Why Are We All So #@%^&$! Angry?

If your eyes are open you can’t miss it: We are an angry people.

There is a thick and tangible bitterness marking our daily exchanges; the freeway middle fingers, the vile comment section rants, the cutting kitchen table tirades.

We all seem to live either a hair’s breadth from explosion or shell socked in its bloody aftermath.

Stepping back from the fray long enough to see it clearly, and this caustic animosity that has so settled into our collective hearts feels more and more like a swiftly metastasizing cancer that we’re doomed to succumb to; bringing all the dread, all the hopelessness, all the helplessness that comes when a sickness feels unstoppable.

The Internet seems to confirm this diagnosis.

Lately our news feeds look more like killing fields; not just the horrible stories of violence and bigotry and atrocity alone (which would be enough to overwhelm most decent folks) but the viciousness that frames our retelling of those stories; the way…