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Jon Ronson, So You've Been Publicly Shamed

Ein Buch um einen das Fürchten zu lehren - zumindest mir standen bei der Lektüre öfter die Haare zu Berge, vor allen bei der Beschreibung der oft lachhaft geringfügigen Auslöser, die zu diesen Sintfluten von Haß und Anprangern durch Twitter, Facebook & Co. führten. Natürlich war das schon vor Twitter so, oder auch schon vor dem Internet - Monica Lewinsky, deren Fall leider nicht in dem Buch enthalten ist, wäre ein gutes Beispiel - aber das Internet und seine Plattformen haben das Public Shaming doch wesentlich erleichtert und auf eine ganz neue Ebene gestellt. So, daß nun wirklich niemand mehr sicher ist. Auch der Autor nicht - das Nachwort in dem Buch ist vielleicht das bestürzendste Kapitel von allen.

Shaming was becoming the reflex response to practically any behavior that people didn't like, and so I supppose it was inevitable I'd eventually get my own.

Maybe there are two types of people in the world: those who favor humans over ideology, and those who favor ideology over humans. I favor humans over ideology, but right now the ideologues are winning, and they're creating a stage for constant artificial high dramas, where everyone is either a magnificent hero or a sickening villain. We can lead good, ethical lives, but some bad phraseology in a Tweet can overwhelm it all - even though we know that's not how we should define our fellow humans. What's true about our fellow humans is that we are clever and stupid. We are grey areas.
And so, unpleasant as it will surely be for you, when you see an unfair or an ambiguous shaming unfold, speak up on behalf of the shamed person. A babble of opposing voices - that's democracy.
The great thing about social media was how it gave a voice to voiceless people. Let's not turn it into a world where the smartest way to survive is to go back to being voiceless.

(Jon Ronson, So you've been publicly shamed, 2015)