Can You Watch This Without Getting Angry?

CGP Grey · 12.1M views · 2015-03-10 · 6:17

Open on YouTube ↗

If playback is restricted in your region, try opening the original video. Use Mark watched to add it to your marked videos.

Overview

CGP Grey explains how ideas spread like germs, and why content that triggers outrage spreads fastest, using a study on what makes online content viral. He argues that opposing outrage-driven memes feed each other.

On Hacker News

HN links it constantly in threads on social media, polarization and outrage as the canonical explanation of why angry content wins.

Recommended by 6 HN people across 6 months · HN mentions 2015–2025

Topics

Internet culture & memes Psychology & human behavior Futurism & technology and society

What people said

stcredzero · 2018-05 · Strong recommendation
Great TED talk on the original twitter kerfuffle referenced in the article: [LINK] CGP Grey's take on how outrage is used to exploit us through social media: (Yes, I link this often, because the message is valuable.) [VIDEO]
Read the original HN comment ↗

dllthomas · 2022-08 · Recommendation
I don't like the turn this thread took, but weighing in here narrowly with something hopefully interesting... The memes themselves needn't be "adversaries" for it to be to the benefit of one of them to inspire rage against the other. "X makes people angry at people holding Y" can help X spread because people like talking about things they're mad about, and the presence of Y actually makes that more effective; the memes themselves are, to a degree, symbiotic within the broader society even as they maybe do bad things to the people in that society. For one particular perspective on this, I enjoyed [VIDEO] - relevant stuff starts around 3 minutes in.
Read the original HN comment ↗

ipython · 2019-03 · Recommendation
Oh I think it’s more about what’s being said than who is listening to who. For better or worse, human discourse is optimized for face to face interaction. It seems that widespread, anonymous speech turns even the most mild mannered individual into a raging maniac. On a similar note I recently watched this video: [VIDEO] and completely agree with its premise.
Read the original HN comment ↗

Sources

Video by CGP Grey, played through YouTube.

HN Library · Source license

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

Views, duration and playback status refresh separately from the published catalog. When an update fails, existing data remains visible.

Selection checks

SaaS & AI candidates: Topic keywords do not match
Editor-approved picks: Editorial review is required

Rule matches identify candidates. They do not guarantee video quality or financial results.

About the library and its sources