wRachel O'Dwyer in the Irish Times, talking about the Coldplay cheating couple pile-on, says:
'Movements like #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter showed the potential power of swarm activism.... But somewhere along the way, what looked a bit like activism morphed into social censure, where strangers on the internet survey and condemn each other’s choices and beliefs.'
The reality is that movements like #MeToo piggybacked onto and helped legitimise this culture of social surveillance, censure and summary trial.
There have been some achievements (e.g. taking down Harvey Weinstein) but overall the effect on society of this culture has been chilling.
And, predictably, the right quickly learnt to use a weapon that liberals had justified in advance.
As for the incident itself: this time it's a cheating couple, next time it could be a not yet out gay couple or a couple dating across religious lines.
Neural