Everybody looks for ONE reason, ONE excuse.
They may say anti-heroes are the problem, but those
have been eternally popular. 'Robin Hood', aside from
the sugary Errol Flynn version, was a sort of anti-
hero. Bad stuff mixed with good. The "penny dreadfuls"
of the latter 1800s. Spaghetti Clint is an anti-hero.
Shelly's "creature" was an anti-hero.
But, the stories/films with anti-heroes generally turn
out BETTER at the end. The anti-hero may not be VERY
'moral', but the tilt is towards doing the right thing
and everyone lives (happier) ever-after.
Today's ... people are fucked at the beginning AND at
the end.
"Stories" can - at least used to before big $$$ got
involved - tell us a lot about a culture. It's dreams
and aspirations so to speak, not trying to be hokey.
Too many of today's products are a gun stuck in your
mouth ... misery and horror and madness.
Do the stories make the society or does the society
make the stories ? A bit of both I think ...
Anyway, just mentioning a trend I've noticed. Not 100%
sure what it MEANS, if anything, just that it's there.
Oddly, I suspect that "news" stories may be more potent.
The huge uptick in people who show up somewhere and kill
everyone in sight - then immortalized by the MSM. That
may promote copycat thinking.