The outrage industry on social media is easy to hate on, and it can be extremely annoying. But it actually has done a lot of good.
Accounts such as Libs of TikTok have forced public officials to answer for decisions they might otherwise have made quietly. North Carolina has gotten its share of scrutiny from this sector of the internet, and deservedly so.
But the outrage industry has a major, glaring weakness. It needs a villain, and it often requires one before all the facts can get in the way.
That is how Mecklenburg County Superior Court Judge George Bell became the target this week.
Usually, North Carolina’s outrage-bait examples have fallen into one particular category. It’s typically an offender with a long rap sheet getting picked up by police on a violent charge and sent right back out the door by a local magistrate. That’s what Iryna’s Law set out to address, and it seems to be working.
This one is a little different. This time, a man accused of threatening to kill children at mult…
