The Theology Pugcast Fashionable Zealots and the Outrage Machine
14 snips
Sep 21, 2026 A deep dive into how social media algorithms turn outrage, polarization, and endless novelty into forces of moral formation. The discussion explores disordered loves, classical Christian views of passion, and why institutional fixes alone cannot heal digital rage. It also considers the church’s role in cultivating virtue, attention, restraint, solidarity, and wiser engagement online.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Democracy Fails When Citizens Cannot Cooperate
- Polarization undermines democracy by making citizens unable to cooperate within a republic.
- When the body politic cannot resolve disagreements, the state gains an opening to impose solutions from above.
Outrage Loses Its Moral Direction Online
- Moral outrage can identify injustice, but untamed outrage easily becomes hatred toward opponents, including fellow Christians.
- Digital media accelerates novelty, shortens reflection, and strips events from historical context, continually demanding a new target.
Use Post And Coast To Defuse Online Conflict
- Avoid responding to every social-media challenge, especially when text will make a mild disagreement sound confrontational.
- C.R. Wiley practices “post and coast,” accepting that some critics may leave rather than feeding the conflict.
