How Social Media Public Shaming Works

Author’s Note: This is the third part of an ongoing series. My intent is not to bring attention to myself nor to any particular party. You’ll notice I speak here in generalities. I refuse to participate in the same witch hunting that is ruining our online communities. My intent is to raise awareness of the inherent problems of public shaming so that we ALL may back away from the practice. To catch up, you can find part 1 here and part 2 here.

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Post-election 2016, mainstream media declared that we’re living in a post-fact, post-truth era. Many people took this to mean that “fake news” on social media had helped to influence the election and make Donald Trump the most unlikely president in US history.

But that’s not really true. Fake news had nothing to do with the UK stunning the world when they voted “leave” and created Brexit. Nor did fake news have anything to do with last night’s vote in Italy to prevent further centralization of government power with their constitutional referendum.

What’s happening around the world is that the mainstream media has lost control and confidence of the voting public. And what “post-fact” and “post-truth” really means is that the media no longer has the ability to spin propaganda in any truly effective way. The REAL fake news, no longer dictates the outcome of public will.

And so it goes at the micro level as well. Public shaming, internet bullying, witch hunting. There is a commonality with which the mainstream media and internet communities have chosen to impose their will on us. Increasingly they’ve both relied on social shaming tactics to quiet dissent and impose a collective order.

The cries of RACISM! SEXISM! XENOPHOBIA! HOMOPHOBIA! are falling on deaf ears. When every other person on your social media is accused of these REAL and AWFUL character traits, the accusations begin to lose their edge. Indeed, an entire presidential campaign was fought by calling one of the candidates every one of these things.

And people stopped caring. Cry wolf long enough, and the village will watch it eat you just for the satisfaction of seeing you finally shut the fuck up.

So in that spirit, I present to you the three ways in which social media witch hunters have historically tried to burn out heretics from online communities. Because the first step in ridding your house of cockroaches is to shine the light on them. Understanding their methods brings us one step closer to ending social media public shaming.

1. They will come for your Virtue

The first, most common, and up to now most effective way to root out a witch is to attack their virtue. This happens when a group of social media users begin to accuse their target of racism, sexism, xenophobia and homophobia. This is where they’ll throw around words like stalking and harassment. And this is what works the best.

Who can defend themselves against these accusations? There are always some out-of-context screen shots of private text conversations or something similar. Just something to try to show that these accusations aren’t dreamed up out of thin air, even though they often are.

This doesn’t mean that real stalking, real harassment, or real racism doesn’t exist. It just means that the frequency with which these accusations occur would lead one to believe that every damn third man at a horror convention is both a member of the clan and a convicted rapist.

2. They question your integrity

Should the target somehow manage to wiggle free from the virtue destroying dog-piling, the astute witch hunter will quickly shift away from talk of racism or homophobia in favor of questioning the target’s integrity. At this level, every other author or game designer or musician or painter or whatever becomes an expert financial manipulator. A schemer and perpetrator of the most heinous frauds imaginable. They’ll send out work as a freelance editor and then NOT TURN IN THE EDITS ON TIME!

They’ll be accused of plagiarism. They’ll be said to have run off with the kickstarter or indiegogo crowd funding money that they’ve raised. Mind you, no charges are ever filed in these cases. No criminal activity is ever shown to have occurred. These are scare tactics designed to discredit and humiliate a person into quitting their position. Be it magazine editor, small press publisher, tabletop or video game designer.

The witch hunters aren’t any more interested in pursuing actual litigation than they are in presenting tangible evidence of what again are REAL and SERIOUS problems that DO actually occur from time to time in our communities. Just not with the damn frequency that these witch hunters want us to believe. Which leads us to:

3. Talent and ability

By far the least sexy, and least effective form of social media public shaming. The attack on the target’s talent. See, witch hunters are busy people. In addition to trying to weed out evil doers and culling the community herd, these people are, strangely enough, also typically financially dependent on the very same community they serve and protect. They’re writers, editors, publishers, game designers and the like. It’s almost like there’s a real, tangible financial benefit to shrinking the competition. Coincidence?

Anyway. At this level, the accusers actually have to have READ the target’s work. Or played their games, or watched their films or whatever it is the target actually does for a living. In order to shame him for it, the witch hunters have to actually make an effort to consume it.

And since art is subjective, calling an author or musician or filmmaker a hack is only going to be effective among those looking for confirmation in the first place. It’s long been understood that criticism has barely any effect on sales, especially in the area of book reviews. So while it is common for a target to have their books or games or music mass-reviewed poorly on sites like Amazon as a bullying tactic, it’s rarely an effective way to humiliate and shame the target.

So there you have it. That’s how the thankless job of the weary social media vigilante works. The reluctant crime fighter who just can’t stand the idea that somewhere out there, a white man, who happens to be direct financial competition to him, might not support gay marriage.

 

Kevin Strange on Call Out Culture, Public Shaming and Cry Bullying

KEVIN STR14063856_10155133878048098_1657224613002912228_nANGE IS A SEXIST, RACIST, HOMOPHOBIC, MEAT-EATING HETEROSEXUAL!

Another day, another dime store, self-published Facebook author running his mouth, gang. The surest sign that you’re a success is a bunch of has-beens and never-wases can’t keep their mouths shut about you.

We already went through this at the beginning of the month. That really got in their ass, didn’t it?

It happens to everyone. Fuck, it happens to the RV youtubers I watch. These cats drive around the world in their camper vans documenting the truly free life and they have people who dedicate their lives to making videos mocking them! No shit! What the fuck harm can a guy and his cat in a van do to the world? Doesn’t matter. Any kind of success will breed hate and resentment from pathetic losers who can’t, won’t and never will.

It’s super easy to sit on the internet and cry like a little bitch. Takes zero effort to publicly shame someone. And gang, here’s why that shit WILL NEVER WORK ON ME:

I’ve already done everything I ever wanted to do creatively. I wrote and directed feature films. Had trailers premiere on Fangoria’s website. Had a 5 page spread in Rue-Morgue magazine praising my films. Had my movies played in film festivals from New Mexico to New Jersey. ALL BEFORE I WAS THIRTY YEARS OLD.

All before these no-name twenty five cent versions of Kevin Strange even knew my name.  I only ever decided to write books for fun after I RETIRED FROM A WHOLE OTHER CAREER.

Since then I’ve received a literary award in front of my college peers. I’ve been nominated twice for the most prestigious award in Bizarro fiction. I’ve traveled this country till the wheels fell off signing autographs and taking pictures with fans. AND I’M NOT EVEN OLD YET.

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Here’s the truth: These people. These nobodies with less than 50 thousand published
words to their name most of the time, they’re TERRIFIED that their reputations will be tarnished.

Without the Facebook literary groups they’re NOTHING. They get no attention. No likes on their posts. No fake five star reviews on their (very few) books. They lay in bed at night and worry that it’s all going to be taken away. And that’s the shit they project onto each other and onto me when they do this sissy call-out shit on the internet.

Nevermind the fact that I spent the late 90s in gay bars watching drag shows when it was still socially acceptable to call gay people faggots in public. Nevermind the fact that MY SISTER IS GAY. Nevermind the fact that I lived in South St. Louis and WALKED WITH THE MICHAEL BROWN PROTESTERS. Even TAPED IT FOR FACEBOOK. Nevermind all that. These dorks will call me a racist and call me a homophobe because that’s what they do to each other. That’s the only weapon they have. They attack each other’s internet reputations BECAUSE THAT’S ALL THEY HAVE.

Me? I couldn’t give less of a fuck. I’ve already done it all. I almost died at the beginning of the year. Every single bit of this is a gift. Any success I have from here on out is a blessing. I’ve had fans since these kids were shooting backyard videos. And I’ll still have fans long after I’m dead. I give zero fucks about what they say about me on the internet.

I don’t start shit. But I sure as fuck have no problem ending it. And I still won’t say your name, bitch. 😉

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