[INFJ] This will make you rage

So was she trying to stop people looting?

 

What makes me rage is what happened to George Floyd.

It's really sad. America has a lot to clean in its own house before it goes preaching to others.

 

welcome to trumps amerika

 

Blatant sociopathy... fucking unbelievable

 

I have heard about this through word of mouth. I only watch local news, and even that very gingerly.

I guess what's got me confused about this situation is what am I going to do on an individual level to remedy it? Is thinking about it and talking about it going to be impactful? And if so, how?

I understand if you live there of course.

I find myself confused and exhausted by the way people interact with media. There's always a new problem somewhere in the country if you look for it, but where is the action? It seems to me that it's all an emotional reaction and that by talking about it we emotionally feel better but it doesn't actually do anything. We are just putting ourselves through an unnecessary emotional rollercoaster that does not at all impact the actual problem.

 

It's human and normal to emotionally react. What's important is to get ahold of one's emotions and put things in perspective. My disgust with the brutality that occurred is an emotional response, but hopefully what stays with me is the cognizance of what's acceptable vs what's not (which is obviously subjective) and that I need to keep that in mind when it comes to how I treat people no matter what position I'm in.

I don't disagree that discourse merely about being angry is in and of itself not helpful and even potentially detrimental to positive reflection (admittedly I'm not a good role model in this regard).

 

Well I just don't understand... How are we impacting what happens? What is going to result in everyone getting angry and upset? Like if you're going to a protest or directing that energy somewhere I get it, but majority of the time this is what happens:

Something upsetting happens on the news.

Everyone talks about how upset they are about the news they watched.

Nothing happens.

Something upsetting happens on the news.
Everyone talks about how upset they are about the news they watched.

It just repeats over and over again. It's exhausting.

 

Rarely does anything impactful/useful come out of it. Emotion inhibits the ability to think clearly and thereby implement a logical plan of action... people will continue to be pissed off and hateful. This is one part of life that I don't understand and feel very jaded about and probably one of the main reasons why I don't really pay attention to politics/elections anymore. Maybe I've become content in being useless and not a change-maker in any respect...

I do think that people in power need to be accountable and drive positive change (because they have the power to do so), but I don't know how to make them do that.

 

Part of the problem is that outrage culture has been monetized.

Facebook did that study years ago that demonstrated upsetting news gets more clicks and so the news media is constantly purposefully trying to get your emotions engaged.

Not to help you. Not to change the country. But to keep you sharing articles, get you to watch their videos, get their advertisers more money.

Then we have a social media system where the more you complain about something and point out injustice going on, the better person you are. Then you get into this emotional loop of:

BAD NEWS. I'll talk about it, I'm angry! I did my part now I feel good.

How many people are actually writing their local reps or going to protests? Not many, especially since this news is location specific so why would I in Utah write my senator about something that happened in another state. I wouldn't.

It's very disturbing to watch this unfold all around me, all the time. You can tell who watches news and uses social media these days within 15 minutes of talking to them because they will go into some issue that happened in another state or country that they're upset about that they're also doing nothing about, but for some reason they want to talk to you about it. Particularly if they think it impacts you personally.

This is all a direct consequence of machine learning. That's why you've seen it get so polarizing the last 10 years or so. The algorithms are serving people up rage on a plate and we've become addicted to the emotional high of consuming bad news, talking excitedly about it with others, then moving on to the next outraging thing that happens.

At what point will people decide to live their life instead of allow the news media to strategically control their thoughts and emotions?

 

Are we raging about looting or the murder of George Floyd?

 

BRB on my way to Minneapolis right now to make a difference by looting a Walmart. You know what? I'm not even mad at the looters. Fuck tha police.

I guess I'm sufficiently enraged after all. Thank you @Roses In The Vineyard .

 

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