#IAmOutraged!

iamoutraged

I am outraged! It’s true. I am so outraged that I have created my own hashtag: #IAmOutraged. Use it to join me in my outrage. Let us unite in our outrage!

I started being mildly irked, but that went nowhere. I soon shifted to annoyed and then chafed, which was the right direction, but neither provided enough oomph. Descending the emotional chromatic scale led me to miffed, riled, and sorely vexed. No success.

Just plain angry sputtered and died. Then came indignant, which is a sort of foaming irate inner wrath. This gave comfort to immediate neighbors, but it still wasn’t powerful enough. I thus announced I was incensed, but had to gave it up since recent college graduates didn’t know what that word meant.

Finally, guided by the temperament of our great Democracy, I became outraged. Here I stay.

Being outraged is in. All the best people are outraged, and I want to be among the best. No lesser emotion will do. If you want attention, you must be outraged.

The casus belli matters not. Learn that your city is going to test the soil for radiation? An outrage. Somebody take too long in the coffee line, delaying even you? An outrage. Your local school wants to implement a fee for bathroom breaks to teach kids the value of money? An outrage.

Your favorite game show preempted by a politician’s speech? An outrage. You read with a sympathetic eye an article on the Internet about the contretemps of some stranger? Full-bore outrage.

All these pale next to the utterly intolerable. We discover that something, in this great nation of ours, has gone wrong at the top. Nothing but repeatedly expressed outrage from our leaders is sufficient to tackle this problem. What matters more than anything is your intent and depth of your caring, and nothing, and I mean nothing, can demonstrate that better than being outraged.

So I ask you once again. Join me in being outraged. Spread the hashtag #IAmOutraged to prove your fealty to this sentiment.

23 Comments

  1. Sheri

    I checked and it seems Obama has not gotten the message about being outraged. He expressed anger, but only the news media seems “outraged” over this veterans care mess. Maybe Michelle has yet to find out about this or she’d be going with the #IAmOutraged like she did for the #BringBack OurGirls.

    The down side to the # idea is that one day people may actually wake up and realize #’s mean nothing. And if they don’t, it will mean #IAmOutraged.

  2. Gary

    Outrage is too common. Be colorful and have a hissyfit.

  3. Bill S

    Respectfully disagree.
    A political speech pre empting anything is indeed an outrage!

  4. Bob Lince

    What’s the original of post’s photo?

  5. Mr David L Hagen

    Contrast Jesus’ zealous action John 2:13-16

    he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”

  6. Bob

    With all these #IamOutraged hash tags, it will soon be time to run some regressions to see what is causing this outrageous behavior.

  7. MattS

    Dude, chill out. Being outraged may be in, but it’s bad for your health.

  8. Paul W

    Outraged isn’t strong enough anymore. With everyone outraged it’s losing effect. We need something like megaraged or garganturaged. Unless I can take it to another level, what’s the use?

  9. Scotian

    I am incandescent with rage! Soon to be banned and replaced with “fluorescent with rage”.

  10. Brandon Gates

    I suppose I can forgive you if you havent reddit yet, Scotian, but the latest politically correct term is actually, “I am a light emitting diode of rage!”

  11. Sheri

    If you’re light emitting diode of rage, your health should be safe, since minimal power is required and no heat emitted. (But you don’t really sound outraged.)

  12. Scotian

    Gates,
    I considered that, but felt it would fall flat and sound foolish. I was right!

  13. Brandon Gates

    Sheri: Oh I like that as a personal metaphor. Keep cool when things get hot, and still have a bright light to shine on things.

    Do I have outrage? Much. I’m outraged at the outrage. I am meta-enraged at our (in the US mostly) conduct as a society. Twit-like snippets of indignant tribalism are not worthy news in my book. The onece great institution of investigative reporting is slowly succumbing to a wave of illiterati whose main sophistication is using search engines and mainlining social media.

    It feels weird, this process of becoming old-fashioned. Perhaps I begin to understand how grumpy old men started along the path that led them there. I am no luddite, but sometimes there is wisdom in using the Old Ways despite their plodding deliberacy and higher cost.

    Where does rage come from? Discomfort leading to concern. Concern becoming fear. Fear leads to attempts to contain and control. Those whom we cannot control become our enemies. Our enemies don’t like being dehumanized, trivialized, invalidated, mocked, insulted. They take offense, we get more defensive. We strike back and they escalate. The only attrition in this perpetual stalemate is our collective goodness. We come to accept this new reality and forget that we ever felt differently. We become internally apathetic, yet continue to aggress our opponents. Yet nothing really changes. Frustration, annoyance, indignance, aggravation, anger and finally fuming spitting thrashing self-consuming rage and hate.

  14. Brandon Gates

    Scotian: I see nothing foolish about lower lifetime cost of operation via higher efficiency. Do I misunderstand?

  15. Scotian

    Gates,
    Humour is a delicate flower.

  16. Sander van der Wal

    #AmericanHyperbole?

  17. Brandon Gates

    Scotian: I often wonder if I have mastered the art of forced metaphor and failed witticism masquerading as subtle subversion. Treading lightly in others gardens is not an intuitive component of my nature.

  18. JH

    #LaoZi #donothing #disregardnoise #bekind

    I love hashtags.

  19. JH

    #心靜自然涼 – hashtag in Chinese. I love hashtags. ^_*

  20. anona

    #totallyInraged #delicateFlower

  21. m e emberson

    I am outraged at this post ! And the comments are outrageous!
    Now I feel superior,

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