Manufactured Outrage:
How we have all been promoting hate, despite our best intentions
There is no human emotion more capable to increase the sales of newspapers and magazines, no other more capable of firing up colossal tetra-bytes of activity on social media servers than “Outrage”. For this reason, I have set myself a rule. Never say or type anything when feeling outraged, no matter how offensive is what I hear or see. Before reacting, first I take a big breath. Then I count back from 10 and tell myself 3 times: “Don’t bite the bait. Don’t bite the bait. Don’t bite the hate. ”
I should not only have counted back from 10. I should have carried out counting beyond 0 and through -1, -2, -3… It would have been a nice way to fight negativity with negative numbers into infinity. Instead I did what a considerable number of people did:…
Unfortunately, I have broken this rule recently. I didn’t count back from 10 after watching, on National TV, a white guy who was not only denying that racism exists, but also accusing a mixed-race woman of racism. He shouted her down after she called out on his white privilege. I should not only have counted back from 10. I should have carried out counting beyond 0 and through -1, -2, -3… It would have been a nice way to fight negativity with negative numbers into infinity. Instead, I did what a considerable number of people did: I twitted my outrage.
To be fair, I didn’t even mention his name in my tweet. I only said that I would rather see his cool, progressive and lovely ex-wife trending on Twitter, instead of that scruffy illustration of entitlement, arrogance, in-denial of looming middle-age, ridiculous man. Despite not even mentioning his name, he was not only trending for days but attending more interviews and talk shows. He was getting more social followers and more exposure.
Until this guy went on that specific talk show, almost nobody knew who he was. I had to google him, like a high number of people did. I know this as a fact. Most people who reacted with the same outrage as me, twitted: “I had to google this guy to find out who he was ”.
For those who didn’t bother to google him, he is an actor. According to a Wikipedia entry, full of name dropping and references to his dynastic acting origins, his most memorable acting work was as an Assistant Detective, on a spin-off crime series. With the typical confidence of a privileged white man, he is also quoted as saying that while his name has helped him with securing good acting roles, at the end of the day he had to show he was good at his work. To this guy’s credit, he must indeed be a good actor. His character was very convincing as a likeable guy. But wouldn’t be great if everybody could have the opportunity to show how good they are at their work, instead of just a few privileged people with the help of their connections? The sad fact here is that despite all the opportunities that privilege by birth has granted him, he was still in obscurity until we all felt outraged seeing him displaying his outrageous views on National TV.
The tactic of getting exposure through offensive behaviour predates Social Media. The idea that any good PR is good PR, so long as people keep talking about you, is so old that it is now a cliche.
The tactic of getting exposure through offensive behaviour predates Social Media. The idea that any good PR is good PR, so long as people keep talking about you, is so old that it is now a cliche. Our outrage is what keeps this actor/ musician being talked about. In the good old days, all that obscure artists had to do for a meteoric instant of fame, was to get magnificently pissed instead of pissing off so many people in disgraceful ways. Whatever we might think about self-destructive behaviour, that type of damage was limited to their own universe. It was even glamorised and seeing in romantic ways. They were the “Terrible Efants! The suffering poetic souls!” But hate speech is not poetic. It is not romantic. It doesn’t seek glamorisation. It seeks normalisation of bigotry, something with a far more nefarious effect to the whole world.
Let’s not confuse “Debate” with “The Bait”. Social Media is not the right platform to debate such issues. We should be using it to reward behaviour that enlightens and unite people, instead of promoting more fear and hate.
Let’s not buy into the illusion that this is about Freedom of Speech. It is not. People like him can still stand on a little stool in the Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park. They can still say whatever they want amongst a group of drunken mates in a pub. In the same way, we all have our right to dignity and to oppose such views. But let’s not confuse “Debate” with “The Bait”. Social Media is not the right platform to debate such issues. We should be using it to reward behaviour that enlightens and unite people, instead of promoting more fear and hate. Every time, we comment and share a post just to express our outrage, we ended up exposing repugnant ideas to a larger number of people. Even if you have few followers and believe that nobody will take notice, you are still adding to the noise. You are magnifying views that without the exposure of Social media, would be isolated in parochial village pubs.
So instead of falling into the Outrage Trap, I suggest that every time you see something offensive, not just ignore it, but post something forward-thinking, progressive, cute or amusing to counteract all that hate. Share some positive news, nice pictures of flowers and tropical beaches, videos of cats, book recommendations, film reviews, links to art exhibitions, make a poem… Share your love instead of hate.
