The Great American Outrage Machine

By Gordon Hopkins I write both news and opinion in this paper. Contrary to what some news outlets would have you believe, news and opinion are two very different things and I try to make it a point not to express opinions on subjects I will likely have to write about in the news page. I admit this time I am coming perilously close to opining about a subject that is also in the news but, hopefully, I’m only skirting the edge, so perhaps you will forgive me. The internet has often been referred to as the Information Superhighway. Or it used to be. Am I showing my age? Does anyone say Information Superhighway anymore? Anyway, my point is, it isn’t a highway, super or otherwise. The net is a massive information receptacle. Information doesn’t come to you. You have to go find it. That term, Information Superhighway, was created to give the internet the stamp of something dynamic, as if by putting words and pictures and ideas online, you are somehow accomplishing something. In reality, putting something online is like tossing it into a massive, electronic kitchen junk drawer, where it will sit unnoticed unless someone goes sifting through the old keys and string and the old bottle openers and stumbles across it. It is that false feeling of accomplishment when you post something online that makes social media so seductive, especially in a time when many of us feel completely impotent. Folks who advocate posting on Facebook or Instagram or whatever like to think they are “making their voices heard.”In fact, what they are really doing is the equivalent of screaming into a pillow. I am guilty of this myself.There is, as you may have noticed, a lot of outrage in the world, some justified, some not. A lot of folks think the internet, and social media in particular, is the cause of a lot of this outrage. Untrue. The outrage already exists. Social media is just a place to throw it, like the kitchen junk drawer. Outrage on social media is a problem, a serious problem, but not for the reasons you think. Outrage gets a bad rap. To paraphrase Gordon Gekko from “The Wolf of Wall Street,” the 1987 film, “The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that outrage, for lack of a better word, is good. Outrage is right. Outrage works.” It is one of the most important drivers of change in our society. Properly focused on constructive action, outrage can overturn injustice and make the world a better place.Outrage on social media is just so much useless electronic litter. That is the real problem with social media. It diverts real, healthy, justified outrage away from practical avenues of change. And the problem is getting worse. More and more, people think posting their outrage on social media should somehow be enough. People complain about decisions made by local officials, for example, but don’t actually show up to city council meetings or county commissioner meetings or call their local representatives or even send a letter or email to their local representatives about their outrage. I have seen people on social media insist they don’t have to go to meetings or call their representatives. “My representative should be reading my Facebook posts.” I’ve made this point before and now I’m gonna make it again. Contrary to popular opinion, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein did not bring down President Nixon. Outrage did. All Woodward and Bernstein (and other journalists, let’s be fair) did was report what the President did. Outrage at what Nixon did prompted some people to protest and some people to contact their government representatives and demand Nixon step down from office. Which he did. There was no social media at that time but do you think if all those people had instead written angry letters about how appalled they were about what the President did and then tossed those letters into a kitchen drawer, do you think the result would have been the same? Be outraged. It is the right thing to do. Don’t let anything tell you your outrage is not justified. Just do something constructive with your outrage. It’s even okay to put your outrage online if you want. Just remember, outrage without the effort to solve it isn’t outrage. Its just whining.

Ronald Smith

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