It’s only later in life when you live a little and branch out, you realize Travis is really the villain. Watching it now, I can only see the Shadow Side of my own kind. He’s not contributing to a community or pursuing a healthy goal. He’s preoccupied with blaming others, self-hatred, obsession, racism, and misogyny. He’s interested only in his own fulfillment of control (the fact he has none drives him nearly mad). The motive behind his violence is inconsequential. It makes no difference if his victim is a politician or pimp; they both have things that evade him: power, adoration, self-assurance.

Worse yet he’s a hypocrite. He believes himself to be “god’s only man”, looking down at the “whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies” — only to voluntarily dive into the living hell of 42nd Street night after night, consuming pills and watching endless porn loops.

Every time you read an internet commenter call a woman a “bitch”, “slut” or “whore”, that’s Travis’ voice, demeaning the very thing he can’t understand. Every time you hear about a lone shooter enter a school or business with a gun, those are his footsteps, trying to force society to see him. Yes, Travis lurks in our basement. I don’t know why, but he always does and always will; that’s the very nature of being human. But thankfully, for the vast, vast majority of us, he doesn’t dominate the house.

Travis: “I got some bad ideas in my head.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGTY-7e3iT0