Tales from the angry, abusive complaints department
By Lethbridge Herald on August 13, 2025.
Scott Sakatch
Lethbridge Herald Editor
For me, there’s one big question that takes precedence over all others when it comes to modern society. No, I don’t mean “Why did people with functioning brains vote for Donald Trump?” or “What more evidence do people need to finally get that climate change is an existential threat?” or even “Seriously? They’re still making new seasons of ‘Big Brother’?”
No, the question I desperately want answered is more personal than any of those: “Why are so many people so angry these days?”
Before I took over as Herald editor eight months ago, I had been out of public life for many years. I worked from home, rarely interacting with anyone other than my wife or my dog during the workday.
Before that, in my nine years as a reporter and editor for the Herald between 1997-2006, I talked with a lot of people all the time, from many walks of life. Once in a blue moon, I’d field a call from a disgruntled reader but for the most part, I’d listen to their complaint and either explain why that particular thing happened, or simply apologize if a mistake was made. Most of the time, that was the end of the matter.
So imagine my surprise when I came back to the Herald in 2025 and learned just how many people nowadays feel the need to call/email the staff here and rage over pretty much any complaint you might imagine.
And I do mean rage. A few months ago I fielded a call from someone telling me right off the bat that the Herald was garbage and it only prints lies. I calmly asked this person for examples, which set off an agressively loud litany of “information” gleaned from any number of right-wing Facebook post comments.
I like to think I’m a reasonable guy, but I have limits, especially when someone yells at me. The conversation quickly degenerated into an argument and ended with the caller bellowing an expletive at me and hanging up.
And just in case you think this is an anti-conservative column (because, as so many callers point out to me, the Herald is blatantly in the pocket of the NDP), we get our fair share from the other side of the political spectrum as well.
In the same day, the Herald has been angrily accused of being both right-wing and left-wing, and one person even felt the need to accuse me of bias because of the way a Herald poll question was worded.
One of our reporters took a call from a woman berating her over the Herald running a right-leaning letter to the editor with which she took issue. The reporter tried to explain that letter writers are entitled to their opinion (in fact, it’s the nature of the section in pretty much every newspaper and has been for generations). The caller then told the reporter that the Herald had an obligation to tell people that the writer was absolutely wrong and only idiots/facists would agree with them, and by not doing so, the Herald by default agreed with the content of the letter.
Then there are the folks who want to tell me how to do my job. One person recently demanded that I run their Roast submissions, even though they made little sense and were basically the print equivalent of an online rant.
Still others feel the need to call up and complain, loudly and aggressively, about spelling mistakes or other minor errors. In all such cases, I offer to personally refund the complainant’s $1.50 (we’re a business, remember, not a public service) to which they invariably reply that I’m being a sarcastic ass.
The irony of the whole thing is palpable. I wonder if these are the same people who feel the need to publicly berate the poor workers at fast food places because their small coffee order wasn’t exactly how they wanted it. They find it necessary to ruin someone’s day just to make sure the world knows how they’ve been egregiously wronged.
Which brings me back to my original question: why are so many people so angry? What changed in society that made it not just okay but apparently necessary for everyone to air their every grievance loudly and aggressively, regardless of whether it’s reasonable or not?
It would be easy to blame it on the social media generation, but trust me, the callers I just outlined are rither middle-aged or elderly. As someone who belongs to that demographic, I can say with certainty that if I talked like they did to anyone, especially in public, one or both of my parents would have instantly dressed me down and demanded that I apologize.
Is this lack of reason the new normal? Is there no going back, and the best we can hope for is that it doesn’t get even worse? That’s not a rhetorical question. I’d very much like to hear your take on it in the form of a letter to the editor. Even if you feel the need to call me a left-wing/right-wing shill, all I ask is that you be polite about it.
Send your emails to letters@lethbridgeherald.com.
I’m very much looking forward to hearing what you have to say about the subject.
20-19
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