A Summer of Cynicism

Apparently, there are bad guys — and then there are villains. That’s what actress Margot Robbie believes. Explaining her latest role as “Suicide Squad” member Harley Quinn, she told Kelly Ripa, “It’s not like good vs. bad, it’s like bad vs. evil.”

Harley Quinn and her criminally minded comrades are supervillains.

Maybe the pessimism and crankiness is because we are tired, fed up, and discouraged.

Harley’s “nuts, she’s completely psychotic,” Robbie added. “Everyone in the squad, they’re like anti-heroes. They’re doing a good thing, but they’re not really playing by the rules. It’s fun to watch.”

Except, no one — not even critics — knows what “good thing” this band of seriously messed-up characters is doing. And with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of just 26 percent, few think it’s fun to watch.

Whatever the “good thing” is, it’s not on social media, either — which is rife with caustic quips from fangirls and fanboys regarding “Suicide Squad” and other recent superhero movies. Even the fact that a group of supervillains would be considered remotely heroic seems off-kilter.

In fact, pop culture overall has seemed a bit upside-down and negative lately.

Since it’s is a reflection of us on some level, maybe the recent pessimism and crankiness is because we are tired, fed up, and discouraged.

A few other examples from this summer’s pop culture battles include: major punches thrown at the “Ghostbusters” reboot, Taylor Swift vs. Kimye, Taylor Swift vs. Calvin Harris, Milo Yiannopoulos and Leslie Jones’ reportedly hostile exchange, and Lindsay Lohan’s abuse accusations against her fiancé.

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Of course, then there’s Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s constant stream of potshots and endless political arguments among social media users. Factor in the news, too, which includes stories on the Iran deal, North Korea testing nukes, poor economic growth, and lack of jobs, racial tension, slain policemen, ISIS, war, and all manner of other dire situations.

“What I see right now is the whole world seems to be going to hell in a hand basket, and that’s creating a lot of tension and anger,” film critic Devin Faraci told USA Today. “That stuff leaks out into every possible direction. We’re in that weird position where everything sort of seems terrible, and so as a result, people become negative and combative.”

Social media is helping us unhealthily channel that negativity and combativeness like never before. As we repeatedly watch stars and politicians behaving badly, Instagram or Twitter melees in which celebrities attack each other, and even fan forums in which rage and hatred are stirred up over innocuous things like Batman, Superman, and the Suicide Squad, the social chaos gradually feels normal.

Related: Lose the Bad Attitude for Your Own Good

As Kate Erbland, a film editor at Indiewire.com, also told USA Today, “If celebrities and politicians — who aren’t so very different these days — are constantly taking the negative path, it can feel like the status quo, the way things are done, an acceptable way to act.”

Indeed. And it might be time to take a brief social media — or just media — break. It’s so much easier to feel discouraged by or to even hate people through computer and phone screens than it is face-to-face.

Our constant connection to media, social or otherwise, is usually helpful — until it’s not.

And our unrestrained (and anonymous) opportunity to opine to anyone during an especially volatile time in our country usually promotes venting, not polite conversation. So begins a vicious and negative cycle. And as author and speaker Jon Gordon once said, “A society in a state of depression can’t think its way out of a crisis.”