darkemeralds. (Reply)

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Other people's outrage upsets me, too. My own outrage has a slightly different tone quality to it, but the two so frequently happen in tandem that I'm not sure I could tease them apart: someone expresses outrage over something on the internet, and I feel differently about the subject, so I feel outrage over their outrage...I mean, there's a downward spiral for you.

Trollish outrage certainly seems to spring from a need to feel "right," but I suspect that the underlying fight-flight-scream-swear-verbally-abuse reaction you see in comment threads has a threatened component. I can feel it more clearly than I can put it into words.

It was (of course) some Failcry incidents that first really taught me how easily triggered I am by outrage. Once some of it was directed at me in a personal way, I became so allergic to it that I had to cut off whole swaths of my internet life. I didn't actually close accounts and disappear, but I sure put up some blocks and walls, and developed some hard and fast rules about internet streets I will and won't walk down, and internet people I will and won't interact with. Plenty of people have been "encouraged" by various Failcry events to commit digital suicide, deleting themselves from the internet. As you say, outrage bleeds very quickly into bullying, and that, as we know, can encourage sensitive people to commit actual suicide.

It's a bigger issue than I started out being conscious of for this post. I'm so glad I wrote it, though. Good insights in the comments! :D

PS I love your icon! Beautiful!