Identifying the Causes in the Age of Outrage

I’m interested in how people think and why they believe what they believe. Therefore, I was very interested in reading Ed Stetzer’s book, Christians in the Age of Outrage. I’m about to start chapter six, but the book is pretty good so far. Chapter 3 has been my favorite. However, chapters 1-2 lays out what Stetzer believes are the causes of the societal outrage. I’ve pondered this specific question for several years now, and I think I already had a few possible causes. I wanted to see how mine compared with Stetzer’s so, before I read his tow chapters on the subject, I outlined my thoughts. I then compared them to what Stetzer identifies. Here are the results.

What I identify as the causes of the outrage:

I.                     Loss of monolithic news media

a.       More informed citizenry

b.       Less informed citizenry

c.       News media competition

d.       Abandonment of the adherence to objectivity

II.                   Technological advancement in telecommunications

a.       Rise in social media

                                                               i.      Anonymity eliminating peer pressure

                                                             ii.      Mass bullying

b.       Instantaneous news and opinion on a massive scale

                                                               i.      Fear

                                                             ii.      Distraction

                                                           iii.      False leadership -> false outrage, false importance, false concern

III.                 The politicization of every aspect of the culture and society

IV.                The spread of socialism through the media intelligentsia

V.                  The decline of socialism

a.       Realization of the failure

b.       Success of free market capitalism

c.       Mass electoral shift

VI.                Realization that much governance is accomplished by judicial fiat and anonymous regulation

VII.               Delusional victimization and self-justification as a response to results of personal choices in the wake of the mass cultural and societal changes

What Stetzer identifies as the causes of the outrage:

I.                     Cultural Forking

a.       Loss of Cultural Christianity

b.       Tribalism and Polarization (1994- )

c.       Lack of Compromise

d.       Anti-expertise

e.       Silencing disagreement

II.                   Technology

a.       Clickbait

b.       Fake News

c.       Outrage Cycle

                                                               i.      Mobs

                                                             ii.      Counter outrage

                                                           iii.      Anger at being conned

There are definitely similarities and crossovers in our identifications. 

Check his book.