It goes like this:
- Somebody does or says something that somebody else thinks is tacky, tasteless or offensive.
- Somebody else throws together a hastily-written and completely overblown 600 word thinkpiece on why that thing is an existential threat to civilisation, and it’s published on a clckbait website.
- The link to the thinkpiece gets shared on social media by people outraged at the target of the thinkpiece
- The link gets shared by an opposing group of people who are outraged at the thinkpiece itself.
- The whole thing gets picked up by trolls who just enjoy watching the internet burn
- Innocent bystanders end up being hurt.
There is no point linking to the current outrage-of-the day. There will be another one along tomorrow. And the day after. And the day after that….
I wish there was some way of breaking the cycle.
