This growing culture of outrage doesn’t extend free speech – it limits it | Suzanne Moore
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/18/outrage-culture-limits-free-speech
I found a great image the other day, online obviously. It has a cat sitting in front of a computer screen. At the top it says: “OMG I have been offended.” And at the bottom: “And on the internets of all places.” The internets is, of course, where we go to be offended and then display our moral superiority, maybe by tweeting or blogging. There is no offence that can’t be hashtagged, no Facebook group that cannot collect itself at great speed.
If one’s default setting is now to be part of some anonymous but offended mob, somehow the hierarchy of outrage implodes into meaninglessness. Thus it can appear that a whole rump of the populace is as upset by the torture of Syrians as the pomposity of Greg Wallace on MasterChef. The dismantling of Disability Allowance is a bummer, but it is not as bad as Ricky Gervais being no longer funny.