March 05, 2004
Outrage Fatigue
There's this new chic meme out there in the blogosphere that people are calling outrage fatigue. I dislike the term immensely. I actually think there's this kind of spiritual battle between the concept of "standing up for what's right" and the concepts of cynicism, snarkiness, and bitchy hopelessness. Referring to "outrage fatigue" is just another way to make it okay to lose hope. I've gathered together weblog entries before of bloggers merely linking to horrible news and making snarky comments, rather than actually registering their vocal disapproval, and I've complained about it. Sometimes all you have left is your voice, and that's when you need to use it most.Comments
When you say "Outrage Fatigue", I interpret it as that awful feeling when you just have to stop reading the news for a while. When you fear that if you hear one more crappy thing, you'll just crawl under your bed and die slowly.
I do see your definition in action, though I wonder if those folks are really fatigued, or if they were always cynical. I believe in order to have outrage fatigue, it is necessary to first be outraged.
Those of us who do care generally come back to caring after a short break. Those who don't often can't be saved.
Posted by: Cat at March 5, 2004 04:11 PMPost a comment