The Outrage Economy Is Turning Uniforms Into Targets — An Editorial Warning

A society can criticize institutions without turning human beings into symbols meant for hate. In this monologue, I argue that a specific kind of media sensationalism—outrage-first framing, selective context, loaded epithets, and dehumanizing shorthand—can function as a permission structure for violence against ICE agents, police officers, and even National Guard members. This is not a claim of a single coordinated plot, and it is not a demand for censorship. It is a warning about how scapegoating, splitting, and moral disengagement can be engineered—left or right—by a culture that profits from perpetual rage.

We can demand accountability while refusing the collapse into “all-good / all-evil” storytelling. We can fight abuses without laundering hatred as activism. The moment a uniform is treated as less than human, the guardrails of civilization begin to fail—and the cost is paid in blood, families, and the slow corrosion of public life.

If you value reform, restraint, and real journalism that doesn’t sell dehumanization as entertainment, share this and add your voice.