On Outrage Misplaced

5-13-2026

On Outrage Misplaced: America is outraged! We’ve got a whole list of things that tip us over the edge these days. The outrages have a short half-life as new ones replace current ones, often within the same news cycle. And the outrages are on all ends of the political spectrum. Outrage is so fast and furious that we need a new word to describe the sustained state of high blood pressure our politics are pumping up.

It’s not that we the people shouldn’t be alarmed at the number and consequences of political issues. We are in the middle of massive global change that is upending much of what has stabilized our nation since WWII. For the first time ever, humans are facing the destruction of our planetary home. Our economy no longer serves majorities of our citizens. Corporate power is growing while workers right are being neutered. We have an Administration that is testing the outer limits of Executive power and both a Congress and a Supreme Court (who were designed to assure a balance of power) enabling that power grab. The principles of our nation are being tested and twisted, threatening the democratic foundations we stand on. We’re racking up unproductive debt like drunken sailors at a port bar. With so many issues swirling around at a frenetic pace, we never catch our breath and fashion a priority list of key challenges we must focus on and solve. Worse than all of this is we are divided and unable to even talk rationally with each other and have substituted outrage for problem solving.

Many blame social media for our constantly swirling whirlpool of outrage. We have the ability to transmit issues to the masses in an instant, unchecked and often unsourced. Social media is such a voracious devourer of material, that the demand to “refresh” pages within the 24 hour news cycle is overwhelming. You can look at any major news online page several times a day and the articles have either been updated or cycled out.

We can’t blame it all on social media. We the public, have become lazy consumers of information. We want it fast, short and most of all exciting. We’re not willing to do the work of fact-checking or even modest critical thinking about what we read. No one is bothered by a mugging anymore. It has to be a triple homicide with a manhunt thrown in. We’ve also taken away the guardrails. There’s no accountability for true “fake news” or sloppy reporting. It’s just the opposite. We’re seeing news outlets sued because they did expose wrongdoing and the criminal is claiming victimhood. We reward the most outrageous sources of information with viewership and are shutting down the news outlets that used to do in-depth reporting and analysis. Goodbye Walter Cronkite and hello “X”.

There is a list of challenges we should be raising hell about. The important ones are tied together by cause and common solutions.

The Economy: Start with the failure of our economic system to provide basic needs to an alarming percentage of our people. We have income inequality, retirement struggles, food insecurity, worker disempowerment, healthcare unaffordability, housing unavailability, good jobs scarcity and the lack of education and training to take advantage of what opportunity there is. These economic woes are directly tied to a bunch of insatiable pigs who have grabbed our government and are draining the economic lifeblood out of our nation.

Decline of Government by the People: Underlying the above trends is an increasingly unequal ability for all citizens to determine our leadership and national direction. The three major causes of this democratic decline are the vast sums of money we allow into our election processes, a Supreme Court that is turning the clock back on equality and voting rights and our own declining support for the idea that diversity is our strength. We are looking more like those autocracies that we once were the counterbalance to.

Corruption: Lastly is a level of corruption that is destroying our own faith in good governance and making enemies out of allies around the world. When we turn our backs on environmental progress to feed the fossil fuel industry campaign donors, we drop out of the race to find a planetary future. When we engage in military action for the financial gain of those in power, we destabilize the peace and trading rhythms everywhere. When pardons and retaliatory regulatory actions are used to free criminals and intimidate honest forces, our due process under the law loses credibility. We can’t address common problems when all actions are up for the highest bidder.

These three challenges, the lack of broad economic prosperity, the decline of our representative governance and the acceptance of large-scale grift, are what we should be not only alarmed about, but yes…OUTRAGED over. Because these three things are the shovels of dirt that are interring our nation.

If we can develop and support leaders that can articulate these challenges and promote consensus solutions to them, there is hope. It won’t happen if we keep punching down on the less fortunate or trying to isolate those different than ourselves. Silos can’t sustain great nations. Nor can worship of the wealthy. As they say, behind every great fortune is a great crime”. We have to support the containment of opportunism and the insatiable drive for unlimited wealth. We have to regain our mutual trust and recommit to a nation “of the people, by the people, for the people”. We need to get behind those courageous defenders of equal justice under the law, and demand that justice be served. Real justice.

If we want to be outraged, these are the basic “outrages” we need to focus on and demand improvement. They should appeal to every American. I’m sure many of you would express these with different words or with different priority. Maybe add one or two more. But if it’s three broad hurdles or six, doesn’t really matter. What matters is that they don’t change every 24 hours and we come together to redirect our political and citizen demands. Laser focus! Unflagging determination! Active unity!

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