There is a very, very thin line between being legitimately annoyed at outrage culture and justifying ignorance with it, so allow me to make one thing immediately clear: the outrage which irks me at this point is not typically to do with people in a poor place being legitimately angry with the government. There is a time and a reason for voices to be heard, and subjects such as mental health, the refugee crisis, and all of that kind of stuff needs to be made as loud as possible if it is to be changed.
The kind of outrage culture I’m on about is in the everyday. They redesigned a website you commonly used? This is an outrage! Something isn’t working exactly properly? This is an outrage! Somebody messed up? They cannot be forgiven for this is an outrage!
I believe I’ve already stated that anger and hatred is seeping into our culture like a plague. Add anonymity and mob mentality into that mix and you’ve got a dangerous bag of self-justified people, mostly good at heart but for the moment, blinded by their own rage. Put aside your anger towards David Cameron for a moment – difficult, I know, but try it – and imagine being in his boots right now. Imagine that everywhere you turn, people are insulting you and baying for your blood. You look online and find threats of violence against you and your family. You post a tweet containing one sentence which gets picked apart and spat on by an army of people who can hide behind a wall of anonymity you don’t have the privilege of. If we are to understand that which seeks to do us harm, we have to put ourselves in their perspective, and sometimes it’s not a pretty place. It doesn’t justify what they’re doing, but sometimes it makes things make a little more sense.
I’m not just talking about famous people, either. People are visceral to one another, passive-aggressively if you’re lucky, messaging you with threats if you’re not. Because you’ve said something which has caused an outrage. How couldn’t you have known this? How could you be so fucking stupid? You’ll never be able to take back what you said; it’s an outrage!
Calm down. If you disagree with somebody, tell them why in a calm and measured way. Do not let your heart outspeak your mind, and remember that all people can be hurt by you as much as you are hurt by them.
Perpetually Perturbed 