It’s the way we turn disagreement into a quest for superiority. It’s not I’m right / you’re wrong; it’s I’m better / you’re lesser, I’m righteous / you’re deplorable, I’m good / you’re contemptible. It’s the tendency to be quick to take offense in a way that declares your own moral superiority. Marshall McLuhan was harsh but not wrong when he observed, “Moral indignation is a technique used to endow the idiot with dignity.”
