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CHAPTER 12The Outrage Machine

“Anybody can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody's power, that is not easy.”

— Aristotle, The Art of Rhetoric

Garrison is an IT manager for a small government contractor and works from home. He spends about three hours per day on social media. Each day, he posts multiple times on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If you want to get the latest news, he is the source. It may be a biased source, but he is current with breaking news from both trustworthy and perhaps not‐so‐trustworthy sources. Most of his posts are political in nature, arguing about both policies as well as moral and religious issues with friends and complete strangers. It seems as if every time I see him, he has blocked a relative over some heated argument. (I guess they unblock each other after they cool down a bit and the cycle continues.) When I ask him why he continually participates in these arguments, he says, “I just can't let it go. They are so wrong in what they are saying and believing and it just bothers me to a point that I need to respond.”

I often wonder if people really think that all of this time arguing on social media is really serving them. Once in a while I have discussed certain topics on social media and never during any of them has anyone ever said, “That is a really good point. I never thought of it ...