Outrage Culture

For most of my life, I have tried to be "the voice of reason" in various conflicting and tense situation.

If there is one thing time — sadly — has taught me, it is that a lot of people don't want and don't welcome a voice of reason into their reality.

All I can conclude — also with a good bit of sadness — is that there is a whole segment of the population who really enjoy the act of being outraged by one thing or another.

Maybe it's how they get their dopamine fix, or maybe it gives them a sense of purpose... I don't know.

Of course, this is a generalization... only some people fall under this particular heading, although it sometimes feels like it's a growing segment.

I used to think that being a voice of reason made sense, since the vast majority of acts and opinions tend to fall pretty close to the middle of the spectrum, rather than at the extremes.

It really does seem like there are a fair number of people in our world who actively go searching for something to be outraged about. And when it comes to anything political, they find an outlet for their outrage by carefully orchestrating a demonstration of how their political opposite is at fault for virtually everything on the planet that is not to their liking.

I think the reason it makes me rather sad is that being in a place of outrage and finger pointing suggests that these folks are not actually interested in finding solutions to the problems they bring up... they just want to complain about the problems.

I've also noticed that they seem incapable of giving their opponents credit for any good things they have done.

It all makes me think about a commentary I read several months back, in which a political commentator pointed out that there are all sorts of things we might be able to start changing in the political arena... but unless we start to change human nature, few of those changes have any hope of sticking.

Can't honestly disagree with that assessment.

But are we really so far down this road of outrage, doom and fingerpointing that it has become impossible for people to simply have productive discussions across their differences, with the intent of finding common ground and solutions?

Of course, this may be a more pronounced situation here in the USA...

Although I sometimes feel like just giving up, I'm going to keeo following my own heart and inner compass... and try to help people find common ground in the middle, somewhere.

Might be a difficult journey, given the rise of extremism, in recent years...

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week ahead!

How about you? Have you noticed a rise in "outrage culture?" Does it seem like extreme points of view are becoming more prominent, and a "sensible middle" is almost undesirable? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

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Created at 2024.09.22 23:56 PDT
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