1) we have no clear way back, no sufficiently defined penance, for those subjected to public shunning
2) social media fuels mimetic power, the increasing competition for outrage
3) the outrage allows "tribal identification" - We know who we are by the upsets we share. Because the good are objecting to the poem, the poem must be bad.
4) "the window for eccentricity is closing" - I take that to mean that we are all being forced to choose sides, and to categorize everyone else's ideas into one or the other of the predefined camps. There is no opportunity for outside-the-box thinking.
5) Those who "pile on" in social media gain both confirmation of tribal identity and increased rank within their tribe. They are asking us to confirm them in our sociopolitical tribe and elevate them within the tribe for their demonstration of right feeling.
The anger and rage that we see on various internet sites and in social media is spilling over into violence on the streets. It's no longer just a battle of words. I fear that if we don't fix this problem, we are headed for increasing violence on both sides, with a lot of damage to our country.
Yes, I’m guilty of it, too.
We can’t fix everyone else, but we can try to be better ourselves.
The one point I don’t agree with: We have no clear way back.
There is a way back. As the shunning gets worse and worse, more and more people fall into the deplorables camp. Eventually, there won’t be anyone left on the left: they will all be excommunicated.
The cure is critical thinking.Basing judgment on facts rather than what your preferred group is saying. Don’t become a NPC, a non player character . Plenty of real dissent and debate here on Free Republic. Not much on the other side .
These Catholic college students don’t seem like snowflakes:
Catholics React to Trump Winning the Presidency
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3PEyOvaIgk
A long read and too intellectual for me to understand........
I stopped giving to pan handlers a long time ago. I know too many people (including relatives) who milk the system and pan handlers who have two or three cars, cell phones and live in nice places.
Now pan handling has moved into stores where they ask if you would like to donate to this or that cause. It makes you feel creepy but I tell them no.
Quite correct. I've been observing this for some time (ever since Bush v. Gore in 2000).
We are in for some hard times.
language that has given offense and caused harm to members of several communities.” If
can’t take language you can’t take freedom.
If you look closely at this looney-tunes argle-bargle, you see the subject/verb/object group "language caused harm." Absolute blithering bosh. Simply not true. Language does not cause harm.