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Misplaced Outrage Is Thriving, And It Should Make Us Happy
We’re nearing baseline normalcy
I rolled out of bed at 5:30 this morning, eager to start on my daily writing. In an act of weakness, I opened up Facebook… just to take a peek.
The trending post came from a local community page. A neighbor ranted about the injustice and inhumanity of having to wait three whole minutes at a traffic light on Springfield Avenue. A few dozen other commenters followed with their own horror stories of slightly extended wait times at the notorious intersection.
My mobile Starbucks order was ice cold by the time I got there. Something must be done!
Okay, that wasn’t really one of the comments, but they generally followed that track of misplaced outrage.
It’s the kind of story that makes you shake your head and question how people have so much free time to complain about inconsequential, trivial bullshit. We forget that it’s a privilege, a blessing to have so little to complain about that a forever traffic light fuels such anger and outrage.
Baseline normalcy
But more than that, it also signals the return to baseline normalcy — a state of relative stability and boredom where each day feels like a repeat of the one before. When we’re in…