Saintliness was demonstrated by viciousness. By disparaging the supposed racist, the supposed animal murderer, the supposed metropolitan elite, the user could better demonstrate their own virtue. And that applied equally to those within their identity tribe. In fact, it worked better like that. If someone of high virtue was being shamed, it showed that the denigrater was even more virtuous. This drove the criteria for authorised public shaming remorselessly down, until no-one was safe. This daily moral outrage was a modern version of Taylor and Mill’s fear of the mob, of the catastrophic
...more
