Where is the line between outrage culture and bullying?

Sometimes I see articles or comments online, with individuals or groups taking it upon themselves to school a higher profile individual on their conduct, choice of words etc etc etc. It has always bothered me slightly that somehow the world has shifted to where the old phrase ‘sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me’ is totally irrelevant. I look at the world and see the huge progress made towards accepting people who choose to live their lives in nontraditional ways, or those who can be now be open about who they were born on the inside. What I’m seeing though is that many of us are more protected against HEARING nasty things, but when I look at policy or outcomes for those for whom speech now insulates them to a larger degree, I don’t see much change.

There seems to be a massive shift towards outrage culture, but more people are simply operating behind keyboards with a platform to abuse those in the same way that they claim that their words have abused others. Why are singers being hung out to dry over offhand comments and forced to apologise, when politicians making policy that actually affects those same groups of people aren’t properly being held accountable? Do we now just have a culture which LOOKS accepting, but there’s still massive inequality and disparity in justice? Are we being swept up in the ability to be whoever you want to be, but losing our power to put a roof over our own heads, get a decent education or life experience, buy healthy and nutritious food, or even have clean air for the foreseeable future?

I do wonder.