5 ms·
We are living in the age of moral indignation and outrage rather than intelligence and understanding. On the one hand, it does nothing to address the problem. O
by rsj_hn 6y ago
We are living in the age of moral indignation and outrage rather than intelligence and understanding. On the one hand, it does nothing to address the problem. On the other hand, that's good because it means there is more fuel for outrage in the next election, too.
- klodolph 6y agoThis “age of moral indignation and outrage” has been going on for eighty years at least—at what point do we stop calling it an “age”?
- fallingknife 6y agoIt definitely wasn't like this in the late 90's / early 2000's.
- perl4ever 6y agoApparently outrage died around that time, so it must not be like this now: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Death-of-Outrage/William-J-Bennett/9780684864037 https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Death-of-Outrage/...
- SpicyLemonZest 6y agoIt was. The late 90s and early 2000s were chock full of moral panic about video games in general and Grand Theft Auto specifically, with speeches about "murder simulators" training our youths to kill being quite common.
- schoen 6y agoFor example, Child's Play was founded as a response to that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child%27s_Play_(charity)#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child%27s_Play_(charity)#Histo... Jack Thompson was also making news at that time for filing lawsuits over the original Grand Theft Auto game. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_(activist)#Grand_Theft_Auto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_(activist)#Grand... I seem to remember that the Child's Play founders had a particular rivalry or conflict with him over this.
- ceph_ 6y agoThe 90s were the peak of legislators trying to shift blame onto violent videogames and other media. Do you remember the uproar following the release of Mortal Kombat? Or the mini-satanic panic over magic cards?
- msla 6y agoNot to mention the big Satanic Panic over backmasking in music and Dungeons and Dragons and women working outside the house and leaving their kids in Satanic preschools and, before that, the panic over Rock'n'Roll music and, before that, the panic over Jazz and, before that, the panic over the Foxtrot... Come to think of it, there seems to be a panic every time the culture changes.
- abakker 6y agoI mean, in this case, people are panicking even when it stays the same! People are just panicky.
- undefined1 6y agofrom about 2000 to 2015 we were relatively free of moral puritans trying to censor people, language, art. but now it has returned with a vengeance and even worse than the moral panics of the 80s and 90s.
- ceejayoz 6y agoNah. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4512156.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4512156.stm
- undefined1 6y agothat's why I said relatively. and maybe it was more like 2005-2015.
- slavik81 6y agoJack Thompson ran his crusade during that time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_(activist) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_(activist)
- heleninboodler 6y agoWell, the age of enlightenment was well over a century and people seem to like moral indignation and outrage more, so I'd guess we're gonna stick with it for a while.
- gameswithgo 6y agonot so enlightened since they were still enslaving humans then
- heleninboodler 6y agoBut their marketing was top notch
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- imbnwa 6y agoI love these predominantly white male notions of "We, the West, had it right at some point in time", no you didn't.
- MiguelX413 6y agoWait which comment implied that
- a1369209993 6y ago> at what point do we stop calling it an "age"? Pessimistically? How long did the Bronze Age last?
- dan_quixote 6y ago"moral indignation" is timeless. But it does feel uniquely current to have two political parties that seem to use it as their primary currency (in the US at least). I have trouble recalling any major legislation after the Affordable Care Act that wasn't fully grounded in moral indignation or virtue signalling.
- imbnwa 6y agoThe Patriot Act wasn't passed in an atmosphere of moral indignation or virtue signalling?
- imbnwa 6y agoUS domestic politics since the early 19th century is cycles of moral indignance, largely evangelical and conservative in origin