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It would be nice if we could get past the notion that controversy equals merit. Sometimes you're not "living rent-free in their heads" or "taking fire because your'e over the target." You're suffering well-deserved criticism for saying something foolish or offensive.
It's gotten worse because of Internet culture, no doubt, where "hate clicks count the same." Cultivating controversy as a path to fame has never been easier. The quality of commentary is less important than its ability to provoke adversaries, rally allies, and go viral.
We've reached the absurd situation where people exaggerate outrage, or even conjure it out of thin air, so they can claim to be victims or pose as powerful champions whose enemies want to destroy them at all costs.
Manufacturing controversy turns out to be even easier in the Internet era than faking popularity. Yesterday it was buying blocks of fake Twitter followers to inflate popularity. Now it's imaginary critics or randos elevated from obscurity and inflated into giants for the slaying.
People on the Left overvalue controversy because their ideology is built around victimization. People on the Right fall for it because they think the media immediately conspires to destroy every effective spokesperson or charismatic leader they produce.
The number of controversial "living rent-free in their heads" figures who really do attract obsessive bad-faith criticism from adversaries because they have vast silent majorities of devoted followers ready to stampede the ballot box at the next opportunity is quite small.
To be sure, good ideas can be controversial and sometimes political entities really do "show you who they fear" by attacking them, but this is *claimed* far more often than it actually happens. Notoriety is not always fame in waiting.
The whole phenomenon reeks of arrogance and contempt. It's based on the assumption those who disagree with your ideas are incapable of acting in good faith. They only criticize your hero because they're afraid of him or her, lashing out in anger because they are ashamed.
It's also lazy, because you don't have to search social media for long to find a few people who claim to hate anything or anyone. The scramble for clickbait produces fuel for even bigger clickbait hunts, on and on, as the real world vanishes beneath a toxic cloud of online smog.
If everyone is determined to go viral at all costs, our society will remain bedridden from an epidemic of obnoxious stupidity. We should be hungry for nourishing ideas without needing them to be deep-fried in controversy, and relish debates where nobody gets "destroyed." /end
