Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london
short version (for those in a hurry): Internet outrage is soooo 2013.
long version (for those with more time): There was a internet furore a while back over some Facebook page called Women Who Eat on Tubes. It was basically photos of exactly that and for some reason loads of people got their knickers in a twist over it and accusations of sexism and so forth were bandied around in the usual indignant manner. Lets get it into perspective. It was just pictures of women eating on the tube. That was it. No-one died. No was abused. Sometimes a packet of McCoy’s is just a packet of McCoy’s.
We live in The Era of Outrage ™. It now seems a daily occurrence for everyone to get a beef in their bonnet about some evil deed or something terrible someone said. Cue instant declarations of outrage from all and sundry across whatever social media platforms they occupy. Don’t get me wrong there are plenty of things going on all the time to be genuinely irate about but this Cult of Indignation ™ is out of hand. It seems that people just enjoy laying into people who have apparently offended them and be righteous whilst doing so. Its sanctimonious sadism. Wait for someone to fuck up then put the boot in.
Maybe people just need an outlet for their own pent up anger or are just bored and have nothing better to do but its all getting a bit boring isn’t it? Hasn’t outrage fatigue set in yet? Do we all have to get onto our high horses every time the Internet spoonfeeds us the latest outrage? Do we all need to jump every time the media says so? They have advertising space to sell, what’s our excuse?
For me the worst thing is there is no follow up. What people are spitting peas about one minute is utterly forgotten the next. The Nigerian girls abducted by Boko Harum initiated a week of every celeb and joe shmoe hashtagging the shit out of #bringourgirlshome and then that was it. They never came back and no-one bothered to notice or care as they were already onto the next thing.
The week before last the mob turned on the Evil lion killing dentist and rightfully so but again to put in perspective, we are officially in the midst of the 6th great extinction of Planet Earth, caused primarily by humans. Including the livestock bred for people to eat, we now account for 95% of all species currently in existence. This is something everyone suitably ignores but one lion gets it and there’s a feeding frenzy. (pun intended-ish) 2 days of outrage later its over and we all move on.
Take the clock clock-making terror suspect pupil, Ahmed. The world got behind him for like one day. It was maybe even just a couple of hours. #Isupportahmedforthelengthoftimeittakesmetoclickshare would have been a more appropriate hashtag.
This week we have the magnificent story of Cameron apparently sticking his cock and/or balls in a dead pig’s head’ – cue suitable massive outrage. I mean, yes, that’s pretty messed up but it is by far and away NOT the worst thing he has done. Not by a long shot. And it will only be the object of focus until the next twitter storm emerges. And so it goes on.
People’s outrage only lasts as long as it’s in the news, which isn’t very long these days. The refugee crisis is current No.1 outrage and again, rightfully so but soon it will fade from the news because something will inevitably replace it but the misery for those caught up in it will still exist. That problem is not going away anytime soon but the coverage of it will.
It seems people really don’t care about the subject, they just want to be outraged about it but more importantly, they want people to see they are outraged. Its like some badge of honour to be displayed. Look how much I care. Well if you actually did, you would probably continue caring for maybe slightly longer than it takes the A.D.D Internet to chew it up and spit it out.
So if I have offended anyone with either photos of people eating or this impassioned (posh word for outraged) diatribe please turn your scorn on me and outrage away…just don’t use up all your vitriol, you might need it for the next thing, or the one after that, or the one after..zzzzz
