• UnderpantsWeevil
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    3 days ago

    The problem isn’t anger nearly so much as “What are you going to do with that rage?”

    And the answer seems to be “Go on the internet and type in all caps at other people!” Which… hey, I guess that works. We seem to have a lot of very angry people online and they do seem to be venting their frustration at one another very effectively.

    We also have a growing number of police, military recruits, and paramilitary forces who also spend a bunch of time online working themselves up into terrified rage. And then they get to go out with guns and batons and tear gas to square off against civilians who have been terrified in turn.

    Then we have a congo line of politicians show up to say “Vote for me and I will end the terror!” And then we get an even bigger police and paramilitary state, which maybe gets used to suppress the political opponents some of the time. But mostly just gets used to attack the homeless, round up immigrants, and bomb brown people living abroad. So now the whole world can feel terrified and angry. And we can be terrified and angry of that in turn.

    • Gabe Bell
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      3 days ago

      Just speaking for myself (as someone who tends to go online and speak in all caps) I think that is perhaps a better way to deal with my rage at the world than taking it out on other people in the real world, or picking up a gun and shooting at other people in the real world.

      It might annoy the people at whom I am speaking in all caps, but on the other hand at least no innocent bystanders end up with bullet wounds in them.