The Outrage Machine
It happened innocently enough. I was chaperoning my daughter’s choir trip to Disney World. We were there in the Magic Kingdom and her director had allowed the children to disperse on their own. So, we could also disperse on our own. It was mostly a fantastic day. Waiting times were shorter for one person and I was able to ride almost everything. Unfortunately, shorter wait times did not mean no wait times. I had to wait 40 minutes at the Haunted House and it was the worst 40 minutes of the day.
A little boy and his family walked by. No one knew them. He and his sister were wearing princess dresses. He and his attire dominated the conversation for the next ten to 15 minutes. Was he trans? Was he gay? Was he a bisexual? Was he a metrosexual? Or, was he simply a four year old buy wearing a dress. Moreover, why should I, these people, or anyone else really care all that much? Out of thousands of kids in the park that day, he was one little boy wearing a dress.
Of course, they went on to extoll Ron DeSantis and his culture wars with Disney. One of them was diabetic like me. She was testing her blood sugar using the old-fashioned prick method and complained about it. I thought about telling her about my Freestyle Libre. I decided not to get involved. The Freestyle Libre can be expensive without good insurance. Yet. here was a perfect microcosm of what the outrage machine has wrought. People back a party that explicitly aims to keep them subservient with inferior care and torches them economically at every turn. Yet, they hate the LGTBQ+ community. They hate the trans kids. They hate woke.
Somehow we have succumbed to the politics of scale. The outrage machine draws us in too. They want us to react. They need us to react. So, they can use that reaction to further rile up the base. Listen, do you hear these libtards defending drag queens and transkids? The ultimate answer is that we have to care less. That statement is very intentional. We should continue to care, but we have to focus our energies on things that directly impact us. There are people here that are directly impacted by these things. We have to be an ally for them, but we also cannot forget the politics of scale.
I explain this by drawing three circles. The inside circle is about us and us alone. Does the particular issue at hand have an effect on me personally? If the answer is no then I move to the second circle. Does it impact someone I love and care about (be it family or friends)? In some cases this will literally be true. Obviously, we should continue to fight in that circumstance. What I imagine though is that most people (at least the ones rabidly for or against something) may have someone they know that this particular issue impacts. Worse, some people may not know anyone personally impacted.
We cannot allow the outrage machine to draw us into unnecessary conflict. If I casually know someone impacted or know no one impacted then why I am fighting on this issue? Shouldn’t my time be better spent on issues that directly impact me or my family? It doesn’t mean we stop fighting for the rights of the disenfranchised. It doesn’t mean we give up hope on a more inclusive society. What it does mean that if we focus on meat and potato issues where we have near universal agreement across political spectrums then the so-called bigots and homophobes will lose. Outrage and bigotry is all they have. If you take that away from them by ignoring the incendiary rhetoric then you can get them out of office and ultimately out of our lives.
I’ve been wondering how effective RonD’s diatribes would work…because if you agree with him, then WTF are you doing putting money into Disney?
If you are still at the park with “we support Ron” attitude then you are a hypocrite with no values…oh, right, we are talking MAGA types.
My hopes and money are still on the Mouse to win. The tourism $$$ alone says that Disney is too too important to Florida not to be given privileges as corporation.
Sigh, I too am a hypocrite, I want progressive/inclusive values to win, but I believe corporate greed and backroom deals are really what will be result. And despite that, I hope to enjoy another Disney Cruise within next couple of years.
1What would they say if a young boy dressed up as Peter Pan?
Then there’s this Country music legend – – the Man in Black, I mean Pink:
2https://twitter.com/dannyderaney/status/1648009136037335040?s=21&t=ZxIwT9vFRzV0OPZdpsUeWw
@Star,
I too am conflicted in the fight between dictator Ron DeSantis and Disney. On the one hand, isn’t it conservative dogma that they stay out of the affairs of corporations? On the other hand, Disney is a big greedy corporation.
3I don’t know that sticking my 2 cents worth in here is worthwhile but…
4One of my grandsons, about 4yo, would go to dance class with his older sister, about 6yo. He came home wanting to wear a tutu. So, mom gave him a tutu. and he wore it around occasionally. I guess that was a couple of years ago. I don’t know that anyone goes to dance class anymore and as far as I know, grandson doesnt seem to wear a tutu any more. Shit happens!
Jus’say’n!
Read this a couple times. I am confident that the salon patrons (me included) are on the same page with respect to desantis’ agenda and our disgust. I’m not sure at my age and orneriness that I could just walk away from blatant discrimination against LGBTQ or any other humans trying to live their lives, especially kids (or woke- me I guess). I’d probably figure out a way to show my disgust (peacefully). On the other hand, Florida will not see my patronage again. I’ll take my grandkids to Disneyland.
5I tell others who hate gays…other than your BigBook o’BS fairytales…what is wrong with homosexuals??? Give me evidence to back your hate …. crickets!
6But homosexuals men are awesome…less competition for women!! But seriously what is wrong with being such??? Still hearing crickets!!!
If I understand you correctly, I’m pretty sure that I don’t agree–at least not entirely–with you. I’m old, comfortably off, living in a Blue state, in a happily mixed neighborhood. Not much of the current Republican shenanigans affect me directly.
Am I not supposed to care about LGBTQ people? The ones I know best have moved to California, and are living in about the same conditions that I am. Do I not need to worry about them? More importantly, am I not supposed to care about people like them who are being discriminated against elsewhere? As a bleeding-heart liberal (I told you I was old), I feel obliged to care, and do what I can to support them.
Much the same applies to POC. The 60s Civil Rights Movement wasn’t all black people. White college-age kids demonstrated–and bled, and were jailed–right beside them. They weren’t directly affected by discrimination against black people, but they saw injustice at work, joined forces with the POC fighting against it, and together, they changed the country. Should they have ignored discrimination, because it wasn’t happening to people they knew? I don’t think so.
So, while I appreciate that we shouldn’t get wrapped around the axle of everything that Republicans scream about, I don’t think that we can afford to not speak out/work against discrimination against other people, whether it directly involves people we know and love, or not.
7RICK HOLY SHIT!!! Thanks for that! That’s friggin awesome.
8magas would probably say it’s a deepfake.
But then again most of em could probably never be convinced that Cash’s song Hurt is a cover of a Nine Inch Nails song. That’d make their heads explode.
TJ – after muddling about it, my money is the Mouse. In my playbook, Micky is more likely to bring down DeSantis – and Trump – than anything else.
9Although you didn’t label it specifically, I’m sure the third circle represents our course of action even if it doesn’t affect us personally or affect someone we know and/or love. I’m firmly in circle two since my son is trans and my grandson is black. But I would still be there if it was circle three and always have been even before my son transitioned and my grandson was born.
10Theotherjean,
I struggled a lot with how to say all of this because it is very counterintuitive. We should care about people and shouldn’t back down from a fight when it comes to individual rights. I suppose it is in battles over inclusiveness on THEIR terms. So, it’s not about drag queens. It’s about Drag Queen Story hour. It’s not about African Americans. It’s about Critical Race Theory. So, instead of simply making it about allowing each individual to be themselves and have the same rights and consideration as everyone else, it is about specific things that right wingers can’t define, but they know they hate.
Schools have never done CRT and yet the outrage machine has us trying to defend it. We can talk about how it isn’t being done and that is more narrowly focused than what they are making it out to be. They won’t hear it, believe it, or understand it, so it’s a losing proposition. It is the same thing with Drag Queen Story Hour. Protecting someone’s right to be a crossdresser is one thing. Having me do a full-throated defense of Drag Queen Story Hour is something else entirely.
There are some pitches we should definitely swing at. Then there are the sliders in the dirt. We have to let those go by.
11I don’t think ignoring fascists if they are not directly going at you personally is a winning strategy at all.
12Ok, I’m working out a personal plan.
Since I spend WAYY too much time online, I’m allowing myself 10 minutes of outrage per day.
All this will probably get blown on Twitter, in its current incarnation.
I’m permitted one deep dive into US politics. Preference is for commentary over hard news. I know my weaknesses
This usually gets me back to outrage, but this time it’s justified.
I HAVE to read one thing that’s useful -climate, or international news.
Celebrity gossip MUST be strictly rationed.
Otherwise, the crap conflict mongering expands to take up my entire brain. Everything online is framed with that in mind.
RESiST.
13Thank you for an excellent column, Nick. Really a pleasure to read.
14I hear all of you. I really do. There are always moments when you get an epiphany and the words just don’t come with it. It’s like we are caught in a loop. We see the outrage machine in high gear but it feels wrong if we don’t say something to defend our friends and loved ones.
The anti-woke movement is a cross between a very loud dog whistle and absolute unhidden bigotry. As a history teacher, it feels relevant to note that the civil rights movement’s main success was shining a light at how unreasonable segregationists were. It shone a light on how evil and petty they were. It showed us how small they were. The movement was at its best when it did this through pictures, video, and no words.
What this is all about is that we need to find a way to get the overwhelming majority to get to a place where they can reasonably accept everyone’s right to be who they are within the law. They don’t have to like everyone. They don’t have to fully understand it. That comes with two inherent understandings. First, acronyms and pronouns are nice and hopefully we will get to a day where everyone will be comfortable using them. Today isn’t that day. We must somehow separate well-meaning people that misuse these by mistake and those that aren’t well-meaning. Secondly, there will always be a group of people that will hate no matter what. We can try to make them understand. We can appeal to their better angels. We can give them all the grace in the world. They will still hate. 100 percent acceptance is not and never has been the reasonable goal and it shouldn’t be here. The reasonable goal is for that group to be so small and so naturally ostracized that they are rendered meaningless.
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