Outrage Fatigue

Ah, that explains what's wrong with me. Orcinus describes it here:

It seems that, as we count down to the 2004 election, the Bush administration is almost counting on outrage fatigue: Erecting one insane policy after another in such an endless stream that, after awhile, the citizens aware enough to be outraged by it all simply can't keep up.

The rest of that article is about a particular outrage: counting farmed salmon as wild ones. But that paragraph rang a bell so loud it woke the cats up. I've got outrage fatigue. Here's why

Electronic voting and the Secret Service harassing the proprietor of Black Box Voting, via Body and Soul

John Ashcroft continues to declassify documents, apparently for the sole purpose of embarassing 9/11 commission member Gorelick, via the Pundit formerly known as Cal

At least 845 coalition soldiers have died in Iraq, via Democratic Underground

Macedonia, in an attempt to win US approval and foreign aid, staged a fake raid on fake terrorists and gunned them down, from CNN.com, via Electrolite

Honoring our dead soldiers is contrary to national interests, via Atrios

And then there's that whole torture scandal thing. A lot of people have blogged it, Kathryn Cramer adds a bit of outrage at the discovery that people who are, oh, raping teen-age boys, are civilian contractors who not only aren't answerable to the military hierarchy, they're being paid for it.

Patriot Act suppresses news of challenges to the Patriot Act, from the Washington Post via Looka!

Implications of Richard Clarke's testimony from Making Light

Orcinus identifies and defines Bushamentalism

One of the Shrub's long time advisors, Karen Hughes, equated being pro-choice with being a terrorist, via Pacific Views

The Meaning of the Falllujah Force from Brad DeLong

Just about anything on Avedon Carol's Sideshow

The Treasury Department in the process of spinning Kerry's tax proposals has invented completely new categories as described by Slacktivist (number 2 in the group)

Then there's Scalia wanting to rescind the 6th amendment, via Talk Left

How about the Shrub accusing people who oppose the war of being racists, via Talking Points Memo

And of course there's that little North Korea thing we're trying to pretend doesn't exist; you know, how they actually have nuclear weapons while we're mired down in a war justified by pretending Iraq had some when they didn't, via Unqualified Offerings

The Treasury department tasked with blocking terrorist access to financial resources has 5 times as many agents devoted to Castro as to bin Laden, via Bad Attitudes

According to the National Clearinghouse for Research on Women the Bush Administration has systematically been deleting data that documents the problems of women in the U.S. from its government websites, via Kickass Sociology

For the latest takedown of No Child Left Behind, read Mark Kleiman

Then there's that whole thing about some Catholic bishops refusing to give communion to those not outspoken enough against abortion, i.e. John Kerry. Latest report from Suburban Guerrilla

The oldest of the stories linked to above is a month old. Yeah, outrage fatigue it is.

And just to prove I'm a totally evil human being myself, check out this.

Comments

[Stef]

Oh, that hits the nail on the head. I've had outrage fatigue since the Iran-Contra scandal in the Reagan years.

Radio report: "They took hostage money from Iran and gave it to the Contras!"
Stef: "Of course they did. What did you expect?" [changes channel]

[Scorpio]

Valerie Plame.

The sliming of Richard Clarke.

The sliming of O'Neill.

The sliming of Chambliss.

Gerrymandering.

Diverting 700K from Afghanistan to planning the invasion of Iraq.

Secret Energy Meeting.

Flying Saudis on 9/12.

Celebrating King Day with an Amicus Curiae brief in favor of eliminating affirmative action.

Celebrating the next King Day with the appointment of a segregationist judge whose ascension had been blocked by the Senate.

Have I added enough for you?

Scorpio
Eccentricity

[Mary Kay]

Scorpio: Indeed, I thought of most of those while compiling my lists, but I was going mostly for things recently in the news. The oldest thing in my list is just over 1 month and that was basically because I wanted to have something from Making Light. Particularly good points about the MLK Day stuff though. Sigh.

MKK