As a child of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, looking at the public shaming campaigns like this:
https://reason.com/2020/12/28/new-york-times-racial-slur-tee...
https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/sdge-worker-fired-ove...
makes me wonder if social networks combined with the spread of recording devices managed to build a new kind of tyranny - a chaotic, distributed, unevenly enforced one. No secret police needed, just a bunch of people who patrol the Internet and look for the next outrage material. And a "Share" button to get the snowball rolling.
This new chaotic evil is neither as powerful as the Communist party was, nor as systematic in its activity. Its legal options are fairly limited. But it wields an absolutely terrifying power over reputations, whose value has grown with the connected age, and does not have even a travesty of a trial, it just crushes the victim.
Our civilization will have to develop a thick skin, unless we want to teach our young that they better be silent at all times - because who knows what ordinary remarks of 2021 will be beyond the pale in 2025 or 2030.
