It is an addiciton. When you get offended and seek recompense - either through emotional release or by having your feelings validated, your brain gives you a little pat on the head and says 'well done'. Here's some dopamine. You've achieved. You've righted a wrong. That wrong has only been subjectively righted though, what has likely happened is that you've created an enemy and/or closed discussion.

Such feelings become addictive and being offended and lashing out has become ubiquitous in the social media age - it's never been so easy to react to information before and so easy to move on with our lives after we've done so. We go away with a good feeling after adding precisely nothing to the conversation but our own feelings.

The downside is, in order to maintain the level of dopamine hits required, we'd need to increase the amount of justice we hand out. That means we have to weaponise offence and be more offended by everything. Surround yourself in an echo chamber and then you're pretty much ready to take offence at everything. Such an approach to life is damaging to the individual who spends all day mired in anxiety, and society more generally. Such people rapidly shift into a position where they cannot be reasoned with. It becomes a binary matter in which offence is the trump card and no dialogue is possible.

Here is a cautionary centre ground tale about my encounter with such a binary thinking activist. Feel free to disagree. I don't mind being disagreed with and you may have some insights here that are relevant and I'd be interested to hear them.

https://medium.com/lucid-nightmare/whack-a-woke-james-finn-special-86d6cb79aa11

Thanks for your comment and enjoy the rest of your Facebook free day. :o)