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I enjoyed the article, but the only part that is relevant to the title is this paragraph near the end: > “Americans are much more reasonable and moderate than
by paulgb 7y ago
I enjoyed the article, but the only part that is relevant to the title is this paragraph near the end:
> “Americans are much more reasonable and moderate than what you might guess when you see a little Twitter war. But I’m guessing that the purpose of many Twitter wars is to polarise people and, in fact, we’ve seen that happen because you can often trace some of the fighting groups to the same location. Outrage is profitable. Most of the outrage I’ve seen in the online world – I would guess 80% – someone’s faking it for profit.”
A good book that opened my eyes up to the phenomenon of manufactured outrage is Trust Me I'm Lying by Ryan Holiday.
- api 7y agoFear, hate, and outrage release some powerful brain chemicals. I sometimes feel like people are almost literally doing hits of online drama. Tabloids, daytime TV, and radio shock jocks have always implicitly gotten this and delivered this fix, but social media is to those what crack is to chewing coca leaves.
- swiley 7y agoIt’s bad when they bring it into real life. I know people who I’ve always thought “must get high on getting angry” and they’re some of the most unpleasant people to be around.
- blakewatson 7y agoReminds me of this video by CGP Grey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE3j_RHkqJc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE3j_RHkqJc