....in addition to the emphasis on individual catharsis, the culture of
unchecked rage that sometimes wracks us is also an artefact of
patriarchy itself and its lust for competitive, often violent contest.
Much ink has been spilled on the masculinism that infects activist
discourse, leading to delightfully snarky epithets like “Manarchism,”
but we ignore the fact that white cis men are not the only people
perpetuating this; it’s a culture, it does not dwell only in those with a
perceived “essence.” We often unthinkingly accept and venerate the
modalities and methods that patriarchy most favours; rage fuelled,
unempathetic, us-versus-them politics is an ideal fit with the political
hellscape of modern, neo-liberal patriarchy. It is a world that prizes
the atomised particular over the powerful but compromising collective.
Your rage fuels the profits of every major website on the internet;
be it Facebook, Twitter, Fox Nation, the New York Times’ comment
sections, blog comments, Reddit, Tumblr, or Slashdot, your rage gets
others angry, committing them to call-and-response threads hundreds of
comments deep, which keeps them coming back to threads obsessively,
which generates pageviews, ad impressions, and more revenue for the
interested parties.
....Rage seduces us all, no matter what our
background, and its siren song will always be in the language that most
appeals to us as individuals, regardless of our politics.
- Katherine Cross
descensus Averno facilis est