Outrage-Us!

Life is good. Very good, I would say. The global economy is sound, and the US economy is driving it forward again. In the States, unemployment is at record lows, even for disadvantaged groups who have usually not benefited from near-full employment. Inflation appears to be missing in action; economists are revising their economic theories to account for its absence. While there are numerous small wars, we have no big ones. While antibiotic-resistant strains of various bacterial infections are growing, we’re still a little ahead. Teenage pregnancy rates and alcohol use statistics are way down. Violent crime is at a sixty-year low.

Yet so many people I know are somewhere between deeply upset and very angry: and there is data to back that point too. US deaths of despair (including drug overdoses, suicides, and lifestyle-choice diseases like cirrhosis) have increased to a rate unseen since the 19th century! Almost sixty-four percent of respondents are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the States. What gives?

A major part of the explanation lies in the marketing power of outrage. Politicians, businesses, entertainers, athletes, activists, online influencers, and especially the media have discovered that exaggerating or hyping has few drawbacks and significant monetary rewards. Taking things to the extreme, whether in what gets covered or how it is described, results in more interest, more feedback, and more revenue.

This “Outrage-Us” approach is bipartisan and apolitical. If you try to isolate when it began, I guarantee you I can find an earlier incidence from the opposite faction (political, religious, or polemic). It occurs in major policy issues (immigration, opioids, war, racism) and in minor topics (weather effects, cultural issues).

How does it work? Always begin with some kernel of the truth: don’t simply make things up out of whole cloth, as that is too easy to refute. Someone in the country illegally commits a crime, and this becomes an “invasion” where ‘they’re sending us rapists.’ Push out statistics which favor one view without acknowledging other statistics or interpretations. Exaggerate policies by using inflammatory language without considering the full details of the issue. Play to a predictable point of view: the one your readers/listeners/friends are likely to enjoy. There are few rules other than never apologize, never explain, always rebut and in a LARGER VOICE.

Who does it? Nearly all politicians and activists, but even most forms of media, including social media. Watch how often “breaking news” interrupts the broadcast or streams across your screen. Watch for the word bombshell in coverage of any topic: more dud bombshells have “exploded” during the Trump administration than during World War II. Some media forms do it with their opinion sections, others even with with their news sections, but all do it.

Why do they do it? How likely are you to read an article entitled “Border agencies face unexpected challenge of child immigrants” versus “Trump puts kids in cages”? Think I’m kidding? Check out the New York Times subscription numbers before and during the Trump Administration. Cable news stations like MSNBC were literally dying prior to the Trump candidacy. And lest you forget, Fox News was born as a conservative alternative during the Clinton presidency, and rode the Obama administration to the top of the cable news marketplace. Outrage works.

It works in small, apolitical ways, too. Ever wonder why there is so much weather coverage on the local news? Because (1) it is cheap and easy to cover, (2) it is usually non-controversial, and (3) it is easy to hype. If the weather is not as extreme as predicted, no one will call you on it, because, well, we dodged a bullet, and that’s just the weather! Wonder why they cover windchill and heat indices today rather than actual temperatures as in the past? The latter drive the readings more to the extreme!

You see the “Outrage-Us” approach in stories about gun violence, hate crimes, infectious diseases and natural disasters. You find it is almost any story about social security, military spending, or marijuana use/”treatments”.

None of this is to claim there aren’t serious problems out there. Remember, “Outrage-Us” stories must start with a kernel of truth, but they go to extremes to get you to look and then get excited.

• The coronavirus bears watching in case it mutates in a bad way. If you’re really interested, Johns Hopkins has a site tracking the spread in real time. But while this coronavirus is novel, coronaviruses have always been with us; they are one cause of the common cold. Remember MERS? SARS? They were both coronaviruses. MERS had a 33% fatality rate, while SARS was under 10%. Today’s novel coronavirus is running around 2%. Remember Swine flu? Bird flu? Zika? Dengue fever? Living in the tropics where it is endemic, Dengue is a personal favorite. Dengue fever is very real, but did you know that 80% of those who contract it have either no symptoms or a mild fever? Hardly as exciting as the “breakbone fever” covered by the media but experienced by only a tiny percentage of cases.
• It’s more exciting to cover a poll on how bad US race relations are than report that interracial marriage rates are up almost fifty percent to all-time highs.
• Seems like natural disasters are becoming more frequent? Nope. More expensive, yes, as we continue to develop areas that we know are vulnerable. (Beachfront property in Florida? California tree-lined canyon views? Anywhere in New Orleans?)

So be careful out there. On top of all the other groups trying to get you excited, there are armies of Russian trolls and bots specifically trying to set one group of Americans against another . . . and millions of Americans getting outraged and circulating the nonsense! Ever see an inflammatory post and find it’s years old: that is often the work of bots which recycle old news to new effect. Real problems deserve careful thought, not knee-jerk reactions or online emoticons. But that requires effort instead of raw emotion.

The only way to end this post is with a choice of dance-off music video. For those still angry, try on Nirvana’s ode to teen angst; for everyone else, a little Bobby McFerrin.