Abstract
Outrage as a form of discourse has flourished in recent decades, emerging as a social force with formidable and far-reaching consequences. This article argues that outrage is a performance that functions like a religion, its proliferation and power abetted by the structures and designs of certain ubiquitous digital technologies. Outrage operates like Emile Durkheim's concept of religion: it is productive of communities and subjectivities and the moral order that binds them. Borrowing from Durkheim's analysis, this article identifies five social functions of outrage as performance and affect, and analyze the incentives, design elements, and material structures of the technological and social media platforms that foster its spread and amplify its impact.
