
Why Is America So Angry? The Real Roots of American Rage - howard941
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/01/charles-duhigg-american-anger/576424/
======
cronix
Having recently discovered Adam Curtis (from other HN posts), I'd highly
recommend watching his documentaries. All of them. Absolutely riveting stuff.

HyperNormalization:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh2cDKyFdyU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh2cDKyFdyU)

Bitter Lake:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRbq63r7rys](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRbq63r7rys)

The Trap:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y97Ywl7RtUw&list=PLsGiHTmHVD...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y97Ywl7RtUw&list=PLsGiHTmHVDNlAc15kb23Q9Oz386MNXYIn)

The Power of Nightmares:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTg4qnyUGxg&list=PLtPP_-
rkrT...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTg4qnyUGxg&list=PLtPP_-
rkrT3CmuUxjezhbewL5C8fcI1Fv)

The Mayfair Set: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuqYbohCLFM&list=PLtPP_-
rkrT...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuqYbohCLFM&list=PLtPP_-
rkrT3D-9HZkN0BAgMS1F1ODLQES)

The Century of the Self:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ3RzGoQC4s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ3RzGoQC4s)

~~~
petermcneeley
You have more adam curtis to discover [https://thoughtmaybe.com/all-watched-
over-by-machines-of-lov...](https://thoughtmaybe.com/all-watched-over-by-
machines-of-loving-grace/)

~~~
cronix
Thank you, I missed that one. Another is Dr. Jordan Peterson. I found this
very interesting as well, and is another piece of this puzzle:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQCTeGKHsVc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQCTeGKHsVc)

~~~
petermcneeley
Its interesting but you should know that Adam Curtis and Jordan Peterson are
opposites in their conclusions. Curtis attacks negative liberty and
individualism birthed in the 80s. Curtis suggests that we should still try to
change the world (positive liberty and collective action). JP is very the
polar opposite to this. He is almost purely negative liberty (libertarian) and
is the inheritor of the 80s individualism.

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lourenchord
Seems like the underlying point of all their examples are:

People are tired of having control stripped away from them and being told what
to do, and lashing out.

Isn't this a tale as old as civilization ? We have leaders who no longer care
about the will of the "peasants". A generation that has forget why the
noblesse oblige.

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njarboe
"Recently, however, the tenor of our anger has shifted. It has become less
episodic and more persistent, a constant drumbeat in our lives. It is directed
less often at people we know and more often at distant groups that are easy to
demonize."

CP Grey has a great 7min video[1] explaining this phenomena in a very
insightful way. Basically controversial pro/con memes (say abortion) aren't
fighting each other but are in symbiosis, helping each other grow.

[1][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC-
cMv0e3Dc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC-cMv0e3Dc)

------
nickthemagicman
From the article: “When we become angry, we feel like we’re taking control,
like we’re getting power over something.”

Around 75% of my paycheck is taken up by Health Insurance, Rent, Taxes,
Automobile, and extraneous required fees. That's just to subsist in modern
society on a middle class level.

I'm make WELL above the national average.

I can only imagine how difficult it is working in a small town with limited
opportunities and a family and making at or below the national average income.

Most modern people are completely powerless with no chance at a better life.

It's just spun so well that people don't realize it but have this underlying
feeling of powerlessness and rage. I think it's going to continue to get worse
as inequality increases and more and more people make less and less money.

That's why American's are angry in my opinion.

~~~
martythemaniak
This story is not supported by surveys and studies. White Americans,
particularly men, are angry that they're losing their dominant group status.
It's not that they're actually losing money or jobs or anything, it's just
that they've been brought up to believe themselves above everyone else and
always be at the centre of attention. Unfortunately, this mindset means that
even marginally fairer treatment of other groups gets interpreted as
"oppression".

[https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/04/existent...](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/04/existential-
anxiety-not-poverty-motivates-trump-support/558674/)

~~~
axaxs
As a white male, in Kentucky of all places... I've never once thought or
heard, aloud or in confidence, a complaint about losing 'dominant group
status.'. The closest would be probably immigrants taking jobs, but I think
that's more related to wages and unemployment than anything else. I'm not
saying it doesn't exist, but I can't imagine anything close to a majority of
whites feel that way.

~~~
Latteland
As a white male from the south, all I see in current political rhetoric is a
fear of the other coming here and supplanting the good christian white men and
women. Those rapists from mexico coming here, and China stealing our
knowledge, immigrants are the threat to our way, support from the president of
those people who are espousing white supremacy.

I don't think a majority of people feel this is an accurate worry, but I do
think it's a dominant political message.

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toufiqbarhamov
I wonder to what degree a couple of decades of persistent warfare without an
end in sight also plays a role.

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heyjudy
I can't recommend _America: The Fairwell Tour_ more highly... it gets to the
core beyond manufactured divisions that atomize citizens, set them against
each other, manufactured consent, grotesque inequality, learned helplessness
and the broken American dream paving the way for grotesque inequality.

------
orf
It's a shame this isn't higher up. It's a fantastic long-read on the roots of
modern outrage.

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tCfD
tl;dr anger is a great tl;dr compression algo

