Slate Has Catalogued Everything You Mad Old Bastards Were Outraged About This Year

With the internet now entering its fourth straight day of white-hot fury over the fact it won’t be able to see Seth Rogen and James Flacco‘s latest dick jokes, now’s a better time than any to reflect on the nature of outrage. 2014 has been quite a year. We’ve seen racial tensions come to a horrifying head in the US and supreme injustice in the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. Bill Cosby is no longer the goofy TV dad you knew and loved, Lena Dunham has had her obligatory controversy, Hello Kitty may or may not be a cat, and Kim Kardashian continues to be a person.

It’s just exhausting, isn’t it? While there are very reasonable reasons to feel outraged (see the first half of that list), it’s increasingly becoming the internet’s default mode of address. And, to show you just how much you’ve raised your blood pressure over the course of this year, Slate have compiled ‘The Year In Outrage’ — an advent calendar where nothing is chocolate and everything is sadness and pain.

“Following the news in 2014 is a bit like flying a kite in flat country during tornado season. Every so often, a whirlwind of outrage touches down, sowing destruction and chaos before disappearing into the sky,” their discussion starts. They then comb through the meaning of it all — what its uses are, where it comes from, what it looks like on the Left and Right sides of politics, and how long it lasts. It’s well worth a read.

In fact, it’s something we’ve also talked about in recent weeks. Taking into account Australian events as well, our best/worst outrages of the year included the fact that Halal food is clearly ruining the country, that time Mark Holden was a sexually threatening clown, the peak douchebaggery of Julien Blanc, and the entire Abbott government.

The great thing about Slate‘s list is that they’re asking people to vote on how they see the each item in retrospect. With this you can get a little perspective that might help you out in the new year.

A man using his fame and power to assault young women and keep it under wraps for decades? Yep, that’s definitely worthy of a bit of shock.

A giant inflatable sex toy erected regally in the city of romance? Not so much.

 

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Check out Slate‘s full feature here.