Anger addiction and social outrage, connection?

[Phier]

One of the aspects of "outrage culture" I never understood is some people seem to need to be angry. They need to be outraged at something. Everything is triggering to use the SJW term (its suppose to be a PTSD term but they co-opted it).

So what I could never figure out about some people, even before the current online outrage nonsense is why? Why do people want to live like this?

I couldn't grok it. I'm generally a happy person. When I'm acting neutral people know I'm in a bad mood or sick. I think this biased me to the idea that people actually like to be angry. So I started thinking and the idea of "anger addiction" came up.

So to the google machine I find this...

http://angermentor.com/secrets-of-an...real-damn-good

Why Getting Angry Can Feel so Damn Good

By now you maybe saying to yourself, “OK this is fun, but how in the world can anger feel so good that I can get addicted to it?” It’s simple. Remember dopamine, right? Here are three ways how anger can produce pleasure and stimulate the release of dopamine:
1. It is all about the “rush” – that surge of adrenaline in conjunction with increased heart rate and blood pressure can actually feel quite good, even euphoric. A physical manifestation of anger, like slamming your fist on the table or smashing a porcelain plate against the wall will cause your body to release dopamine, creating an even greater sense of excitement. The trap here is that using rage produced adrenaline to feel ‘high’ is like drinking tequila to have less inhibitions on the dance floor – its short lived and is followed by a nasty hangover.
2. Releasing stored up feelings can feel great. When addicts need their daily “fix” but can’t get it they become antsy and irritable. They feel mental tension and discomfort in various parts of their body. When they finally satisfy their craving they experience a wonderful feeling of relief. Anger addiction is no different. Pent up negative emotions manifest in a very uncomfortable way and their release by screaming or punching something brings about a feeling of relief and satisfaction. The problem is that it’s a vicious circle – the more the brain is wired to experience pleasure from disturbing emotions, the more the anger and addiction grow together as friends.
3. Being in control feels good. When something or someone robs you of control it feels bad. Somebody offends you, a driver cuts you off, you are denied access to your routine cigarette brake, you name it… You lose power, get angry and decide to use force to regain power so you do something to insult or hurt another being to “re-gain” power. This in turn gives one an illusory boost in power and status. Kicking someone’s ass (verbally or physically) in vengeance can feel awesome. Of course, this is exactly the type of behavior that sparks conflicts and pours more fuel into the fire as a result. This is why the most famous sage – Gautama Buddha – skillfully describes anger’s attributes as a “honeyed tip with a poison root.”

So with internet outrage being so common these days, with every slight no matter how small seeming to cause a twister crap storm, with basically "first world problems" no longer something to be mocked, but real and important in peoples minds. Could this simply be due to anger addiction in a society where dopamine releases are harder and harder to find (legally)?

I'm actually a bit embarrassed I never thought of anger addiction as a thing, but we do tend to label things addiction a bit too easily I think. Sex addiction, food addiction, internet addiction I believe is often used as a way of simply downplaying poor choices and bad behavior in many cases.

So lets think on this. Is anger addiction a real thing and could it help explain some of the online personalities which seem to be constantly outraged at some perceived slight or "microaggression"?

[sumskilz]

Whether you want to call it addiction or not seems to be mostly about values (like whether to call something a disorder), but anything that involves the dopamine reward system can lead to compulsive behavior.

I wish popular articles would at least put a list of references at the end, but in any case, nothing seems too controversial about this assessment:

1. Human neurobiology rewards anger.

Part of the issue is that in the moment anger feels good, feels like the thing to do. It overrides all other moral and rational brakes in the brain because it originates from our primordial, original limbic system: the brain center of our most automatic emotions like fear and desire. The limbic system has the most direct links to our fight-or-flight response system, and that includes control over adrenaline rushes, alertness, and other instincts that prime you for battle or rapid escape.

2. Anger is similar to other addictions.

What happens is that anger can lead to similar “rushes” as thrill-seeking activities where danger triggers dopamine reward receptors in the brain, or like other forms of addiction such as gambling, extreme sports, even drugs like cocaine and methamphetamines. Anger can become its own reward, but like other addictions, the final consequences are dangerous and real, and people follow impulses in the moment without regard to the big picture.

3. Anger boosts ego fragility.

There is also the psychological aspect of ego fragility and injury, often seen in narcissistic personalities; the rush behind anger can be triggered by underlying feelings of weakness or insecurity, a way to feel powerful in the moment and overcome those feelings. It also helps people feel briefly in control of things they typically have no control over. Unfortunately, the aftermath reinforces negative consequences that hurt you in the eyes of others, and continues the cycle of insecurity. It becomes a vicious cycle of tantrums and punishment that ultimately hurt the angry individual.

4. Anger may be familiar/comfortable and also a method of emotional avoidance.

Unfortunately for some people who are raised in continuously chaotic environments, the uncertainty and volatility of anger might become perversely comfortable, might help distract from or escape underlying uncomfortable feelings of emptiness or fear. The rush of drama and conflict feels familiar and produces a destructive intimacy that some might prefer than to confront other darker emotions like loss or grief or more. Aside from traumatic family environments, combat veterans are also at risk of similar addiction, as they remain in high-threat situations for long and repeated periods of time.

To me, the ego fragility seems salient. If you look at angry online communities, it seems they are filled with saviors and losers (the self-perceived disenfranchised). What I mean, and it doesn't matter if its a far left or a far right thing, is the the bulk of the angriest people are those that have a worldview that involves the cards having been stacked against them by some group that has all the control. The target group is more successful in some way, but obviously it's because of their hegemony which has been established by immoral means. It's really infuriating when it's all someone else's fault. That viewpoint addresses the ego fragility of the losers. The ego boost to the saviors should be more obvious. Also the collective anger creates community. The anthropologist Scott Atran argues a similar dynamic is used by Jihadists to recruit Muslims in Western countries.

Of course these groups are immune to this sort of analysis, because it is exactly what those in control want them to believe, so that they'll remain passive, and a selective assessment of evidence supports their worldview. Usually their grievances aren't pulled out of thin air, there is some basis to them, so the dynamic seems to be one of extremism rather than absolute delusion. Our mental processes evolved in a way that is most conducive to net reproductive success rather than to be able to understand the world with a great degree of accuracy.

[snuggans]

a blanket of anonymity and easier access to data makes online outrage more prevalent, but the real problem here is offline outrage, where there is an avenue for physical harm/confrontation

offline microaggressions include:

- having a sexual partner that is not the same race as you. the most microaggressive combination is a black man with a white woman, you can rest assured that the old geezer behind you in the supermarket line is going to question you about this or express some sort of revulsion. after all, anti-miscegenation laws weren't forcefully repealed in the south until 1976.

- practicing another religion that isn't evangelical christianity. the most provoking group here are muslims who have microaggressed so much that the most popular republican candidates want to ban them altogether.

- being gay in public

- pulling over a sovereign citizen for fake plates is very aggressive. actually, being police is a microaggression in this day and age, as the notion of the "police state" takes hold.

- going to planned parenthood

so yes, online personalities can be annoying but they can't physically harm me, we need to be worried about offline personalities, some of which don't even know what google is

[Enros]

Let's see what Martin Luther King had to say about this:

Modern psychology has a word…”maladjusted.” Certainly, we all want to avoid the maladjusted life. In order to have real adjustment within our personalities, we all want the well-adjusted life in order to avoid neurosis, schizophrenic personalities. But I say to you, my friends, as I move to my conclusion, there are certain things in our nation and in the world which I am proud to be maladjusted and which I hope all men of good-will will be maladjusted until the good societies realize. I say very honestly that I never intend to become adjusted to segregation and discrimination.
I never intend to become adjusted to religious bigotry.
I never intend to adjust myself to economic conditions that will take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few.
I never intend to adjust myself to the madness of militarism, to self-defeating effects of physical violence. But in a day when sputniks and explorers are dashing through outer space and guided ballistic missiles are carving highways of death through the stratosphere, no nation can win a war. It is no longer the choice between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence, and the alternative to disarmament. The alternative to absolute suspension of nuclear tests. The alternative to strengthening the United Nations and thereby disarming the whole world may well be a civilization plunged into the abyss of annihilation. This is why I welcome the recent test-ban treaty.
In other words, I’m about convinced now that there is need for a new organization in our world. The International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment–men and women who will be as maladjusted as the prophet Amos. Who in the midst of the injustices of his day could cry out in words that echo across the centuries, “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.’

[Cyclops]

Lots of interesting observations. I cultivate an angry persona with a group of like minded friends (among whom I am "the angry white man" whose whiteness is only matched by his anger) where sudden savage abuse between lifelong friends is normal. Its part of a certain kind of Australian humour. There's a US version I've seen (the Penn and Teller show where the fat one rants about spin is an example) where there's a lot less self deprecation. It seems a bit insecure. Howard Stern, the little I've heard is more like it, although he's maybe a bit self abasing. You don't do it with strangers. Someone who does is known as a boofhead or worse.

There's a term I've heard "free floating anger" which seems to fit where people either have or cultivate an atmosphere of anger ready to go. It puts a person (or at least helps them feel) "on top" in any situation that threatens them, and so long as they don't meet to many other :wub:s like them its relatively consequence free.

I think modern society is so free of the myriad threats humans formerly faced even as short a time ago as a century or two that we have a "reasonable threat response" deficit. I suppose for social or evolutionary reasons we're "on the lookout" (for sabre tooth tigers/ze Germans/Bigfoot etc) and like an immune system over-reacting to non-present threats our flight/fight response gets twitchy: when there's no real threat we substitute one (guns/Mexicans/"them"/Bronies/fluoride), or just fix on whoever shows up.

Anger usually simplifies a situation. Its useful recourse if you're too stupid or emotionally stunted to think or feel your way through an interaction. Bring them down to your level etc.

[Phier]

Whether you want to call it addiction or not seems to be mostly about values (like whether to call something a disorder), but anything that involves the dopamine reward system can lead to compulsive behavior.

My seemingly natural immunity to this sort of behavior makes me wonder if others with my world view are similarly immune or if its just coincidence. We once conversed about hypnotism immunity and atheism, and without any real data, I do feel there is a link to all three. Religion could be part of this dopamine reward system to. Doing the "right thing" by the rules gives you your fix. As usual South Park I think nailed it and interestingly they are both Libertarians and I'm going to assume atheists.

To me, the ego fragility seems salient. If you look at angry online communities, it seems they are filled with saviors and losers (the self-perceived disenfranchised). What I mean, and it doesn't matter if its a far left or a far right thing, is the the bulk of the angriest people are those that have a worldview that involves the cards having been stacked against them by some group that has all the control. The target group is more successful in some way, but obviously it's because of their hegemony which has been established by immoral means. It's really infuriating when it's all someone else's fault. That viewpoint addresses the ego fragility of the losers. The ego boost to the saviors should be more obvious. Also the collective anger creates community. The anthropologist Scott Atran argues a similar dynamic is used by Jihadists to recruit Muslims in Western countries.

This is where the cult like religious aspects sort of come in again. You have the saviors, the cult leaders, the ones who will lead the losers to the promised land. This makes me wish I were younger and still in school. With the ego these leaders have, I'd love to voluntarily get them to be interview, which would be easy provided they thought it was an interview and frame the questions in such a way to identify sociopathy and narcissism. I'm guessing they would score quite high in narcissism.

[fkizz]

Merelly eyeballed this, but anger, without being utterly furious, can be a powerful energizer to get things done.
For example, between feeling severly depressed, or slightly irritated, which one would you prefer? I would choose the second.

Wouldn't be surprised if people who don't have anything energizing left to live on except anger, did in fact exist. Such SJW types seems to be the such, they seek "opression" with such haste almost as if it were their next bubble of oxygen.

[snuggans]

yes it is important to define SJWism but there is also another type called Social Conservatism Warrior (or SCWs) which is fundamentally similar to the SJW but on the opposite end of the spectrum

look at a typical SCW in the wild:



so yes, as globalization increases and new generations are reared within a world of increasing multiculturalism, SJWism is going to inevitably take the spotlight of the media, but we have to account for SCWism of the dying breed who, through early indoctrination like religion, try to instill their dying traditions into their offspring, which they expect to look like they do, due to naturally occurring kin selection and gene supremacy.

when an SCW is going on a superiority rant (often followed by a call for murder, sterilization, or banning) any attempts to point out double standards results in the response of "self-victimization! self-guilt! race traitor!"