"Shame Storm" In keeping with the theme of the day, or indeed of the era, here's a thoughtful essay on internet shaming, mob behavior, and (somewhat unexpectedly) redemptive suffering and humility. https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/01/shame-storm I very much agree with the spirit of the quotable bit, pictured. Yet I doubt our current exercise in collective sociopathy will abate by conscious efforts at better behavior (though that would be nice.) Cruelty is fun. People enjoy it too much. But now I'm going to quote myself, from a recent piece on Huxley's Devils of Loudon, as this is still my hope: "Maybe there’s nothing to be done but wait till it all blows over and burns itself out, when vituperative mobbings will have finally become less fashionable, less respected, more susceptible to reproach, less profitable, and less appealing, even, perhaps, simply embarrassing to admit to being a part of— as such episodes always have done thus far in history. Or perhaps the internet has fundamentally changed us, and this is just the way we behave towards each other now, whatever the matter at hand, permanently, forever. I sure hope not, though." People will stop when it stops being "cool," when they stop being rewarded for it, and when having joined the mob itself becomes a source of shame. Then even its most ardent architects and participants will disavow the practice and somehow forget they ever were a part of it. This is the way it always goes, and I'm looking forward to that chapter of this quite irritating book. (https://medium.com/@drankf/the-devils-of-the-internet-four-quotes-from-huxley-4a5370ffcb3) #internet #shaming #mobbehavior #minds