Most of the stuff we get outraged about doesn’t deserve really any emotion

Good newsletter here from Mark Manson on “the life cycle of outrage,” talking about various “significant events” and how ultimately they’re not significant and we forget about a lot of the stuff we were worked up about even just months ago. Remember Gwen Berry, that hammer thrower who seemed to turn her back on the National Anthem? That was all we talked about on cable news and social hot takes for about 96 hours. Now I’d reckon no one remembers that was even a controversy. We just moved on to the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing, etc.

As Manson notes:

If anything is true in the social media age, it’s that narratives will evolve in order to saturate as much attention as they can. This means that any take will eventually be taken to its extreme. News anchors who a week ago expressed mild concern about a war will turn downright apocalyptic. Expert researchers who once appeared on TV to give measured advice will be replaced with doomsayers and anarchists. Douchey influencers and television pundits will try on absurd positions for no other reason than it will get Twitter upset and talking about them again.

Indeed.

It’s worth noting here that a lot of people are not online-reactionary, and they’re just moving…