I’m writing today about anger.
And I’m ticked off about it.
I actually think it’s America’s biggest problem right now. Half the country hates the other half of the country. And vice versa.
There are online mobs ready to pounce on any available target. That could be loathsome human beings, like the remorseless madman who killed Charlie Kirk.
Or it could be a deranged person at a lower level, like the crazed, screaming woman who stole a Phillies home run ball from a 10-year-old kid. Or the man who brought his assistant and side squeeze to a Coldplay concert and was outed by the Jumbotron — which turned more serious when both were fired.
Can a country withstand so much rage?
Passion is good. Railing at people you don’t know, not so much.
The irony is that the vast majority of these people wouldn’t say such things to you on the street. Then they’d have to deal with your reaction.
But in the dark expanse of social media, they can spew all kinds of garbage, curse like sailors — especially if they’re hiding behind screen names. That should be punishable by the death penalty — okay, maybe I’m getting too worked up here.
Some public figures harness anger as a political tool. In private, Donald Trump can be funny and charming. But his constant battles–with the media, law firms, universities, big cities, Democrats, judges, prosecutors, critics, adversaries, allies around the world–are fueled by his sense of grievance. Just read his Truth Social page.
I first began covering Trump in New York in the 1980s, and he was the same way. He would pick fights with the likes of Leona Helmsley, knowing it made good copy.
But I could also argue that without the contempt he has for people and institutions who stand in his way, the president wouldn’t be driven to accomplish all that he has in the past eight months.
Elon Musk clearly has the same anger-management issue, having declared ‘the left’ to be ‘the party of murder.’
So do such Democrats as Adam Schiff, who relentlessly hammered Kash Patel at a hearing this week, ‘You want the American people to believe that? Do you think they’re stupid?’ And so does the FBI director, ‘You are the biggest fraud to ever sit in the United States Senate, you are a disgrace to this institution, and an utter coward!’
But we all know the game. In our echo-chamber world, you have to be harsher and angrier than the last person to break through the static and have your sound bite featured on cable or X or podcasts. So these institutions reward outrage, faux or otherwise.
Silicon Valley giants make their money from engagement, and nothing fosters engagement like pissed-off people.
The last few Democratic presidents haven’t been purveyors of anger. (putting aside what they’re like behind closed doors). Joe Biden was so secluded we barely heard from him–we now know why–and was a backslapper and conciliator. Barack Obama was all about the audacity of hope. Bill Clinton ran as a southern moderate against the ‘brain-dead’ politics of both parties.
You have to go back to LBJ to find a Democrat who relished beating the crap out of others, based on his years of threats and arm-twisting as Senate majority leader. ‘Ah got Hubert’s pecker in my pocket,’ he would say, and other variations on that quote.
He also said this about disloyal lawmakers: ‘I want him to kiss my ass in Macy’s window at high noon and tell me it smells like roses.’
What has been truly sickening, in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s heartbreaking murder, are the sickos who flooded social media to celebrate his demise.
Professors, teachers, journalists and many others have been fired for such conduct, though they had no need to vent their fury online. They didn’t know Kirk. Who would want to employ someone so heartless that they don’t care about his wife, and the children, 3 and 1, who have to grow up without him?
No wonder I’m angry. This is disgusting and pathetic.
Perhaps it’s no coincidence that this is one of the most famous lines in movie history, delivered by the sweating, wild-eyed anchor played by Peter Finch:
‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!’