Thread by @tanejamainhoon

#Thread on #TheOutrageTrap:

As the weekend has brought with it some calm, it may be the right time to talk about the relentless outrage that preceded it, this time led by, upon & because of Kangana Ranaut, that spilled from online to offline and captured much of the news cycle..

2/ It matters little what happened and why; what matters instead is the trap I see most of us, particularly people who identify as liberals and left-leaning, repeatedly fall into: the outrage trap.

We are both bait and prey for this trap, and both consumers and products of it.

3/ Typically set in place by media, politicians and provocateurs, it uses social media algorithms, echo chambers, our dire need for social validation plus FOMO and peer-pressure to its advantage, to get us to be angry about things that were designed for exactly that reaction.

4/ There's a cycle to it:
Someone says/does something provocative/stupid.
Because it has been said, someone must share it and outrage against it.
Because someone has outraged against it, we must add our own outrage to it and share that.
And so on and on.. until it becomes news.

5/ So the reason for the online (& subsequent offline) rise of the cults of people from Hindustani Bhau to Kangana is that, to outrage against them, we amplify them.
Thereby spreading their message far & wide.
Thereby giving it (+ them) the importance/validity they were seeking.

6/ This is not to say that outrage itself is a trap: online anger has led to offline impact and social change, from #Blacklivesmatter to #MeToo.

This is to say that if we outrage about everything, then we are outraging about nothing. Because we are outraging about anything(!).

7/ Outrage sells only because someone buys it: and that someone is us. There is an outrage economy now, and its GDP is better than India's because it is meant to distract us from talking about the latter!

Outrage has become news only because we value outrage more than news.

8/ Add to this how social media algorithms incentivise our participation in the trending news cycle of outrage, to give us our own chances at being in the news, and perhaps even being the news.

And all this while, the only thing that does not receive attention? The actual news!

9/ But what if, hear me out, we don't share or give air to an inane/provocative opinion by someone who's very likely saying it to get our attention.
What if we don't amplify it and not enough people see it?
Does that opinion even exist then?
And will that person even matter then?

10/ It's unfortunate that we live in a world where we don't talk online about what the news reports, but the news reports what we talk about online.

There are MANY issues that require our urgent attention - and outrage. Let's pick our battles wisely, so the news has no excuse.

11/ #EndThread

PS. Pro tip: If this thread annoyed you or pissed you off, don't outrage against it. Just ignore it. That'll teach me the lesson you want! (And repeat for anybody/anything not worth the news cycle..)