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It happens with Conservatives too: Remember the Starbucks red cups controversy? Not a thing. You can track the whole thing back to a video made by Joshua Feuerstein, where he tried to convince everyone to make a big commotion over it. A few people agreed to, because Feuerstein is a charming guy and a talented entertainer, and he made the whole thing sound fun. But I can't actually find anyone who was genuinely mad about Starbucks having red cups. Even the people who believe in the War on Christmas thought it was pretty silly.

Then there's the "Underage Red" incident, which I discussed with Adam Tod Brown on his last podcast. It's the same basic thing: A woman tweeted a joke about a silly lipstick color, and the Internet reacted as if she was starting a movement. But, of course, she just thought it was silly. It was the people complaining about over-sensitivity that were actually being over-sensitive. "You need to stop getting your feelings hurt!" the Internet said, because its feelings were hurt. "Just take a joke!" they said, loudly and publicly unable to take a joke. Isn't that weird? It's so weird.

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I get that social progress is fueled by outrage. But on the modern Internet, careers in entertainment can also be fueled by outrage. So next time someone tells you to get really mad about something, maybe take a few minutes to make sure that something isn't really dumb.

JF Sargent is a senior editor for Cracked. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

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