Thoughts: Twitter Shame

In mid August, shortly before my computer collapsed for an unknown reason, I tried to begin a series of articles about Twitter and its outrage. It wasn't particularly well written, because it lacked a clear thesis, but I intend to add a few final thoughts in this Thursday's supplement, before the thought is retired entirely.

Over seventy years ago, Gandhi used the power of guilt in his quest to free India from the rule of the United Kingdom. Over fifty years ago, Martin Luther King Jr's movement achieved partial victories in the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act. He succeeded because he was able to shame people capable of making the changes he wanted.

Unfortunately today, hordes of citizens shame others without a second thought, but they aren't Malcolm X standing up to the police, even if they want to frame their story that way. White people harassing African Americans for engaging in everyday activities is a serious issue, but shaming the harassers, through videos or comment on Twitter, isn't like refusing to give up a seat on the bus. There is no effort to effect societal change in these scenarios, nor desire to alter the offending individual's behavior.   For the individual being unjustly accosted, who chooses to record the altercation, there is obviously a need for self defense, for procuring evidence to defend oneself. 

But for the individual sitting at their computer, there is nothing, except a righteous anger welling up inside the breast of the woman or man who can type out a few words and then search for another hit. Another click, another repartee, another burst of angry satisfaction. On social media, everyone believes they are the combination of Dan Rather and Jon Stewart: fact and cleverness in every soundbite. It's a search for likes, for popularity and prestige. But more often then not, Twitter users are punishing those who have only the most limited societal power themselves.

On the other end of the spectrum are the celebrities and powerful people who made incredibly crude or inflammatory statements online. Again, shaming these people doesn't have the effect one would hope for. Those whose words sink most into the sludge, are often the least capable of suffering guilt, and least likely to seek amends.

Our nation can't seek to shame everyone who commits an unworthy act, and the average citizen doesn't deserve to have the cops called on them for no reason, but nor does the caller deserve the notoriety of the internet and its eternal memory.

Shame must be used for a societal purpose, and therefore the only just targets of guilt are those who wield power. The politician who lies, sexually assaults women, defrauds the public, aids corporations at the cost of the citizens, withdraws food from the mouths of children and the poor, foments hate, murders innocents, jails reporters, and aids the malicious. These are the targets, and it doesn't have to be limited to only the highest office in the land, but any public servant.

Recent:

Relevant:

Comments