Angertainment: How social media outrage ruined everything

by Ed Coper

We were promised a global village; we got a gladiatorial arena.

No longer just a tool for connection, social media has spawned an entire outrage industry harvesting and monetising our worst impulses. Welcome to the era of Angertainment.

Angertainment shows how our emotions are being hijacked to build political and cultural capital by those who know how to game the outrage economy. How ‘rage bait’— the 2025 Word of the Year—can change how you vote, what you buy and who you hate.

In this high-stakes, highly entertaining journey through our new reality, Ed Coper unmasks the architects of this new power—from manosphere gurus to political demagogues—who have realised that in the attention economy, your anger is the only currency that matters.

Darkly funny and terrifyingly urgent, Angertainment is a groundbreaking manual for dismantling the outrage machine.

First, we must understand it. Then we can work to defeat it.

368 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 26, 2026

Reviews

[Oscar Oberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the funniest books I have read in a long time in highlighting the problem with sensationalist news that we get day in day out from social media. The authors’ use of metaphors and obscure quotes was very clever and had me laughing out loud. Excellent book and I am a right winged MAGA loving fan myself! 10/10

[Lottie C · Rating 5 out of 5]

5⭐️

Really interesting take on the current political situation with MAGA. I think the author’s diagnosis of the problem, the evidence used to support & the solutions offered were strong and convincing

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy 5-stars. Clear-headed, informative, but also entertaining. It's a very of-the-moment account of how social media, information sharing, news etc. has been hijacked by those wishing to cause anger and harm, while also offering some solutions on how to win back the internet.

[Hannelore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative.