Now a New York Times bestseller and from the author of The Psychopath Test, a captivating and brilliant exploration of one of our world’s most underappreciated forces: shame. ‘It’s about the terror, isn’t it?’ ‘The terror of what?’ I said. ‘The terror of being found out.’ For the past three years, Jon Ronson has travelled the world meeting recipients of high-profile public shamings. The shamed … recipients of high-profile public shamings. The shamed are people like us – people who, say, made a joke on social media that came out badly, or made a mistake at work. Once their transgression is revealed, collective outrage circles with the force of a hurricane and the next thing they know they’re being torn apart by an angry mob, jeered at, demonized, sometimes even fired from their job.
A great renaissance of public shaming is sweeping our land. Justice has been democratized. The silent majority are getting a voice. But what are we doing with our voice? We are mercilessly finding people’s faults. We are defining the boundaries of normality by ruining the lives of those outside it. We are using shame as a form of social control.
Simultaneously powerful and hilarious in the way only Jon Ronson can be, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed is a deeply honest book about modern life, full of eye-opening truths about the escalating war on human flaws – and the very scary part we all play in it.
more
A well-researched and chilling look into the lives of those shattered by an internet fiasco. No surprise that most of the time the men fair better than the women in the short and long term.
A fun, often funny, sometimes sad look at how public shaming has become a part of popular culture, fueled by social media and the need for spectacle. The auto-da-fe of the modern era.
Honestly I picked up this particular book because recently I’ve been shocked watching how so many people around me have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by publicly and relentlessly shaming anyone they perceive to be breaking social distancing guidance. I was interested to find out more about what motivates people to shame others and what kind of impact mass shaming has on its victims. This book more than delivered. It included in-depth interviews with people who’d been publicly shamed, examining the trauma that their shaming caused them. But what I found most fascinating was the psychology of why we shame and how quite often shaming is born out of a desire to do good or achieve justice. However, the nature of social media often means that ‘justice’ is disproportionate and skewed. My only complaint is that the book already felt a little out of date and quaint – it was published in 2015 and I feel like the rabid nature of Twitter and #cancelculture has only gotten worse since then. I’d be fascinated to know what Ronson thinks of more recent developments in shaming culture.
Fantastic book.
An in-depth look at social media bringing about a shame “renaissance” for the digital age, tearing lives apart for things as small as a distasteful joke. I listened to the audiobook, as read by the author himself, and loved it. The humor, humanity, and absurdity of every bit of it.
One of those books you really want to talk about. With earnest persistence and a certain amount personal involvement, Ronson observes the renaissance of public shaming. Gone are the stocks and whippings of previous centuries, to be replaced by social media. In particular, Twitter. Using case studies such as Jonah Lehrer, Justine Sacco, Max Mosley and a myriad of flash-in-the-pan (for us) scandals, he demonstrates how mob justice can be disproportionate, abusive and ruin lives.
With his humble-bumble Louis Theroux-style investigative techniques, he inveigles his way closer to the shamed. His curiosity may not be prurient, but he knows ours is. He enquires as to why we tend to gleefully pile in when someone who’s down and whether we all have the bullying chip. He asks if men can ride out sex scandals while women, regardless of their offence, are ritually subjected to rape threats. He tackles the question of deep-seated shame as a root cause of violent behaviour and if radical honesty is likely to get you arrested. He ends with a sobering conclusion – does public shaming have anything to do with public accountability or is it more to do with reinforcing the individual’s limited world view? Via a cast of real people quoted in their own words, he adds a slyly entertaining subtext to the subject.
This is an excellent read with much to ponder.
I learned a lot from this book and enjoyed it immensely.