We are living in the age of moral indignation and outrage rather than intelligence and understanding. On the one hand, it does nothing to address the problem. On the other hand, that's good because it means there is more fuel for outrage in the next election, too.
"moral indignation" is timeless. But it does feel uniquely current to have two political parties that seem to use it as their primary currency (in the US at least).
I have trouble recalling any major legislation after the Affordable Care Act that wasn't fully grounded in moral indignation or virtue signalling.
Well, the age of enlightenment was well over a century and people seem to like moral indignation and outrage more, so I'd guess we're gonna stick with it for a while.
The 90s were the peak of legislators trying to shift blame onto violent videogames and other media. Do you remember the uproar following the release of Mortal Kombat? Or the mini-satanic panic over magic cards?
Not to mention the big Satanic Panic over backmasking in music and Dungeons and Dragons and women working outside the house and leaving their kids in Satanic preschools and, before that, the panic over Rock'n'Roll music and, before that, the panic over Jazz and, before that, the panic over the Foxtrot...
Come to think of it, there seems to be a panic every time the culture changes.
It was. The late 90s and early 2000s were chock full of moral panic about video games in general and Grand Theft Auto specifically, with speeches about "murder simulators" training our youths to kill being quite common.
