A cancel culture 🧵
Too many think online mobs are bad only when they attack "our" side but fine when they attack "bad" people. Mobs are bad because we should never be judged by a mob. Courts regulate what is evidence and allow the defense to make a case. Mob justice isn't.
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In 2010, rightwing hacks released a video clip of Shirley Sherrod, a black agricultural official, seemingly saying she wouldn't help a white farmer. She was piled on and fired. Later the full video showed her meaning was actually the complete opposite.
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www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/us/politics/22sherrod.html

In 2019, the Covington boys video controversy went viral. Again, a short video clip seemed to show a jerky white boy smirking at a Native American elder. The full multi-hour video of the event showed the clip had completely mischaracterized the event.
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www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/01/media-must-learn-covington-catholic-story/581035/

Or jump back to 2015 and Jon Ronson's great book "So You've Been Publically Shamed." Ronson covered some early Internet scandals that damaged a bunch of nobodies. In every case, the full story was more complicated than what the angry mob saw.
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www.amazon.com/So-Youve-Been-Publicly-Shamed/dp/1594487138/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0

In cancel culture, a keyboard warrior sees a short video clip, a picture, an article, maybe just a tweet. They decide (often with encouragement) "that person is bad!" and spend a few seconds or maybe more doing their best to punish them, joined by dozens, hundreds, thousands.
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More information will come out, a correction, maybe a reversal, but the mob often won't see it. They just see that one video slice, that one quote, and decide on right and wrong. There will be no court hearing. No defense attorney. No requirement to show exculpatory evidence.
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I was a juror in a trial of an alleged crack dealer. Twelve people listened to the evidence, the cops, the defendant. Then we went back in that room and made no rush to judgment. We debated, we listened, we took it seriously. That is justice. (We found him not guilty, btw.)
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We hear that a NYTimes reporter (Don McNeil) used the n-word. Never mind the context, never mind that it was in a conversation *about* the use of that word, never mind his career, fire him! No court, the mob has spoken. (And the Times COVID reporting got noticeably worse.)
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Now we have LibsOfTikTok. Short videos of random people curated to find the most oddball, the most easily ridiculed. We don't see them as teachers, as humans, we see a short clip, not their whole life. And then we judge, without context, like a mob. Fire them! Attack the libs!
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Someone asked, so then what do we do with things we think are bad? For crimes, put them on trial. Bad social trends? Write articles, books. Bring it to public attention. Then yell at leaders to change things. Don't target individuals for mob cancelation. Mob justice isn't.
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