In reference to these two posts in the MAGA thread:
This is a perfect example of my biggest pet peeve with social media: people falling over themselves trying to show off how outraged they are. And by golly, if you are not equally outraged, there is something wrong with you. The format of FB (carefully controlled friend lists) ensures that posting some outrage porn generally guarantees a raucous round of agreement from your personal echo chamber. It is also a staple of the comment section of any news outlet. This phenomenon leads to lives and careers ruined by online shaming. I think it also lies at the core of our current obsession with police brutality. And to a certain degree, it fuels the political divide that led to the election of Trump.
Michael Austin posted an interesting essay on the phenomenon recently in By Common Consent:
https://bycommonconsent.com/2016/12/...cheap-outrage/
Originally posted by BigFatMeanie
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Originally posted by Walter Sobchak
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Michael Austin posted an interesting essay on the phenomenon recently in By Common Consent:
https://bycommonconsent.com/2016/12/...cheap-outrage/
It’s called “outrage porn” for a good reason. Like pornography, it provides all of the sensations of a strong emotion without incurring any of the costs (time, relationship building, risk of rejection). It briefly satisfies our need to experience sensation but does not lead to meaningful engagement with anything. It is risk free, and, ultimately, it is an addiction that works against real human interaction.
And I do it. All the time. When I come across something stupid that Ann Coulter said, I forward it to my Facebook feed so that all of my friends can laugh at what stupid things conservatives believe. When I find an obscure news story about the Republican county clerk of some Southern village with 25 people and one Quick Trip, who says that Hillary Clinton is actually an alien impostor from the planet Exxar 4, I’m all over it. “New Republican Foreign Policy,” I announce, as I hit the “share” button. Mission accomplished. Outrage felt.
And this is how 300,000,000 people have managed to construct two mutually exclusive, epistemically self-contained echo chambers that are incapable of interacting with each other except through pointless insults in comment sections. And we are broken.
And I do it. All the time. When I come across something stupid that Ann Coulter said, I forward it to my Facebook feed so that all of my friends can laugh at what stupid things conservatives believe. When I find an obscure news story about the Republican county clerk of some Southern village with 25 people and one Quick Trip, who says that Hillary Clinton is actually an alien impostor from the planet Exxar 4, I’m all over it. “New Republican Foreign Policy,” I announce, as I hit the “share” button. Mission accomplished. Outrage felt.
And this is how 300,000,000 people have managed to construct two mutually exclusive, epistemically self-contained echo chambers that are incapable of interacting with each other except through pointless insults in comment sections. And we are broken.
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