Outrage, Box Office Collapse, and the Death of Organic Culture

Oxford University Press recently selected “rage-bait” as its Word of the Year. Most people shrugged and scrolled on. But a small detail like this one reveals far more than a dictionary update. What it also does is signal a recognition that the digital age now runs on manufactured hostility. Only marketers have built a system in which provoking anger has replaced persuasion, storytelling, and even basic communication.

As anyone with a conscience could have told them was inevitable, that system is breaking down. And nowhere is the failure clearer than in the implosion that rocked Hollywood throughout 2025.

To understand why, we need to examine how the outrage economy operates.

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