In recent years, outrage culture has been largely perceived as a strictly liberal pastime. There was the time #CancelColbert was a trending hashtag due to an "offensive" out-of-context tweet from "The Colbert Report," or racist accusations were levied at Lorde regarding opulence — thereby criticizing the entire genre of hip-hop, #duh — in her song, "Royals."
However, with the unveiling of Starbucks’ new winter-time cups, Christian evangelical crazies have come out of the woodwork to show their liberal contemporaries how it’s done.
The controversy generated news over the weekend, when Christian evangelist Joshua Feuerstein took to Facebook, the most esteemed of platforms for free speech, and posted a video complaining about Starbucks’ "War on Christmas." This year, Starbucks’ winter-time cups opted for more minimalist white, red and green designs, eschewing the accoutrements that have adorned the cups in past years, such as reindeers and snowflakes.
In the minds of Feuerstein and his ilk, Starbucks’ decision to embrace a minimalist aesthetic is tantamount to hating baby Jesus and the Three Wise Men themselves. Social media have been littered with commitments to never buy from Starbucks ever again, as well as charges that Starbucks has kowtowed to political correctness (PC) culture and removed any overt references to Christianity from their products.
Ignoring the charges of anti-Christianity for a moment, let’s acknowledge that minimalism IS the popular aesthetic choice in today’s world. Have any of those complaining not looked at an Apple ad campaign or product in the last 10 years?
In the interest of not poking the ever-festering sore that is evangelical discontent, we’re not going to spend the remainder of this column rebuking their "anti-Christian" accusations (since they’re obviously ludicrous).
Back in September, we wrote at length about the awfulness and idiocy of liberal moral outrage, or as some call it, PC culture. Just last Wednesday, we shared a similar sentiment regarding reactionary rhetoric. But PC culture is only one aspect of the larger problem of "outrage" culture.
Outrage culture reduces complicated issues and persons to basic and loud soundbites meant to be easily digested, made into a meme and propagated. In the process, actual debate and discussion, no matter how inept — such as the possibility of Starbucks possessing anti-Christian intent in its removal of all iconography from its cups — is drowned out in favor of anger and conveying an immediacy of message. Perhaps Facebook and Twitter ought to increase their character limits so people no longer have an excuse for brief, rage-filled missives.
This isn’t a political or bi-partisan problem; it is a cultural and social one that has tarnished far more than just our cultural dialogue. Outrage culture has conditioned us to feel more strongly about everything. Your roommate didn’t do the dishes? Catastrophe. Your professor sprang a pop quiz on you that lowered your class average? Depression and dejection for days.
The solution, reluctant as many are to offer one, is pretty simple: Chill out. Many of our editorials as of late have been charged with messages of humanism and empathy. While this may reek of repetition and/or laziness to some, perhaps — and we’re just spitting out ideas here — it’s because so many of the issues plaguing America today stem from the fact that many of us are lacking in these qualities. It’s easier to call someone "anti-Christian," "white-cis-male-oppressive monster" or other easy-to-rattle-off names when we deny them their basic humanity. No, we’re not an extreme left publication, nor are we apologists for systematic racism or oppression; we simply try to acknowledge people and, by extension, life are both nuanced.
