The Daily Show: Americans Have a Rage Problem

[Rhiannon12866]

Ronny Chieng investigates why Americans from both parties are locked in an addictive cycle of rage and retribution.

[VegasVet]

1. Hmmm... Lost me at the "both parties" nonsense. It wasn't Democrats storming the Capitol.

[FailureToCommunicate]

2. Bull. Entitled white a**holes have a rage problem, not "Americans"...

...whipped up by hate radio and FOX.

[magicguido]

3. We don't have this problem. Only morons have this problem.

[ancianita]

4. Yeah NO. This? It's typical rhetorical strategy -- or a lazy mental habit --

to make a majority of a society neurotically own the behavior of the most troubled of that society.

Sure, being addicted to the adrenaline and cortisone releases of outrage can be a problem.

But society doesn't have to be blamed for the addiction of millions.

But this really ignores the conflict-driven, he said/she said profit design of social media platforms.


THAT is the other PROBLEM WE actually DO have. It's the model that social media platforms create to foment users' chronic outrage, which, like clickbait, sucks them in to make such platforms profitable.

As Stuart Russell says, everyone should have the right to mental (not just physical) security -- the right to live in a largely true information environment. Americans are the favorite target of those, at home and abroad, who would make public discourse toxic by abusing the First Amendment.