The Outrage Factory

Outrage is the ultra-processed food of digital commerce now, extruded rather than considered, an amalgam of substances not found in nature combined in an artificial way to override our natural appetites and spur us on to consume more, to create more, to spread it like wildfire in dry grass. Bad things happened to a number of women in the last few weeks. This is not unusual. If I don’t detail the specific atrocities, this will be an evergreen article, as relevant this week as it will be three months from now or as it would have been three years ago. Except some years ago, it wouldn’t have been used as fuel to drive engagement. People would not have been cynically crafting little bonfires of outrage to spread, like live coals, among the other posts. The ones I noticed this week and last, the small floating fire starters, were on LinkedIn. Some of the sentiments expressed are genuine, and the people who write them are trying to raise awareness or call out injustice. Social media can be positive. And I am not the boss of content, the arbiter of what should or should not appear in those places. I, myself have earnestly turned to various public platforms, including this one, with a sense of outrage or frustration or to outline something I believe is wrong or stupid or destructive. I am doing that right now, I understand that. Outrage, rage, frustration, the calling to account, all have a place in the public square. Anger can be helpful fuel to change politics, shift opinions, demand action. Angry people can change systems. Outrage before social media was a force to be reckoned with, often unpalatable to others, but sustaining, like a kind of emotional hardtack. Hardtack is a dry baked good, light on flavor, but heavy on durability, that sustained many a sailor or soldier on a long journey. Outrage now is the ultra-processed food of digital commerce, extruded rather than considered, an amalgam of substances not found in nature combined in an artificial way to override our natural appetites and spur us on to consume more, to create more, to spread like wildfire. Get full access to Fierce Grace at speirolo.substack.com/subscribe