Excellent blogpost on Outrage Addiction:
Outrage addiction, which some refer to as outrage porn (a term I prefer not to use2) is where we seem to get our "fix" by getting fired up over something. By it's nature it is addicting, so the more we get through reading, watching, and discussing, the more we seek. Anyone can suffer with it for a period of time. Some eventually pass through and are purified of it, while others seem stuck there for many years.
Those who pass through the first phase of outrage addiction might suffer from a second phase where they become outraged with everyone else who is chronically outraged (think: ex-smoker syndrome). Others skip the first phase and have their only experience with it in the second sphere. In reality, such behavior changes nothing.
In either case, outrage addiction becomes a sport, giving rise to adrenaline. Perhaps that is what makes it so addicting. Often, the outrage-addicted yield to imprudence by shooting first and asking questions later. Things are seen in black and white and the subjective becomes objective for them.
Does that mean you have to stop caring? That you have to stop reporting the bad news?
No.
It means putting everything in God's hands. It means admitting your rage doesn't do a thing (well, normally it doesn't). It means focusing on the goal: winning the right to life, and not the reactions, not the experience.
When you're constantly outraged, you become ineffective. Don't get me wrong: a little anger does some good. But when outrage becomes a way of life, it's not effective any more. It's corrodes the soul.
Effective activists are calm, reasoned, and thoughtful. Not constantly outraged.
