The Rise of Outrage: How Media and Internet Fuel Polarization

Timothy Chester

In the 1980s, the age of public hostility began with figures like Morton Downey Jr., Howard Stern, and the confrontational rise of cable news shows like Crossfire. Their formula was simple: build a brand not on calm dialogue and consensus, but on extreme positions and aggressive confrontation. This mass media model proved that outrage sells better than collaboration, providing the first accelerant for polarization. The Internet gave us the final weapon. It took the premise that extremity drives engagement and put it into the pocket of every individual, bypassing the guardrails of traditional institutions. In today’s Dispatch, we unpack how the Internet perfected zero-sum posturing and stripped away our capacity for relational capital. This fundamental shift has made political and social polarization our cultural default, leaving everyone more anxious, more lonely, and less able to form deep, lasting social relationships.