In this small story, we see something of the maladies that shape our brutal cultural moment. You see how zealotry is often fueled by people working out their psychological wounds. You see that when denunciation is done through social media, you can destroy people without even knowing them. There\u2019s no personal connection that allows apology and forgiveness.<\/p>\n
You also see how once you adopt a binary tribal mentality \u2014 us\/them, punk\/non-punk, victim\/abuser \u2014 you\u2019ve immediately depersonalized everything. You\u2019ve reduced complex human beings to simple good versus evil. You\u2019ve eliminated any sense of proportion. Suddenly there\u2019s no distinction between R. Kelly and a high school girl sending a mean emoji.<\/p>\n
The podcast gives a glimpse of how cycles of abuse get passed down, one to another. It shows what it\u2019s like to live amid a terrifying call-out culture, a vengeful game of moral one-upsmanship in which social annihilation can come any second.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m older, so all sorts of historical alarm bells were going off \u2014 the way students denounced and effectively murdered their elders for incorrect thought during Mao\u2019s Cultural Revolution and in Stalin\u2019s Russia.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n In this small story, you see that when denunciation is done through social media, you can destroy people without even knowing them. There\u2019s no personal connection that allows apology and forgiveness. https:\/\/t.co\/yUGwg47UO3<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 David Brooks (@nytdavidbrooks) January 15, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n