Outrage. Easy to muster but it needs to be targeted otherwise the outraged become more and more invisible and those who would rally to the cause just get worn down to the nub.
I say this because on Orval Day (which should be an easy day to celebrate) Jester King Brewery commissioned artwork that had a nude woman on it. Thankfully, there was not the usual large OMG response. I assume because of the brewery reputation and the tasteful nature of the artwork. And the fact that the artist was a woman as well.
But I don’t want to speak to that, Jester King and the artist covered that ground very well. What I want to talk about is how to react to something on the interwebs.
- Step away from your keyboard. Take a walk, drink a beer, whatever you need to do to get back to the un-outraged version of yourself.
- Then open a Word document or notes or compose whichever way works best. Just not in the social media app. Too easy to hit send and feel vindicated.
- Read up on the brewery. Read up on the artist. Have either been called out in the past? Is this a first time issue?
- Go back to what you wrote and compare your research to your words.
- Calibrate your outrage to what is called for. For this example, no response is probably the best bet because fanning flames is only going to get more people to view it and Orval Day is, to be honest, not a big deal (wish it was but it ain’t). People had already moved on to April Fool’s jokes.
The goal with outrage is to create a movement for change. But if your outrage is only to create anger amongst like-minded friends then maybe re-think a new way to approach the situation. A few comments on Twitter commending you are just that, nothing more.
It is easy to say that you need to fry the bigger fish. There is always bigger fish to fry though. You can comment on the smaller (less egregious) issues as well. Just comment with the appropriate amount of fury.