Anger-tainment & the Angry Voter
It's time to bring grievance culture to an end
As much as I roll my eyes when folks sanitize history with their back in the day nostalgia, I must say that I remember a time before reality television, cable news, and all that falls into what some call anger-tainment. It was a different time. Not that we were conflict-free, but culture-wise we didn’t have something incessantly triggering anger 24/7. We weren’t so antagonistic with one another.
Some may say that back in the day many people had suppressed or pinned up anger. People were socialized to keep a lid on their anger, to not express it or to simply get over it. That’s a fair point and one that I tend to agree with. Anger is a valid emotion that needs to be expressed. Anger is also a secondary emotion that masks the vulnerability we are afraid to express. Anger makes us feel safe. The energy of anger gives the allure of power and command. Anger is both scintillating and titillating. As such our anger has been capitalized upon, exploited and perversely celebrated.
Personally I am having a hard time keeping myself entertained. I don’t have many options for escape anymore because everything is so angrily charged, even angrily charged for sport. Folks are supposedly debating but actually yelling or waiting for the opportunity to own the other. If not debating, folks are reporting on and gossiping about even the slightest of conflicts. Folks are writing blog posts, making videos and leaving comments that both instigate and perpetuate drama. Folks are going on podcasts with the expressed intent to air their grievances. Then from there folks head straight to the comments to add to the drama. Online communities are formed from bonds of anger and resentment.
We go from zero to gutter instantly. Not too long ago Hall of Fame athletes, Shannon Sharpe and Shaquille O’Neal, grown-ass men in their 50s, had a public squabble. Some sports analysis devolved into digs at sexual performance and diss tracks! Instead of listening to credible constructive feedback, our discomfort and anger leads us to reflexively discredit and tear down highly credible people. For example, both Nick Cannon and Cam Newton had podcast conversations with psychologist Dr. Cheyenne Bryant. Instead of valuing her expertise, folks are trying to deflect with whataboutisms in an attempt to validate the rut they find themselves in.
Calls to be better and go higher are categorically rejected and braggadociously rebuffed. Comedian, Hasan Minhaj, jokingly but not so jokingly accused former President Barack Obama of emotional dishonesty. WHAT?! It’s as if the ability to call a thing a thing, call someone out or clap back is the coup de grâce. The emotional release satisfies our ego but where does that leave us?
I’ll admit that when I was earning my counseling degree, I initially struggled with the notion of emotional validation. With me being such a logical person, I didn’t inherently grasp the importance of it. I had to learn that we are not thinking people with emotions but emotional people with the ability to think. But what I refuse to accept is remaining in emotional ruts. I refuse to accept that it is ok to be misguided even by valid emotions. Emotional validation is a necessary component in the healing process but it is not the entire process. Emotional validation on its own is akin to being diagnosed with an ailment but not treated for it.
I’m not just about diagnosing your situation. I’m about changing your situation.
~ Bishop Ben Gibert
When our anger is left “untreated,” we remain in a vicious cycle of aggression (see graphic below). If we can’t act on the aggression we feel, then we attach ourselves to those who freely act out, living vicariously through them. That’s what I believe happened in the 2024 presidential election. 70+ million people chose someone that was an avatar for their anger, discontent, immaturity and rebel fantasy.
The problem, in my opinion, is what those elected are angry about is not what their voters are angry about. Yet the angry voters gravitated to the side that seemed to relate in kind. The anger itself was the appeal. What they were actually angry about turned out to be irrelevant. From where I sit, they are stuck in anger and acts of aggression are all that satisfies. Never mind that these acts of aggression do not address the underlying frustration that their anger masks.
Mass deportations solve what problem for them? Regulating women’s bodies somehow helps their dating, marriage, and sexual pleasure prospects? Blocking student loan forgiveness puts more money back in their wallets, how? Eradicating DEI initiatives increases their chances of what? Sure all these measures may settle the score of perceived unfairness and being overlooked. But again other than ego satisfaction, how will life change for the angry voter in a meaningful way? How do these acts of aggression open up paths to healing, happiness, prosperity, and abundance for the angry voter? What opportunities will now come their way after sticking it to everybody else?
Or is sticking it to everybody else all that matters? As long as others are not thriving, is the fact that they (themselves) aren’t thriving more palatable? While this is an example of the scarcity mindset that plagues most of us, that’s not what people truly want. Being angry is not what people truly want. Being angry is what people settle for when they can’t get what they want and if they find a community where they can commiserate, then their anger lives on in the driver’s seat.
Sadly that’s all this election cycle’s winning campaign has to offer, a commiserating community. None of his policies are designed to make anyone’s life better that wasn’t already thriving. In fact, the agenda is to purposely make a lot of people’s lives worse and offer the cruelty of it all as anger-tainment to supporters not in his cross hairs. Supporters not in his cross hairs need not feel comfortable though because economic hardship awaits them just the same. Economists have already predicted it and one of his top surrogates flat out said hardship awaits. Buyer’s remorse is expected to set in rather quickly within the first year of his second term, if it hasn’t set in already.
Regret is a guaranteed consequence of acting out of emotion, especially the emotion of anger. Folks often apologize for what they said or did in the height of their anger. Like clockwork their apology includes some version of I DIDN’T KNOW or I WASN’T THINKING.
EXACTLY!! YOU. DID. NOT. KNOW! YOU. DID. NOT. THINK!
It wasn’t that you could not think. It wasn’t that it was impossible for you to know. With respect to the 2024 presidential election, this excuse rings hollow and offensive to those who did think it all through and tried to inform you. We allow anger to deceive us into thinking we are justified in not challenging our conclusions. We allow anger to deceive us into believing we do not have to engage our minds and think!!
Having said all of this, I will reiterate that anger is a valid emotion but it should also be a short-lived emotion. Whenever we are angry, we should take some time to reflect and uncover what the anger is masking. We shouldn’t allow anger to edge out humility. Nor should we allow it to toss our thinking caps out the window. As for anger-tainment, clearly I’m not a fan. It adds no value whatsoever to society. It’s all contrived anger that compounds itself episode after episode, season after season, offering no incentive for cooler heads to prevail. And the world needs cooler heads to prevail now more than ever!
Onward with short-lived anger, cooler heads and Harmonious Balance, my friends!
Johanna
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