How To Fight Outrage Fatigue
What to do when the bad guys flood the zone.
I am seeing what I know all of you are seeing too: the evisceration of American news media. The never-ending flurry of alarming headlines and push notifications amid eroding journalistic standards.
It’s easy to feel adrift in this kind of information environment. In fact, that sense of aimlessness is exactly what authoritarians want to cultivate. Flooding the zone is one of the oldest tricks in the aspiring dictator’s playbook. They pile on outrage after outrage, normalizing transgressions and numbing the senses. Should we care about ICE? Or Trump’s incoherence on Iran? Or that awful video of the Obamas? Do we need to pay attention to all of it or none of it at all? What outlets can we trust?
During The Next Move’s premium subscriber Zoom call on Tuesday, my friend Linda Chavez reflected on running into one of the Watergate burglars when she was a DNC staffer in 1972. Watergate! It sounds practically quaint these days. There are new Watergates seemingly ever hour, but consequences are in short supply.
But there are antidotes to that feeling of being overwhelmed. I find comfort in reading history. Understanding the past doesn’t guarantee a happy ending in the present, but it can provide structure to our strategies. Others stood before where we stand today, and there are lessons to be drawn from their experiences.
My latest read is Zbig: The Life of Zbigniew Brzezinski, America’s Cold War Prophet, from Edward Luce, US national editor at the Financial Times.
Brzezinski climbed to the top of Washington’s foreign policy apparatus in the Carter administration, where he served as national security advisor. Poring over this biography, it’s hard not to hear echoes of the 2020s in the 1970s. Upheaval in Iran. An aggressive Russia. America adrift in the world.
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The debates about how the US should conduct its affairs abroad are familiar too. Advance (per Brzezinski)? Or retreat, and accommodate dictators (per Kissinger—may 2026 be the year Beltway institutions finally stop idolizing the guy!).
I want to talk with you about where America goes next, with the perspective only a good history can provide. Ed Luce has kindly accepted my invitation to join our next premium subscriber Zoom for a discussion on his book, Zbig, and a half-century of lessons for the US and the world. Ed’s a Brit, I’m a Russian, but we both have a lot to say about America, and we want to hear from you too. Join us on Wednesday, March 4 at 5pm ET/2pm PT. You can find registration information below.
This call is exclusive to our premium subscribers. Perhaps you recently canceled a subscription to an oligarch-owned newspaper. Might I humbly suggest that you put that money toward supporting mission-driven media like The Next Move?
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To help make the decision easier, we’re offering 30% off a premium subscription, now through March 4. I hope to see you on our next Zoom call! You can find registration info below (the signup link is just past the upgrade button if you’re a free subscriber):