A Talk On How Outrage Is Converted Into Attention, Donations, Purchases, Votes And Organizational Change
YouTube (Michael Burtov), Wednesday, September 2nd, 2026
The Rage Economy: How Anger Is a Business Model
Michael Burtov argues that anger is no longer just an emotion but an economic event: attention creates possibility, while anger creates pressure, and pressure creates action.
He describes the Rage Economy as a system converting outrage into attention, donations, purchases, votes, media coverage, and subscriptions. Social platforms learned early that outrage spreads, with Facebook once weighting the angry emoji reaction as equal to five likes, and research shows moral-emotional language increases how far content travels.
The talk explores seven markets of rage: rage giving, rage clicking, rage buying and boycotting, revenge quitting, political fundraising, hate-watching, and rage innovation, where anger becomes capital organizations use to build something permanent.