While they are very different emotions, fear and anger have a very similar purpose in nature. Both are intended to make us change our behavior. In hunter-gatherer times fear made us be alert and take a different path. Anger speaks to the fight part in our primal fight or flight response. Fear can turn into anger and set free the additional energy to fight off an enemy when cornered.
In short, both fear and anger are primal emotions meant to protect us. However, in our cushy, relatively safe daily lives they harm us more than they protect us.
News agencies have long ago figured out that fear sells and so have the algorithms of social media platforms. We are more likely to click on a headline that plays to our fears or makes us angry than words that trigger happy feelings.
The dilemma is that being fearful of an exaggerated or made-up threat does help as little as getting angry at people we don’t know. The combination of omnipresent news and social media triggers leaves us in constant turmoil.
It’s a self-inflicted wound.