction of the Joker in the Dark Knight, but there are a lot more connotations to a guy yelling his criminal aspirations into a camera in 2022 than there were in 2008. These days, it's impossible not to watch those scenes and think of the myriad of extremists who used their streaming platforms, social media and/or youtube accounts to publish their hate-filled rants to a forum of sycophantic bigots. The Riddler’s scenes pretty overtly harken to extremists that have been ubiquitous in American news, including incels and alt-right zealots. His final video seems to me to be a direct allegory to the manifestos of killers posted on 4chan. I don’t think a film so purposeful in its aesthetic, themes and character building would have presented those scenes in such a way without recognizing what they would suggest to the viewer. 

Let’s not forget either that the character is heavily inspired by the Zodiac Killer, a killer that famously used a cross through a circle – a symbol long appropriated by white nationalists in America as far back as the KKK (once again, a white male extremist in a hooded disguise is always going to have certain connotations in an American film) – as his signature. It may not be the killer’s only motivation for picking the symbol, we probably won’t ever know for sure, but it’s still a connection that’s difficult to ignore. While the Zodiac, like most other serial killers, stuck to his own racial group for his choice of victims (there’s a lot of reasons for this, usually, but I’m not gonna go off on a tangent lmao), he also uses the n-word in one of his letters and mentions how he’s turning his victims into “slaves in the afterlife” several times.

All that, along with the context of his time period in 1960’s San Francisco, makes Zodiac an influence you cannot completely remove from racism. Zodiac may not be as strident an example of a racist criminal as, say, Charles Manson, but I don’t think these details were lost on the crew of The Batman. In fact, I think the theme continues through their use of the neck bomb in DA Colson’s murder.

Nashton’s use of the neck bomb device is directly lifted from a crime that occured in 2003, where a Pennsylvania man -- Brian Wells -- was allegedly a co-conspirator in the bank robbery he committed and was double-crossed by the perpetrators when he realized the bomb wasn’t fake like he’d been lead to believe (that retelling is my take away from the event, fyi, as it is debated whether or not Wells was a duped conspirator or an innocent and unwilling participant). Just like with Colson, the bomb couldn’t be removed from Wells’ neck without activating a fail safe that would cut off his head. Also like Colson, Wells was given detailed instructions on how to get the code to unlock the collar, but authorities failed to remove the bomb before it detonated. 

Why is this relevant to my point? While I think The Batman uses this device mostly because it is a shocking, fascinating murder weapon, there’s a detail about the crime that sticks out to me: Wells originally blamed the collar and the bank plot on Black men, to intentionally divert suspicion from the real conspirators he knew were all white. The alleged mastermind of the crime, Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, also suggested blaming Black people in pre-crime meetings (which Wells may or may not have attended, it isn’t confirmed). The purposeful racist choices of murderers that help make up the inspiration for Nashton’s character absolutely color my interpretation of any underlying biases he may or may not have. Obviously this interpretation isn’t confirmed by any sense of the word, but I think it is reasonable to believe that the Riddler’s persona being inspired by real world racists encourages the audience to assume he may very well be one as well.

Racism isn’t the only tenant of white supremacy, though, and there’s more to the Riddler’s ideology and actions that seem to align with that form of extremist thought. I think his personal conflict as well as his indiscriminate victims both add to why there’s cause to label him a supremacist.

A huge point, I feel, is how Riddler views and depicts Martha Wayne. His expose on the Waynes isn’t just a condemnation of Thomas, but of Martha as well. His loathing of her carries into his snide tone and word choice. Even the retelling of her parents' murder-suicide disregards her trauma. Martha was mentally ill and struggled with her condition, which Riddler assumably believes to be deplorable. The reporter who intends to publish her medical history is called "crusading", like his purpose in exposing her as a mental patient is valiant. Nashton recounts her experience like it is a salacious, dirty thing that is unsuitable for society, just as much a horrific secret as Thomas getting a the reporter killed. He doesn’t outright state that she is lesser for being mentally ill, but his rhetoric and weaponization of her circumstances alludes to ableist eugenics-based ideology that is absolutely championed by white supremacists.

Similarly, Riddler has no regard for Annika’s personhood nor safety when publishing her image. She’s completely unimportant beyond the fact that she is a confirmation of Mayor Mitchell’s poor moral choices and duplicity. She’s just another clue at the connection between Mitchell and Falcone, not a downtrodden person who deserves justice as much as Nashton does. The man is a forensic accountant, a job that is detail-oriented and meticulous, and it reflects in the specificity and planning of his crimes. It certainly must have occurred to Nashton what might happen to the beaten sex worker he exposed, he just didn’t care. Her murder is unremarkable to him.

Riddler is unconcerned with other people in general, since he’s willing to kill hundreds of innocents well after he’s exposed the truth about the Renewal Fund and knocked off all but one of his primary targets. The flood and the attempted massacre show his true purpose is shock, awe and total fear. Gotham’s corruption was just a fine excuse to create something powerful out of himself, so he’d never be ignored or forgotten again.

Sure, he sees and loathes the stark inequality of Gotham’s system. He rages against it. But, in all honesty, I believe it is only because he happened to be one of the people who didn’t get to benefit from that unfair status quo in the way he wanted. He’s not an advocate for the marginalized – in fact he actively harms them – just resentfully fixated on the circumstances he suffered from and obsessed with comparing that experience to the object of his disdain: Bruce Wayne. He delved into the corruption of the city not necessarily because he was investigating the reasons why his orphanage was left to rot, but because he had a chance meeting with the Waynes. He saw a little kid that was essentially just like him – white, male, able-bodied – but when Bruce is orphaned, suddenly only the reasons they’re not alike affect their difference in treatment. Bruce is rich and prestigious, Nashton is not. Those qualities give Bruce power Nashton does not possess, so they are the qualities Nashton demonizes. 

If there was no Bruce, Nashton would have still been a neglected orphan, but he likely wouldn’t have had the personal vindictive drive to discover the Renewal Fund’s secrets. Every target of his may be a loathsome, corrupt power figure, but they are all connected to his hatred for Bruce. They're all pinned to his wall, but Bruce dominates the entire center. His mission is personal, based in his private hates and inadequacies, not a bourgeoise uprising. If he cared about anything resembling leftist ideals, he certainly wouldn’t have chosen to bomb the sea walls, as the ones who suffer the worst from such disasters are always the poor and disadvantaged. If he cared about the structural failures behind his suffering, he maybe would do more than turn the old Wayne Orphanage into a private theater occupied by drug-addled, destitute orphans. He doesn't care about orphans, he cares that he is one.

To him, justice isn’t forcing Gotham to change. Justice is forcing Gotham to acknowledge his individual pain to his satisfaction, which means everyone else should feel the pain and fear he’s shouldered since childhood. It doesn’t matter how many die, so long as he is vindicated and legitimized. It’s peak terrorism. 

His selfishness, I think, is a key pillar of who he is and why he makes the choices he makes. Dano, in an interview, talks about how Riddler was fixated on questioning “Why Me?” as he lamented his lot in life. He’s a tortured individual focused on his own misfortune, who ends up blaming Gotham’s powerful for his individual situation. He’s a loner, like Bruce and unlike Selina. He doesn’t have a community he’s concerned about uplifting, he wants retribution for himself. Nashton’s only motivations are getting the revenge he feels he deserves, finding his individual power through instilling fear, being “remembered” in a way he never was as a child, and earning the attention/approval from the figure he most admires (Batman).

“Why me?” becomes “Now they will spend their last moments wondering, ‘why them?’”

I see that selfishness in the manifestos of recent terrorists and in the hateful ideology that demands the white man always be given exactly what he proclaims he deserves, everyone else be damned. For me, the way the film frames Riddler’s disregard for others can be read as bigotry. Riddler’s idealization of Batman as a figure he assumes to be just as detached from reality as he read as a particularly white male power fantasy he constructed for himself (this is a subversion of the Batman power fantasy trope that I enjoyed, tbh. The Batman depicts making a fearsome, vengeful god out of Batman is a bad thing). His personality and actions seemed to hint at white nationalist extremism without needing to lampshade it. I love the script for getting so much more across than just what was said overtly. 

As a last tangent, I really like the set up in the film of forcing Batman to reckon with himself through the lenses of other characters. Riddler is one of the mirrors held up to reflect Batman back at Bruce, the other being Selina. They both recognize aspects of themselves in Batman and actively seek to engage with those aspects. They’re both inspired by Batman and his power because they’ve been forced to be powerless their whole lives. They both commit crime. They both have murderous intent. However, the things that make them different are why Nashton is repugnant to Bruce and Selina is alluring. 

Nashton is a direct contrast to Selina in key ways: he isolates himself and only interacts with others online while she is dedicated to her friend and willing to upend her entire life for her safety, he relishes in the anonymity of his mask and disregards who Batman is without the cowl while she constantly sheds her disguise and ponders just who Bruce might be, his family is never mentioned and never matter while her parents are hugely impactful to her characterization and actions, he gleefully uses murder to exact his revenge while she realizes she doesn’t need to kill to reckon with her personal trauma, his vengeance is destroying Gotham while her vengeance is being able to survive in spite of Gotham. 

Selina’s story arc shows just how much Nashton perverts his suffering into a self-righteous excuse to do harm, which in turn allows Bruce to realize how he was unwittingly doing the same. The Batman critiques some of the most frustrating representations of Batman -- as an infallible super soldier, who is so resolute and powerful that he can function as an unstoppable, unquestionable force of his own violent will, beholden to no one -- by giving the Riddler the ultimate revenge fantasy and showing it's inherently destructive.

By the by, I don’t think it’s inconsequential that these two contrasting characters so important to Batman’s development are played by a white man and a biracial Black woman. Media still struggles to circumvent our cultural norms of assuming that every sad, traumatized white guy deserves the best possible interpretation of his choices, no matter how horrific they may be, and that every sad, traumatized Black woman must be unyieldingly strong yet ethically pristine in her actions to be worth empathizing with. Does The Batman have a perfect depiction of its characters and perfect awareness of how race factors into those depictions? Not necessarily, no, but the effort is there.

Ultimately, Riddler is a modern American terrorist archetype. The modern American terrorist is, in his most concise and expected form, a white supremacist.

(Quick sidebar: I doubt it's lost on y'all how differently a 2022 "realistic, gritty" Batman film depicts a terrorist villain compared to, say, a 2012 "realistic, gritty" Batman film did. I do love the Nolan trilogy to pieces, but the change of Bane's entire character into a vaguely Middle Eastern former member of the League of Shadows -- all the while still white-washing the entire League, Jesus Christ -- was a very pointed choice. A decade ago, American prejudice equated terrorism with the Middle East and it isn't surprising that the perception reflected in our media, where we had Talia Al Ghul trying to literally nuke Gotham off the map. Media always takes public anxiety and uses it for horror, as it assumes the audience will already feel intimidated by your villain/monster. Ten years after The Dark Knight Rises, the fear of homegrown American terrorism is much more predominant than it used to be -- even though white extremist violence was always more common place than anti-Muslim bigotry might have some believe -- and we're getting references to that fear in our current Batman antagonist.)

I think that archetype came across very strong in the film’s presentation and it makes him an all the more effective villain, especially for a grounded, realistic Batman film. We recognize the Riddler in the people and movements that scare us in daily life. He’s not an unbelievable, otherworldly monster. He’s sympathetic to a point and his descent into terror mistaken as justice is uncomfortably familiar. To me, it makes him a lot more compelling in a media landscape where we’re used to comic book films featuring superpowered aliens with designs to destroy entire planets rather than reckon with structural inequality and corruption.

Anyway, I hope this overlong drivel helps illuminate why I – and maybe others – consider Riddler to be an unspoken white supremacist character. Even if one might disagree, I think I laid out my thought process where one might at least allow that the interpretation is reasonable enough.

#meta #The Batman #Batman #The Riddler #Edward Nashton #Selina Kyle #Bruce Wayne #white supremacy #racism #terrorism #character analysis #discussion of real life crime #it is so weird experiencing online fandom when you talk with all ur friends irl about batman all the time #i fr thought EVERYONE thought the riddler was a 4chan racist lmao #like i may be over thinking every little detail but damn the batman got DETAILS #i get one run away thought and suddenly ive written a 3k word essay jfc #this riddler scary its a damn good performance claps for mr dano